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The Detective Inspector Karen Pirie Series

This gripping crime series follows a tenacious detective operating out of Scotland's historic Fife region. Each installment presents a new complex case, delving into dark secrets and intricate plots. The author expertly crafts atmospheric settings and compelling character studies. Readers who enjoy challenging mysteries and the moody ambiance of the Scottish coast will find much to savor.

Still Life
Broken Ground
Out Of Bounds
The Skeleton Road
Karen Pirie 2. A Darker Domain
The Distant Echo

Recommended Reading Order

  1. The Distant Echo

    • 576 pages
    • 21 hours of reading

    Powerful and atmospheric psychological thriller from the multi-award-winning Val McDermid: 'McDermid's capacity to enter the warped mind of a deviant criminal is shiveringly convincing' The TimesSOME THINGS JUST WON'T LET YOU GOThe past, for instance. That night in the cemetery. The girl's body in the snow, her blood scarlet against the white ground... Four a. m. on a freezing Fife morning and four drunken students stumble upon the body of a woman lying in the snow. Rosie has been raped, stabbed and left for dead in an ancient Pictish cemetery. And the only suspects are the four young men now stained with her blood. Twenty-five years later the police mount a 'cold case' review of Rosie's unsolved murder and the four are still suspects. But when one of them dies in a suspicious house fire and another in a burglary gone bad, it seems that someone is pursuing their own brand of justice. For the remaining two there is only one way to avoid becoming the next victim -- find out who really killed Rosie all those years ago...

    The Distant Echo1
    3.9
  2. Karen Pirie 2. A Darker Domain

    • 392 pages
    • 14 hours of reading

    More than twenty years after the 1984 national miners' strike in Scotland, Cold Case Review Team Inspector Karen Pirie stumbles across new evidence that links the cases of a missing strikebreaker and a kidnapping gone wrong

    Karen Pirie 2. A Darker Domain2
    3.8
  3. When a skeleton is discovered hidden at the top of a crumbling, gothic building in Edinburgh, Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie is faced with the unenviable task of identifying the bones. As Karen's investigation gathers momentum, she is drawn deeper into a dark world of intrigue and betrayal. Meanwhile, someone is taking the law into their own hands in the name of justice and revenge -- but when present resentment collides with secrets of the past, the truth is more shocking than anyone could have imagined . . . From number one bestseller, Val McDermid comes an atmospheric, spine-chilling tour de force -- her richest and most accomplished psychological thriller to date.

    The Skeleton Road3
    3.8
  4. Out Of Bounds

    • 496 pages
    • 18 hours of reading

    Number one bestseller Val McDermid is back with her most gripping, chilling and suspenseful novel yet.

    Out Of Bounds4
    4.0
  5. 'Somebody has been here before us. And he's still here . . .' When a body is discovered in the remote depths of the Highlands, DCI Karen Pirie finds herself in the right place at the right time. Unearthed with someone's long-buried inheritance, the victim seems to belong to the distant past - until new evidence suggests otherwise, and Karen is called in to unravel a case where nothing is as it seems. It's not long before an overheard conversation draws Karen into the heart of a different case, however - a shocking crime she thought she'd already prevented. As she inches closer to the twisted truths at the centre of these murders, it becomes clear that she's dealing with a version of justice terrifyingly different to her own . . . Number one bestseller and queen of crime Val McDermid returns with her most breathtakingly atmospheric and exhilarating novel yet.

    Broken Ground5
    4.1
  6. Still Life

    • 448 pages
    • 16 hours of reading

    Praise for Val McDermid: 'Brilliant . . . Sensational . . . Unforgettable' - Guardian 'No one can plot or tell a story like she can' - Daily Express 'Compulsively readable' - Irish Times 'One of today's most accomplished crime writers' - Literary Review 'As good a psychological thriller as it is possible to get' - Sunday Express 'It grabs the reader by the throat and never lets go' - Daily Mail Discover the phenomenal, heart-pounding new novel from the queen of crime and number one bestseller, Val McDermid.

    Still Life6
    4.1