The Crime Writers Association in the UK announced that Blood from Stone has won the Duncan Lawrie Dagger for 2008 (the same award given to The Broken Shore last year) So I was very happy to find it in my review pile and it jumped the queue needless to say.
From the Blurb:
Nobody really liked Marianne Shearer - but nobody murdered her either. She did that all by herself, booking into a Kensington hotel for the sole purpose of checking out through a sixth-floor window. But why would a stylish and highly successful criminal barrister do such a thing?
First line:
"Following his acquittal, which happened without too much of a fanfare but with dramatic abruptness on the fouth day of the sixth week of his postponed and protracted trial, the Defendant waited outside Court 3 in the Central Criminal Court long after everybody else had departed."