A Darker Domain

by: Val McDermid

Published by: Harper

Reviewed by Patricia E. Reid

Mick Prentice suddenly disappeared, leaving his wife and daughter behind. Mick was a miner and his wife felt that he had left his family in Fife, Scotland to join the strikebreakers down south.

Now it is twenty-three years later and his daughter approaches Detective Inspector Karen Pirie, head of the Cold Case Review Team and begs Pirie to find her father. Misha Gibson, Mick’s daughter, has a son who is desperately ill and she needs a donor to help try and save her son’s life. Pirie begins to investigate Prentice’s disappearance but her time has to be divided between that case and another cold case that has suddenly become important.

Catriona MacLennan Grant and her baby son were kidnapped and the ransom exchange went bad. Cariona was killed and the baby was never seen again. The kidnapping occurred over twenty years earlier. Now Bel Richmond, an investigative reporter, has uncovered a clue in a villa in Italy that is a connection to the ransom note. When she shows the evidence to Catriona’s father, Brodie Grant, he calls the police and specifically insists that Karen Pirie be in charge of the investigation. Brodie Grant is a powerful man and usually gets whatever he requests.

Pirie has not been forthcoming with her superior who she refers to as The Macaroon. She hasn’t filled him in on the Prentice case and is running her investigation with the help of Sergeant Phil Parhatka. Together the two are trying to solve both cases–and now run into some interesting information concerning both cases that didn’t come to light in the past.

The characters in A Darker Domain are wonderful and the story is fascinating. You may feel early on that you know how things will be resolved. I know that I felt that way but I could never have foreseen the ending.

Armchair Interviews says: Highly recommend psychological thriller from this very prolific British author.

Author’s Web site: http://ValMcDermid.com