It is the winter of 1984, and in Britain the miners’ strike has been in full swing for over six months. For the miners and their families, times are hard: there is no food to put on the table, or fuel to heat their homes. Little wonder, perhaps, that a party of miners, driven to desperation by poverty, decide to leave their Scottish mining town and travel to Nottingham in search of work – in other words, to break the conditions of the strike and become “scabs”.
It is assumed that Mick Prentice, husband and father of a young daughter, is amongst this party. His wife carries on as best she can, ignoring the contempt of those around her, and getting by on the occasional cash sent up from Nottingham – she assumes by her husband, although there is never a note.
Kidnap and Murder
Twenty three years later, Mick’s daughter Mischa – now a parent herself - is trying to find her father, but discovers that he is not in Nottingham and never has been. Belatedly reported as a missing person, Mick’s case falls to DI Karen Pirie, newly promoted and heading up a “cold case” team. Much to the annoyance of her boss, Karen becomes intrigued by the case, and pursues it alongside the major case she is meant to be concentrating on: the kidnapping of a young woman and her son back in 1985 – a case which ended in murder.
The two cases run parallel for much of the novel, with Karen investigating Mick’s disappearance, and investigative journalist Bel Richmond on the trail of the kidnappers. The latter has stumbled across a clue to the original crime whilst on holiday in Tuscany, and has been hired by the young woman’s father – the impossibly powerful Sir Broderick Maclennan Grant – to probe further.
Dual Narrative
This dual narrative makes for an initially complex structure, as the reader is asked not only to follow the two cases but also to alternate between the past and the present. Once the pattern is established, this ambitious chronology works well – whenever a character in the present day makes reference to an event in the past, the narrative jumps back and shows us the episode rather than relaying it second hand. This makes for a vivid novel which shows rather than tells, and certainly indicates that McDermid is stretching herself to create more complex works discussing important social issues.
This makes the plot-line itself all the more disappointing. It is not difficult for the reader to work out for themselves how the two cases are linked, and the novel seems to be waiting for a twist that never happens. The heroine of the novel, Karen Pirie, doesn’t really start to come to life as a character until towards the end of the book, and fans of McDermid’s “Wire in the Blood” books will perhaps find themselves yearning for the sparky presence of DI Carol Jordan rather than the slightly bland Karen.
"Part of my own Past"
Both of McDermid’s grandfathers were miners, and the strike is clearly an episode in history that is close to her heart. Of her new novel, she comments that “it’s not only the victors who have the chance to write the record. A Darker Domain touches on some of that history. I’m proud that it’s also part of my own past”. Whilst the novel is well-crafted and entertaining, some readers may feel that McDermid’s emotional attachment has stood in the way of her normally exemplary plotting.
A Darker Domain by Val McDermid is published in the UK by Harper Collins (2008), 371 pages, ISBN 978-0-00-724329-7.
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