THE DISTANT ECHO by Val McDermid

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

It's four in the morning, mid-December, and snow blankets St. Andrews School. Student Alex Gilbey and his three best friends are staggering home from a party when they stumble upon the body of a young woman. Rosie Duff has been raped, stabbed, and left for dead in the ancient Pictish cemetery. And the only suspects are the four young students with her blood.
Twenty-five years later, police mount a cold-case review. Among the unsolved murders they're examining is that of Rosie Duff. But someone else has his own idea of how justice should be served. One of the original quartet dies in a suspicious house fire. Soon after, a second is killed in what looks like a burglary gone sour. But Alex fears the worst: Someone is taking revenge for Rosie Duff. He has to find out who it is before he becomes the next victim. And it might just save his life if he can uncover who really killed Rosie all those years ago.

RATING:

Surprisingly for McDermid, I had the identity of the killer figured out about 100 pages too soon but that aside, it's still an excellent story evolving over the twenty-five year span with McDermid's trademark of vivid characterizations and wonderfully written descriptive prose.