Product Description

'Crime writing of the very highest order ! Kate Brannigan has turned into the most interesting sleuthess around' The Times There was only one reason Manchester-based private eye Kate Brannigan was prepared to let her boyfriend help out with the investigation into a car sales fraud -- nothing bad could happen. But by now Kate should know that with Richard you have to expect the unexpected. With the unexpected being Richard behind bars, Kate seems to be the obvious choice to look after his eight-year-old son -- who proves even more troublesome than his father. Kate finds herself dragged into a world of drug traffickers, child pornographers, fraudsters and violent gangland enforcers! bringing her face to face with death in the most terrifying investigation of her career.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #150798 in Books
• Published on: 1995-02-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
'Tough, funny and intensely topical. McDermid stands out as one of the few contemporary writers actually nourished by the here and now' Literary Review 'Fast, fluently told story: Kate is as tough as Warshawski but less hung up on political correctness' Daily Mail 'Kate Brannigan is wonderful' Frances Fyfield

Synopsis
'Crime writing of the very highest order ! Kate Brannigan has turned into the most interesting sleuthess around' The Times There was only one reason Manchester-based private eye Kate Brannigan was prepared to let her boyfriend help out with the investigation into a car sales fraud -- nothing bad could happen. But by now Kate should know that with Richard you have to expect the unexpected. With the unexpected being Richard behind bars, Kate seems to be the obvious choice to look after his eight-year-old son -- who proves even more troublesome than his father. Kate finds herself dragged into a world of drug traffickers, child pornographers, fraudsters and violent gangland enforcers! bringing her face to face with death in the most terrifying investigation of her career.

About the Author
Val McDermid grew up in a Scottish mining community and then read English at Oxford. She was a journalist for sixteen years, spending the last three as Northern Bureau Chief of a national Sunday tabloid. She is now a full-time writer and lives in South Manchester.

Customer Reviews

I'm so disappointed!
I can't believe this book was written by Val McDermid. I've read four of her novels so far - The Mermaids Killing, The Wire In The Blood, The Torment Of Others and The Distant Echo - all of which I thought were brilliantly written and full of suspense.

But Crack Down seems to be missing everything I so loved about Val's other books. It is... well, boring. Not much is happening at all throughout the entire book. Yes, there are lots of little jokes, most of them in a sarcastic manner which is entertaining at times but that's about it, everything else is just boring.

PI Kate Brannigan chases after the bad guys who are responsible for her boyfriend Richard being in prison for handling drugs. Surprisingly, those so-called bad guys play a rather minor role in the book, as does Richard himself. Kate keeps chasing those (very, very dangerous it says in the book) drug lords at a quite leisurly speed so it's a miracle she always catches up with them exactly when the big deals happen.

As a matter of fact, everything seems to fall into place automatically for her. Of course she's never in any danger herself because the criminals don't even notice her driving behind them for hours on end on the motorway and through the cities and don't ever catch on when she gathers bags of evidence against them.
The characters in this book are so uninteresting, I virtually had to force myself to finish it at all. Honestly, I couldn't care less about the whole thing.

Yawn...

In my opinion - no matter how much I enjoyed her other novels - Val has done a poor job with this book. And her character, Kate Brannigan, does nothing for me at all. I certainly won't read any other books from the Brannigan series.

I can't believe this book has come from Val McDermid!

Save your money - don't buy this. Or borrow it from the library if you must.

A great book by Val which I can't recommend enough, is The Distand Echo - now that's a brilliant novel with a good story and interesting characters, a book which is full of suspense and twists right to the end...!

Extremely enjoyable
I really like all of KB's novels, they have this characteristic ironic tone about them, as it is recounted in first person. Also, without going into much gory details, I find the crime writing suspenseful and entertaining. It also balances well character development and storyline, making for a very satisfying read.

I appear to be outvoted!
Why is this so good?

Answer, it isn't.

Why?

It is boring. Th eplot is quite god, though lacks punch. I got so bored with this book i skipped about 50 pages in the middle and ended up missing the only murder, and tehreofer the only excitement in the entire book.

Dont get me wrong, i absolutely love Val MCdermid, she is one of the best writer's around, as her Kate Brannigan series is one of the best PI series ever, but this book was so unbelievably boring. Why was it shortlisted for the CWA dagger?

I love Val Mcdermid absolutely, but this book is definitely very poor. No doubt a one off. I expected a return to form with the next book. (and i got it)