Lindsay sat down. “I think I’ve finally managed to let it go. I read that article and I didn’t feel a single pang of regret for Cordelia. Even that postcard didn’t churn up any unwanted feelings. I’m not sorry that she seems to have escaped, but I don’t think I care very much about what happens to her now. The woman who committed those crimes feels like a stranger. She must have existed inside the person I loved, but I never saw any clue to that side of her. She’s lost all power to hurt me. A lot of that’s to do with you. And California. And the new job.”

“In reverse order, eh?” Sophie grinned. “Aren’t you bored with our quiet life? No chasing fire engines? No murders to solve?”

“If I never hear about another murder as long as I live, I’ll die a happy woman,” Lindsay vowed.

“Funny you should say that,” Sophie said nonchalantly. “A patient I saw today told me this long story about how she was convinced that her room-mate had been murdered . . .”

About the Author

Val McDermid is the author of twenty-four best-selling novels, which have been translated into thirty languages and have sold over ten million copies. She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year award. She has a son and a dog, and lives in the north of England.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I’d like to thank Linzi Moody for her much-tried patience, her support and for the constant flow of ideas and suggestions that have made this a better book than it would otherwise have been; Christine Hamilton, Mary Timlin and Jennifer Young for helpful suggestions and for bearing with me while we trawled the delights of the City of Culture; my journalistic colleagues who couldn’t be more different from the heartless hacks I sometimes portray; Simon Travers, who explained the myth of fingerprints; and last but not least, my agents, Jane Gregory and Lisanne Radice whose unfailing good humour and encouragement help to keep me sane.

Bywater Books

REPORT FOR MURDER

1st Lindsay Gordon Mystery

Val McDermid

“McDermid has created a complex and prickly detective whose working-class background sets her at odds with her companions, particularly her new lover, Cordelia, the shifting relationship intertwines a realistic romance with a solid detective story.” —Publishers Weekly

Freelance journalist Lindsay Gordon is strapped for cash. Why else would she agree to cover a fund-raising gala at a private girls’ school? But when the star attraction is found garrotted with her own cello string instants before she is due to go on stage, Lindsay finds herself investigating a vicious murder.

Print ISBN 978-1-932859-06-5
Ebook ISBN 978-1-61294-006-9

Bywater Books

COMMON MURDER

2nd Lindsay Gordon Mystery