Nights of passion and revenge in St Petersburg; a bingo-hall tyrant trapped by masked intruders; the sleazy flipside of the international publishing scene; an author succumbing to the deadly lure of cyberspace... `Stranded' demonstrates, yet again, the scope of Val McDermid's imagination, her versatility as a stylist and her immense powers as a storyteller. As well as McDermid's popular series character, private eye Kate Brannigan, this diverse collection contains different narrative voices, from different continents and from an eclectic range of backgrounds.