Val McDermid

Val McDermid turns her considerable narrative skill to a non-fiction history of the development of forensics, from the days of Jack the Ripper to the 21st century. It's almost as gripping as one of her novels. Each chapter deals with one branch of forensics (Toxicology, DNA and Blood Spatter, Facial Reconstruction, etc.) and how it has come to be essential to crime scene investigators, prosecutors and defense attorneys. "The courtroom is the anvil on which scientific evidence is struck. With show more a well-prepared lawyer playing the part of the hammer, forensic techniques are either strengthened or broken, according to their merit." McDermid uses some classic cases, both unsolved and resolved, to illustrate what can be proven in a court of law (and equally what sometimes cannot be known for certain). The details of some of them were already familiar to me, but her perspective on the scientific evidence was still worth reading about. Comparisons of procedures in the US and the UK were often surprising, and who knew how much the insect world has to contribute to interpretation of a crime scene! show less

When anyone asks about my favorite mystery series, Val McDermid's Karen Pirie books are right up at the top of the list. With its lovely twisty plot, Past Lying is an excellent addition. The story is made even more engrossing by showing readers policing in the time of Covid. There are rules that must be obeyed, or there will be consequences, and Karen and her team have to be very careful (and quick-witted) about how they conduct themselves.

Speaking of Karen and her team, there is a lot in show more Past Lying to further the lives of the main characters. There's Karen's relationship with Hamish, the entrepreneur, which is complicated by the fact that he's miles away while Karen is in his apartment in Edinburgh with team member, Daisy, during the lockdown. And Daisy? She shows a lot of talent as a police officer, but I'm not sure how much I can trust her. After all, Daisy herself says, it's "... always handy to have something on your boss." This doubt makes the back of my mind itch as I watch Karen work hard to make both Daisy and Jason stronger members of the team.

There's even more going on in the characters' lives, which makes sense due to the personal nature of lockdown; however, there is also an insider's look at the craft of writing, manuscripts, publishing, author events, and workshops, as well as the plight of refugees. Past Lying is a densely layered, completely satisfying mystery, and I don't want to wait until December for the next book in the series. show less

A perfectly preserved body is found in a bog in Scotland by a very surprised couple who were chasing “buried treasure” via a handmade map from the 1940s. DCI Karen Pririe of the Historic Crimes Unit arrives on the scene but, as it will turn out, the body is not ancient at all, nor does it correspond with the 1940s.

One may recall that I declared the previous Karen Pririe novel, “the nearest thing to a perfect police procedural as can be” and this installment falls not far from that show more same tree. And as with the previous novel, this one is complex, interesting, and is unraveled in the same delicious manner. Karen, who tends to wander from protocol, has a new, overbearing boss, who has been secretly nicknamed “Dog Biscuit”, and it’s possible a newly transferred officer is put on Karen’s team to keep an eye on her. The story moves back and forth from the 1940s to the present, until all the threads are first unraveled, and then woven together into something quite satisfying. While not quite as perfect as the previous novel, [Out of Bounds], [Broken Ground] still gets top marks. And who doesn’t like a good bog body story?! It can be read as a standalone, but I would recommend reading the previous book first, if possible. show less

Karen leaned back in her chair, not liking the answer she came up with, but knowing there would be nothing better coming from the man opposite her. ‘You were a right bunch of fucking cowboys in the old days, weren’t you?’ There was no admiration in her tone.

I don't know what I expected but I did not expect to like this book as much as I did. I gather from a lot of comments and other reviews that this is one of McDermid's weaker offerings but I actually really enjoyed the mix of show more interlinking stories, each of which had it's own element of suspense:

The search for a donor that is compatible with a sick child.
The disappearance of a man who seemingly one day walks out on his family in the midst of the 1984 miners' strikes.
The journalist in search of a story.
The business oligarch in search of his peace of mind.
And DI Karen Pirie searching for the solutions to all of these puzzles.

As mentioned before, I'm not keen on reading gory tales or scary thrillers, and I was pleasantly surprised that the suspense - and there are oodles of suspense in this - was built not on gory facts but on characters and atmosphere. The elements of forensic detail just helped piece the clues together and follow the investigation.

So, yes, my apprehension of reading this was totally unwarranted - and yes, it was all in my head. Just as well, because having read this one I look forward to reading more by McDermid. It's is not just her writing style that made me hungry for more but also the setting - Kingdom of Fife - and the historical snippets. show less