While this is taking place, the bones in the other investigation are seemingly identified and the case takes a turn towards a commune where the victim and her girlfriend spent some time, though they are said to have left while they were both alive and well. Minor criticisms aside, I can thoroughly recommend Still Life, and have no hesitation in hailing it as one of Val McDermid’s best yet. hirple - to hobble or walk with a hitch in your step, the example in the story is of a person walking with the aid of crutches.

This doubtless is why some good crime novelists today, Andrew Taylor for example, have turned away from the contemporary scene.Val McDermid is the award-winning, international bestselling author of more than thirty novels and has been hailed as Britain’s Queen of Crime. Biography: Val McDermid is a number one bestseller whose novels have been translated into forty languages, and have sold over nineteen million copies. All these bubble along convincingly below the surface as Pirie races to try and solve the twin mysteries of the skeleton in the van and the body pulled from the sea. The teamwork between these officers is excellent and I enjoyed the way the author brings Karen's personal life and theirs into the story without being too heavy handed about it. The dead man was the prime suspect in an old investigation, when a prominent civil servant disappeared without trace.

Meanwhile, there is the case of a man who has been found dead; his documents say he is French, but apparently he is a Scot who vanished years ago after the disappearance of his brother. These are the first questions, and answers will link the death to the disappearance of a senior Scotland Office civil servant in London ten years ago.A copy of this book was provided by Atlantic Monthly Press via NetGalley with no requirements for a review. She also attaches great importance to the archaic and bureaucratic echelons in the force in the sense that everyone below her are plods, and those above are there because of political reasons. First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Val McDermid, and Grove Atlantic for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review. Not a whole lot of action except for car trips, train rides, and ferry crossings during the course of investigation. With the exception of one Irish cop, most of the male cops are pretty inept, characters Karen has to train and encourage.

I can only hope there is more DCI Pirie to come, as this was surely one of the best police procedurals I have read in a long while. bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages, and have sold over eleven million copies. Many, many years ago, when I was still a teenager, I read a book by Val McDermid and decided that I absolutely must read another. DNA especially makes life much easier for the police and indeed for the novelist; no need to rely on Poirot’s “little grey cells. She is bright and clever, a great foil for 'The Mint', DC Jason Murray who, while not the brightest bulb in the pack, is starting to gain confidence and come into his own.The handful of other characters add a wonderful depth to the story and kept me reading, if only to see how some of them would develop throughout the tale. Susan's sister was cleaning out her deceased sibling's garage when she discovered the bones in an old camper van.

She is co-founder of the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival and the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, part of the Harrogate International Festivals. For newcomers to McDermid’s work, Karen Pirie heads up Police Scotland’s Historic Cases Unit (HCU), working out of Edinburgh with her sidekick Jason Murray (‘The Mint’). Karen can’t ignore the plot’s chilling similarities to the unsolved case of an Edinburgh University student who vanished from her own doorstep. Still mourning the death of her love, Phil, Karen has established a new relationship with Hamish, who was introduced in the prior novel.

Val comes from Kirkcaldy, Fife, and read English at St Hilda’s College, Oxford (where she is now an Honorary Fellow). With a number of key twists, the story moves in directions one might not have first presumed, which only adds to the mystery and wonderment as the reader delves deeper. There are also subtle but remarkably interesting threads of Brexit and its impact on the investigation. A turgid start left me amazed that two cases, involving much travel and pastry consumption , were all beautifully solved by Pirie . This investigation takes place in the last weeks of February 2020, just as the Covid-19 pandemic kicks off, and ends on the eve of lockdown.