Introducing Scottish Noir

There are a lot of genres in crime fiction.  There are cozy mysteries and hard-boiled detective tales, capers and whodunits.  There are police procedurals, legal thrillers, psychological suspense books and we'll have some more genres next Tuesday.  In the meantime, one of my current favorite writers is Val McDermid, the journalist who created what she calls "Scottish Noir".    This means her characters have the uncompromising, tough and amoral personalities the frequented Dashiell Hammett's novels but McDermid's stories are settled in the cold, bleak areas of Scotland.    Add to this mix a set of villains so strange that Thomas Harris could have invented them and you've got Scottish Noir.  These books aren't for everyone but, boy, are they good.  McDermid is best known for her Carol Jordan/Tony Hill series but if you want an introduction to her work, I'd start off with the thriller, A Place of Execution.

A Place of Execution is about the twin investigations into the disappearance of Alison Carter, an adolescent that disappeared one night in December of 1963.  Allison's home was Scardale, a one-road village where half a dozen families have lived since the world began.  The young Detective Inspector, George Bennett, has to figure out what happened to Allison, no easy task since he's a stranger and the locals of Scardale don't trust him.  Two other children recently disappeared in the next larger town and Detective Bennett fears the missing Allison is a third victim.  Add that George Bennett is a decent chap at the beginning of his career and marriage and you have a policeman who suffers when a child vanishes on his watch.  And Alison does, right into the cold, night air of Scotland.  Though the police find her dog and evidence of a crime, they never find her body or bones.

Thirty-five years later, Catharine Heathcote is primed to write a book about the Alison Carter case.  A journalist who was the same age as Alison, she remembers the girl's disappearance and the effect it had on her young life.  Now she has the chance to review the evidence and maybe draw out a few ghosts.  Catharine also runs the risk of re-opening wounds.  George Bennett is still haunted by the girl he could never bring home.  And although it seems modern, much of Scardale hasn't changed since 1963.  Like its habit of keeping secrets.

A Place of Execution has much to recommend it, including pace, tension and some very interesting characters.  Still, it is not for the faint of heart.  Terrible things happen in the world, according to Val McDermid, and the only chance for justice is when the good guys are as tough as the bad ones.  If you can accept that fact, you'll survive it seems, in these stories of Scottish Noir.  If you can't, do yourself a favor and don't walk out alone.