Karen Pirie is back and better than ever! Set during lockdown, enough time has passed for the reader to immerse themselves in that strange time once again, and McDermid tackles it with the humility it deserves. Karen Pirie is teetering on the edge of breaking the rules in some instances, but always stops herself from doing so (something I wish the people in power had done!). The plot is potentially my favourite so far. It is incredibly clever and intricately balances fact and fiction. The group of characters have been so missed, and it has been lovely to catch up with Karen, Daisy and The Mint once again. I am already eagerly awaiting the next Karen Pirie novel with bated breath.

Past Lying is another engrossing instalment in Val McDermid's series featuring Edinburgh-based Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie. It's April 2020 and Scotland has been in lockdown for three weeks, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. DCI Karen Pirie is in a domestic "bubble" with her HSU colleague, DS Daisy Mortimer in her partner Hamish's upmarket Edinburgh apartment. DC Jason "the Mint" Murray is in lockdown in the flat he shares with his fiancée. The team is called in to investigate a possible link between some papers recently donated to the Library of Scotland and a missing person case that is barely historical. A partial manuscript found amongst the papers of recently deceased crime novelist Jake Stein, contains details which are eerily similar to those surrounding the real-life unsolved disappearance of Edinburgh student Lara Hardie a year previously. Other details within the story seem to echo events in Stein’s personal and professional life over the period preceding Lara’s disappearance. Is this simply a case of an author drawing upon real life events interwoven with thinly veiled autobiographical details to create an imaginative story? Or could it be a devilishly clever plot designed to incriminate an innocent party in a real-life crime? Val McDermid cleverly leverages the circumstances of the Covid-19 lockdowns, with which all readers will be personally familiar to some extent, as a means to further develop her series characters while they're in extremis, and also to add a layer of complexity to the police investigation plotline itself. Past Lying brought to my mind Josephine Tey's 1951 masterpiece The Daughter of Time, and Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse mystery The Wench is Dead, itself an acknowledged homage to Tey's work, both of which employed a mechanism for the detective protagonist to solve a crime while physically restricted from undertaking the "usual" investigative process. Past Lying is another high quality police mystery, with a twisty plot and convincing, well-developed characters, both those that have featured throughout the series and those who appear only in this story. McDermid's use of misdirection and intrigue are up to her usual superlative standard, and she draws upon her own decades of experience in the crime-writing community in building the background to the mystery. While the Edinburgh setting is necessarily narrowed in its depiction by the characters' enforced isolation, there remains a distinct Scottish flavour throughout, incorporated through the use of vernacular language, subtle cultural references and the characters' occasional opportunities to leave the confines of lockdown while carrying out essential face-to-face interviews, viewing crime scenes and gathering evidence. I'd enthusiastically recommend Past Lying to any reader who's enjoyed previous series instalments over the past 20 years, and to those new to either D.I. Karen Pirie or Val McDermid's substantial body of much-lauded work. My thanks to the author, Queen of Crime Val McDermid, publisher Grove Atlantic, Atlantic Monthly Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this engrossing title.

I've waited ooh 3 years for this novel, and it didn't disappoint. The Karen Pirie novels are less bloodthirsty than Val's other works, focusing as they do on historic cases. However that just means the mysteries are more intriguing and this had a great premise. Of course it took place during covid, I've read a few novels set during the covid era now and this is one of the least irritating. Although the lead character was a bit pompous and given to some unnecessary moralising at times, which did nothing to move the story on but felt more like the authors personal opinion kicking in. It could have been worse (for an example I suggest you read Elly Griffiths Ruth Galloway novels, the last 2 were absolutely dire, just awful). However I really did enjoy this, and I'll be intrigued to see if Pirie's burgeoning relationship develops further. Who will the new ACC be? Come on Val, fans are waiting, get cracking!

Karen is hunkering down in a bubble with Daisy, her subordinate, in a loaned apartment. It is early 2020 and lockdown has been initiated and everyone is coming to terms with the new restrictions (and hoping they won’t last very long…. little did they know). The storyline is very strong on the protocols introduced at that time and the references took me straight back to this point in time, and revisiting this difficult period raised a touch of anxiety. One of the characters is personally affected by the escalating situation as the story moves along. Given this is no.7 in the series, the characters are well embedded and beautifully brought to life. Karen is perhaps quite solemn in this one compared with previous outings but the team nevertheless feels quite familiar. The historical case team is working from home. Team member Jason receives a call highlighting the discovery of documents in the archive of a deceased crime novelist. The details contained therein are suspiciously close to the unsolved and mysterious disappearance of university student Lara, who, it is assumed, is dead. And from there this becomes a novel within a novel and the author clearly relishes the layered story-telling she has crafted within the world of crime writing. Her pleasure and enthusiasm is contagious and washes over the reader. The novel and its intricacies demand focus, as there are several levels to keep straight but as this is an experienced novelist, the story moves along in a well-crafted way. There are political musings, whisky choices to be made and chess moves to ponder. There are bookish asides, literary festivals, writing workshops, and accolades for authors, whose books might just appear on the Jackie and Jimmy Book club list, sponsored by a high street chain (you don’t have to think long and hard about the inspiration behind this