Lee Allen's Blog - Posts Tagged "karen-pirie"

Still Life by Val McDermid

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A thrilling police procedural featuring two investigations for Police Scotland’s Historic Cases Unit.

Fishermen pull a man’s body from the Firth of Forth estuary, launching an investigation by Fife’s local CID. DS Daisy Mortimer, recently transferred to the team, is both nervous and excited to be involved in her first murder inquiry. The victim is soon identified as a French citizen, but enquiries with the French police identify that he previously absconded to France to join the French Foreign Legion – prior to this he was a UK citizen and chief suspect in the inquiry into the disappearance of his brother, a civil servant, a case which quickly ran cold.

Meanwhile, DCI Karen Pirie is investigating the discovery of skeletal remains in the back of a camper van in the garage of a recently deceased RTA victim. It appears likely that this may be linked to the deceased's ex-partner. Karen and DC Jason Murray delve into both women’s backgrounds, while Karen finds herself distracted by an offender’s imminent release from prison.

With the live inquiry linked to the cold case of the civil servant’s disappearance, Karen is tasked with taking the lead on the investigation, one with lines of enquiry which sprawl through England, France and finally to Ireland. Juggling both inquiries, Karen and the team find themselves hunting two dangerous murderers whose unearthed crimes threaten to continue bleeding into the present.

I first encountered Karen Pirie back when ‘The Distant Echo’ was still a standalone thriller – I still recall its chilling imagery to this day. When I later picked up ‘A Darker Domain’, believing it to be another standalone, I was pleasantly surprised to recognise the lead characters. Since then I have eagerly followed Karen’s cases. This, the sixth in the series, is once again another high quality thriller from Val McDermid; packed with forensic and procedural detail, cross-jurisdictional sparring and cooperation, and the blurring of both historic and current cases – resulting in an intriguing, authentic police thriller, that builds to a suspenseful and satisfying climax.

Karen continues to be an endearing character, her own personal life intertwined throughout (while the novel can be read as a standalone, I would recommend reading the novels in order to avoid spoilers and best experience the ongoing character development across the series), her no-nonsense approach and desire for justice never wavering. An appearance by anthropologist Dr River Wilde is always welcome, while I very much like new recruit Daisy and hope she continues to feature in the series in the future. The Pirie novels, in particular amongst McDermid’s work, demonstrate a keen political and social awareness, current events bubbling in the background. With the novel concluding in March 2020, I’m very excited to see what may come next for Karen and her team.

Fast-paced, with a social and moral conscience, and gripping from beginning to end, ‘Still Life’ is another fantastic novel from the Queen of Scottish Crime, and, as ever, I shall be eagerly picking up the next McDermid thriller as soon as it arrives.



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Past Lying by Val McDermid

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A thrilling lockdown investigation for Karen Pirie.

An unpublished manuscript by recently deceased crime author Jake Stein is unearthed, with a plot eerily similar to the disappearance of a young woman the previous year.

Lara Hardie was an aspiring writer and student at Edinburgh University, who vanished one evening between her home and the library.

DCI Karen Pirie and her team in the Historic Cases Unit follow the clues set out in the unfinished novel in pursuit of the truth and closure for Lara's family.

‘Past Lying’ is the seventh novel in the Karen Pirie series by Val McDermid. Set during the first UK national lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, picking up shortly after the conclusion of the previous novel ‘Still Life’, we are confronted with the limitations and challenges of the precautions in place at the time – a reminder of the personal journeys we experienced, the horrors of the pandemic, and an exploration of the effects this had on police procedure. The Historic Cases Unit, deemed practically non-essential at this time, are currently reviewing case files while staying at home. A lead from an unexpected source at the National Library leads them to focus their attention on a case only a year old, a young woman disappearing seemingly without trace.

As the series has progressed, the books have become increasingly character-focussed, their ongoing personal lives sharing as much of the plot as each case. Karen’s drive and determination, her morality and commitment to justice – both legal and social – power the narrative as surely as the mystery at its core. Her relationships with protégé Jason and recent recruit Daisy lie at the heart of the story; in the backdrop of the pandemic, this novel feels more about the police team than the investigation itself. With the characters in lockdown, their familial and romantic relationships are under strain, exposing both strong bonds and brittle cracks, positive and negative exacerbated by the present unsettling situation.

McDermid always delivers an engaging and thrilling narrative, this one a complex puzzle within the world of crime writing, which leads to some light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek moments, juxtaposed with the serious nature of the investigation and some tragic and emotional elements; the formula of the Karen Pirie novels once again presenting an example of police procedurals at their best. Also following a secondary narrative of the fictionalised version of the alleged abduction and murder through the manuscript discovered amongst Jake Stein’s papers, we enjoy a multi-layered, detailed plot that grips from its tantalising opening chapters to satisfying conclusion.

Poignant and timely, 'Past Lying' is another immersive thriller from the Queen of Scottish crime fiction.



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