Sorry Val...... - Rated 
...you know that I'm a genuine fan of yours as a regular contributor to your forum, but your debut novel REPORT FOR MURDER was way, way below the standards you were to set later in your career and make you, in my opinion, without doubt one of the best crime fiction writers in Britain.
Published originally in 1987, I get the impression that this was drafted many years earlier and had been put in a cupboard collecting cobwebs before being re-written and edited in preparation for commercial release. The result is something that could represent the combined thinking of Enid Blyton (e.g. Last Term at Malory Towers) and an Agatha Christie whodunit in which virually every character has a motive for being responsible for a murder. To be fair, there is more than one reference in the dialogue to acknowledge the Agatha Christie element, but with two thirty-something lesbians investigating a murder at an all-girls boarding school while the police act (to use Val's own words) 'like woodenheads' is stretching credibility. The author's own personal, professional and political views appear to be echoed in the mould of leading character Lindsay Gordon and this made for slightly uncomfortable reading at times; another guess of mine would be that she had no idea back then that she would give up her career as a journalist and become a full-time writer. Within a decade however Val produced such classics as THE MERMAIDS SINGING and A PLACE OF EXECUTION which are, quite simply, two of the very best pieces of crime fiction I have read to date. As for the Lindsay Gordon series however, well I think I'm going to stop at this one - even though I own three others.
C plus for effort - Rated 
This novel won an award in 1987 for Val Mcdermid (the panel must have had an `off' day). It is the first of her' Lindsay Gordon Novels' this one set in a Private Girls boarding school in Derbyshire.
It starts very promising but the more I read of it the more I became bored.
It has Lesbianism, Murder and Social comment plus an Angela Brazil `jolly hockey sticks' setting.
Talented but bitchy Cellist and ex Schoolgirl Lorna Smith Cooper is called back to the old school to give a fund raising concert that can save the existence of the school playing fields from a predatory developer and even the very existence of the school itself.
However, the concert never goes ahead as she is bumped off prior to her performance.
So unbelievably, it is Lindsay Gordon freelance hack that is called upon by the headmistress to help prove the innocence of Lindsay's old chum Paddy who has been arrested on suspicion of committing the foul deed! Along with with her latest love Cordelia also an ex -pupil of the school and also possibly a suspect!
The Police are hardly ever mentioned!
They race about the country in Lindsay's trust MG seeking to find the real culprit.
Unfortunately for me it did not do anything, I found it mediocre and my attention kept wondering from the plot.
This may not be fair to Ms Mcdermid as it was an early novel and she has gone onto much greater things. Personally, I would give this one a miss.
C plus.
A bit disappointing - Rated
When Paddy Callaghan asks her friend Lindsey Gordon, a journalist, to join her for a money raising weekend at the private girls school where she is a house mistress little do they realise that there will be a murder and Paddy will be the prime suspect. Lindsey is a journalist contracted to write an article covering the events. The murder victim is a much disliked old girl who has become a classical musician and is the star attraction at a concert. The novel is fast paced and easy to read McDermid has an amusing style, the book is well plotted and the characters are interesting.
the very beginning - Rated 
From what i gather this is the first book of Ms Mcdermids to ever be published (but dont quote me on that! :) ). A lot of people say she started off badly and matured into the great writer that she is but I can't agree with that. Yes, she has improved over the years but the characters and stories she tends to write now are darker than the initial Lindsay Gordon ones. This means a lot of wit and humour has been lost from the early years.
If you like a good laugh mixed in with your basic whodunnit then you'll love this book.
Lindsay Gordon is a journalist down on her luck and short for cash which leads her to take a job covering an event at an all girls school. Not long after a body is discovered and she gets embroiled in trying to solve the crime since one of her friends gets accused of the murder.
She manages to start up a relationship along the way too!
A good, relatively short read to relax to on a saturday afternoon.
Happy reading..
Smart, Tenacious, Daring, Loyal and Class Conscious - Rated 
"The fact that she cheerfully despised the job she was about to do was not a new sensation. In the unreal world of popular journalism which she inhabited, she was continually faced with tasks that made her blood boil." thus we begin to learn about Lindsay Gordon, self-proclaimed "cynical socialist lesbian feminist journalist". In "Report for Murder" Lindsay, who was commissioned to write a feature article on a girls' boarding school, Derbyshire House Girls' School, finds a story, but not the one she was hired to write. Lindsay arrives at the school to meet an old friend Paddy Callaghan, who was a Housemistress at this school. A weekend of book auctions, classical music and lectures to raise money, turns into a weekend of murder. As improbable as it may seem, Lindsay is hired by the School head, Pamela Overton, to find the real murderer after Paddy has been arrested. This intricate investigation of the death of Lorna Smith-Couper, a classical musician and hated woman by many people, will amaze some and annoy many. The old world of England and Scotland comes to the fore in this story. The rolling hills, the fog, the beauty of the countryside, the Pubs, and the townhouses in the cities, London and Dublin, are explored and described with magnanimous features. Lindsay is a force to be reckoned with. She is indubitable and when she finds a new love, we applaud. The students and other teachers at this school are genuine and loveable. The story is fast paced and fun. This is a realistic detective story with a prickly and complex detective.
A friend recommended this book to me and it was immensely enjoyable. A new twist and turn in every chapter. Recommended. prisrob
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