The Distant Echo: Now on ITV: The gripping thriller from the author of Sunday Times crime fiction bestsellers (Detective Karen Pirie, Book 1)

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In McDermid's novel, by the time the police reopen Duff’s murder case and start looking for missing evidence, the four university students who first found Duff’s body already have moved on and established careers and families. Though they have all grown up, the shared trauma of being suspected of murder, and receiving abuse from their community — and Duff’s violent brothers in particular — has never quite left them. So far, so similar to the ITV drama.

Four in the morning, mid-December, snow blankets St. Andrews School. Student Alex Gilbery and his three best friends are staggering home from a party when they stumble upon the body of a young woman. Val McDermid talks about the novels that have influenced her in the Guardian bookshop challenge, 7 June 2010. 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 done. The novel is divided into two parts. The first part takes place in 1978. Four drunken friends, university students, stumble across the body of a dying woman, someone they slightly knew, a young barmaid at a local tavern. As it is immediately obvious that the barmaid, Rosie Duff was raped and murdered, the four friends are considered suspects by the local police, and because they all have secrets, their final half-year at the university is disrupted by fear and distrust. Their ten-year friendship is irrevocably changed under the spectre of suspicion. Meanwhile, the investigation into the Rosie’s murder goes nowhere.

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I never spook myself, says top Scots crime writer Val McDermid". Daily Record. 31 August 2016 . Retrieved 25 October 2016. Due to the plot of the source novel, the female-led team faced an issue that has become controversial in male-made television: a young woman as a victim of violence. Neither Lyle nor Kenny came to McDermid’s work with preconceptions. “I was sent the book by ITV,” says Kenny, “and my sister’s a great crime reader and she said, ‘Ooh, Val, the Queen of Crime!’” Stunning new psychological thriller from Britain's most exciting crime writer, the award-winning Val McDermid... 'Val McDermid is a roaring Ferrari amid the crowded traffic on the crime-writing road' -- Independent Four in the morning, mid-December, and snow is smothering St Andrews. 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 stained with her blood. Twenty-five years later, Fife police mount a cold case review. Among the unsolved murders they're examining is that of Rosie Duff. But someone else has their own idea of how justice should be done. 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. McDermid, Val (5 April 2016). "Scotland is now a place where you can be glad to be gay". The Guardian.

When I was sent the audition script,” says Lyle, “I thought: a lead detective role for someone in their 20s! You don’t see that.”Although there is not enough evidence to convict the students of her murder they continue to live with shadow of suspicion hanging over their heads. They're lives have been changed forever by that gruesome discovery. Bestselling, award-winning author Val McDermid delivers her most stunning story yet in The Distant Echo ---an intricate, thought-provoking tale of murder and revenge Ferguson, Brian (29 August 2022). "Val McDermid reveals 'Queen of Crime' legal threat from Agatha Christie estate". Edinburgh Evening News . Retrieved 29 September 2022. In most cases, it might seem rude or irrelevant to mention that Lyle is 5ft 3in and Kenny 5ft 10in, but the camera angles play with this disparity and a further one with male colleagues towering over both. As Karen walks into a conference or has a door opened by a man twice as high and wide, her physical vulnerability adds tension.