Reviews…

McDermid negotiates her ceaselessly exciting book’s twists like a master. — Wall Street Journal 

While the author’s style drives the story with excellent pacing, she takes the time to insert some arch characterizations … McDermid’s novel is a generously sized, big book with an entertaining puzzle within a puzzle and a great tongue-in-cheek attitude. — New York Review of Books

With echoes of Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers On A Train, but with an originality all of its own, the elegant story slowly reveals the betray and revenge that lie at its heart. — Daily Mail

Val McDermid has great fun with this, yet never downplays the anguish endured by so many during the pandemic. Pirie is her most sympathetic protagonist and Past Lying one of her most devious and delightful cases. — The Times

Atmospheric… vividly recreates the anxious early months of the Covid pandemic. — Sunday Times

Val McDermid is deservedly popular and now acclaimed as the Queen of Crime. She is a fine carpenter, her books always well-constructed. She has the confidence to take her time in the telling of her story … she is at her ingenious best here. — The Scotsman

Past Lying sees McDermid simultaneously at her darkest and most playful. The central plot is a wonderfully tricksy story within a story within a story. — Mail on Sunday

Scottish crime queen Val McDermid is one of the most revered crime writers at work today and each new novel from the former news journalist brings with it both a gripping plot as well as astute social commentary. — Irish Times

Past Lying is a cracking read, due not least to the return of the wonderful cold case investigator DCI Karen Pirie… — Daily Express

Past Lying is a cracking read, due not least to the return of the wonderful cold case investigator DCI Karen Pirie… — Daily Express

A real tour-de-force. — Irish Independent

“[O]ne of the best books she has ever written . . . Among the chapters that are delivered from different points of view are the direct excerpts from Stein’s manuscript, which Pirie hopes can serve as his posthumous murder confession. This is such a brilliantly conceived plot line that I was squirming with glee as I turned each page. McDermid is in rare form here, and the book never fails to entertain and surprise as the narrative plows forward . . . PAST LYING is a wonder to behold. I place it directly next to McDermid’s finest works, like A PLACE OF EXECUTION and THE WIRE IN THE BLOOD. Her use of the pandemic is one of the most clever I have seen to date, and the story within a story that constantly references such greats as Agatha Christie and the aforementioned Highsmith makes this a novel that cannot be missed.”— Ray Palen Bookreporter

“McDermid makes [the pandemic lockdown] an effective handicap to Pirie, whose investigation of a not-quite-stone-cold case must accommodate the public health restrictions . . . The parallels between Stein’s real life and his fictional book are striking, so that the narrative takes on the characteristics of nested dolls . . . [H]ead and shoulders above many crime novels.”— Vicki Weisfield Crime Fiction Lover

“[McDermid] ingeniously flips over the rug and examines the pattern in reverse. Karen and her supporting cast are absorbing, providing insight into the restrictions on police work during the pandemic and plenty of Scottish flavor . . . Fans of the Karen Pirie television series . . . will be eager to read.”—Booklist

Edinburgh DCI Karen Pirie of the Historic Cases Unit takes on a fiendishly difficult assignment made even harder by the exigencies of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Now that Hamish Mackenzie, her coffee chain–owning boyfriend, is off in the Highlands, Karen’s settled into his home together with DS Daisy Mortimer, her lockdown flatmate. She’s allowed one hour of outdoor exercise a day, and she’s been warned to keep her distance from members of the public. So it’s lucky for her that mystery novelist Jake Stein, the leading suspect in the disappearance of Lara Hardie, an EU student who vanished a year ago, has died himself in the meantime. The weightiest piece of evidence against Jake, whose career had taken a sudden downturn after an ex-lover’s public accusations of sexual abuse had sent both his wife and publisher heading for the exits, is truly chilling: The Vanishing of Laurel Oliver, an unfinished manuscript he left behind that laid out in meticulous detail how fictional crime writer Jamie Cobain, an obvious stand-in for his author, lured the title character into an isolated location and strangled her so that he could frame his chess partner and professional rival Rob Thomas, a thinly disguised version of Ross McEwen, the rising mystery novelist and chess partner who’d taken up with Jake’s ex-wife, for the murder. The tricky setup sounds like Anthony Horowitz, but the subplot concerning Karen’s troubled efforts to shelter a Syrian refugee on the run from the assassins whose attack back home led to the deaths of his wife and son, is pure McDermid.

‘Ingenious, humane, and all too telling as a reminder of the costs of the pandemic even on its survivors.’— Kirkus Reviews (July 2023)

“In her seventh atmospheric series thriller, McDermid skillfully combines a twisty plot of murder and vengeance with the personal dramas of her detectives, set against the dramatic backdrop of a global pandemic. By the novel’s end, no one has been left unscathed by this traumatic time. . . I suspect Val McDermid’s book is the first of many crime novels that will explore the impact of COVID on the human psyche.”—Brian Kenney, First Clue Reviews (August 2023)

A Lockdown Cold Case

Val McDermid. Past Lying: A Karen Pirie Novel. November 14, 2023. 464 pages. Atlantic Monthly.

It’s April 2020, the third week of a pandemic lockdown in an eerily quiet and empty Edinburgh. Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie of Police Scotland’s Historic Cases Unit has hunkered down with Detective Sergeant Daisy Mortimer in a “quarantine bubble” in her boyfriend Hamish’s spacious New Town apartment while he isolates up in the Highlands. There are no active cold cases to occupy the two officers, and Karen is languishing while longing for something meaningful to investigate. She fights her restlessness with her daily one-hour walks, the maximum allowed under tight restrictions. But when DC Jason Murray receives a call from a contact at the National Library about an unfinished manuscript in the archives of a recently deceased crime novelist, the team may have stumbled upon a connection to the cold case of a young woman who disappeared a year earlier. But how do they investigate a crime while trying to stay within COVID protocols? A determined Karen finds herself “making mincemeat” of the regulations, but as she tells a colleague, “I have to be out on the streets doing what I do. Because I want the world to still be a decent place when we come out on the other side.” In her seventh atmospheric series thriller, McDermid skillfully combines a twisty plot of murder and vengeance with the personal dramas of her detectives, set against the dramatic backdrop of a global pandemic. By the novel’s end, no one has been left unscathed by this traumatic time. In her acknowledgments, McDermid notes that she penned this novel only in 2023, needing the distance of time to write about those frightening early days. I suspect her book is the first of many crime novels that will explore the impact of COVID on the human psyche. — Willy Williams

“With an intricate plot, authentic dialogue, rich details, and masterly McDermid twists and turns, Past Lying will delight Pirie fans, existing and new.”—Library Journal (starred review)

Is there any greater pleasure than reading a writer at the top of her game? Following Still Life, McDermid returns with a new case for DCI Karen Pirie of Edinburgh’s Historic Cases Unit (HCU). It’s April 2020 and Karen and her team, together with the rest of the city, are in COVID lockdown and working from home when Jason “the Mint” Murray receives a call from Meera Reddy, his favorite archivist at the National Library of Scotland. Before the pandemic, she was processing the papers of the recently deceased crime writer Jake Stein and had been dismayed by one of his stories outlining a perfect murder. Stein’s fictionalized victim suffers from a rare form of epilepsy and bears a striking resemblance to a real young woman who disappeared in Edinburgh over a year ago. The HCU team reads the story and realizes that Meera may have stumbled upon something significant. They are soon working on the disappearance, despite juggling strict lockdown rules and the obstructionist intervention of their boss, ACC Markie.

VERDICT With an intricate plot, authentic dialogue, rich details, and masterly McDermid twists and turns, this book will delight Pirie fans, existing and new.— Penelope J.M. Klein

Karen Pirie is one of my favourite of Val’s creations, I love her strength and her humour. And this book being about novel writing (and awful writers!) felt like an extra treat. The ingenious plot kept me guessing all the way through. But the other parts of the story, the reminders of how GRIM life was under lockdown and the unbearable sorrow of losing loved ones, without even having a funeral, I found very moving. It’s interesting that I didn’t want to read about Covid while we were in the thick of it, but it’s easier now to see just how hard it was for us all. I also very much appreciated the compassionate storyline about refugees. The short description of the photos Rafiq took was enough to bring home the horror of Assad’s Syria. I’m so grateful to Val for highlighting this issue.  Including it in a barnstorming crime novel is a stealthy and effective way to do it.

In other words, it is an all-rounder of a novel. It delivers on every level.’ – Marian Keyes