It is Spring 2020, and Scotland is in lockdown as the world faces the Covid-19 pandemic. DCI Karen Pirie has decided to sit out the lockdown in her partner's apartment with DS Daisy Mortimer. The historic cases unit is quiet until a librarian cataloguing a deceased crime fiction author's archives comes across a manuscript. Could it hold the key to a baffling, unsolved disappearance? Past Lying is an intriguing mystery set right at the pandemic's start. Val McDermid is a master at creating vivid settings and environments and is in top form. McDermid plunges us back into those frightening and disorientating early days and realistically demonstrates the challenges faced by the police conducting serious investigations. Unlike previous entries, the cast of characters is relatively small. I like this as they're fleshed out. We learn more about Daisy and Jason shines here. Ros, Ross and the deceased Jake are very well done. We see them shift and change as Karen's investigation progresses. I did guess the solution quite early on. That didn't detract from my enjoyment, as McDermind is a brilliant storyteller, and I enjoyed the ride. I highly recommend Past Lying and am grateful to the Publisher and NetGalley for the eARC.

Set during Lockdown. Karen Pirie investigates a 'cold case' of a young Edinburgh University student who disappeared. We then enter the world of writers and writer's workshops which in itself is rather fascinating to read about. There is one quite grisly incident in the whole book, so do skip this if you have a sensitive stomach. Other than this I very much liked the book, a real mystery story with a poignant thread running through it regarding the Pandemic. Highly recommend.

crime-thriller, suspense, law-enforcement, mysteries, detective-fiction, procedural, pandemic, archivist, library, tense, murder, murder-investigation***** Cold case: Scotland/Historic Cases Unit Law enforcement is hard enough, but the constraints placed upon them by necessary precautions of effective quarantine plus a more than double lack of personnel makes it all darn near impossible as well as totally exhausting. DCI Pirie and her team are called upon to look into a case and find enough evidence to make it valid for trial. Excellent read! I requested and received a temporary PDF from Grove Atlantic/Atlantic Monthly Press via NetGalley.

Past Lying by Val McDermid is a masterclass in storytelling, the story just flows and it was interesting to see how Scottish police dealt with the dreaded lockdown. The storyline had it all, personal relationships of the police team, a Syrian refuge, how people dealt with lockdown in different ways, and all the twists and turns of a Karen Pirie police thriller. Highly recommended

This is her best yet. The twists are just amazing.