--- title: A Place of Execution: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books description: Find out why 'A Place of Execution' by Val McDermid made the list. canonical: https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309204/a-place-of-execution/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-10-03T12:01:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:21:15.051Z og:title: A Place of Execution: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books og:description: Here’s why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309204/a-place-of-execution/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07cf58487b78f244/698a407c4ee2626dd231bbf9/APlaceOfExecution.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A Place of Execution: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Place of Execution: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books twitter:description: Here’s why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07cf58487b78f244/698a407c4ee2626dd231bbf9/APlaceOfExecution.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 03, 2023 # A Place of Execution by Val McDermid by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  George Bennett has been haunted for decades by an unsolved mystery—the disappearance of a teenage girl in his small English town in the 1960s. For Bennett, who was a young detective at the time she went missing, the case is both chilling and baffling, providing no leads and no conclusions. Decades later, the unresolved mystery comes to surface again after Catherine, a journalist, interviews Bennett about his investigation of the case for a book she’s writing. He complies—until a new development leads him to stop working with her abruptly, and causes Catherine to begin an investigation of her own. Val McDermid’s 1999 novel, which was nominated for a 2001 Edgar Award, grapples with issues of memory and personal responsibility, for a tale that’s both thrilling and evocative. _—Cady Lang_ **Buy Now:** _A Place of Execution_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780312644536) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/45oUqwA) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309204/a-place-of-execution/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309204/a-place-of-execution/"},"headline":"A Place of Execution: 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books","datePublished":"2023-10-03T12:01:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:21:15.051Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309204/a-place-of-execution/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07cf58487b78f244/698a407c4ee2626dd231bbf9/APlaceOfExecution.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07cf58487b78f244/698a407c4ee2626dd231bbf9/APlaceOfExecution.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309204/a-place-of-execution/","name":"A Place of Execution: 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books"}}]}] ```