Past Lying

Edinburgh, haunted by the ghosts of its many writers, is also the cold case beat of DCI Karen Pirie. So she shouldn't be surprised when an author's manuscript appears to be a blueprint for an actual crime.

Karen can't ignore the plot's chilling similarities to the unsolved case...Read more

1989

In the new installment to her historical crime series that began with 1979, internationally bestselling author Val McDermid delivers a propulsive new thriller that finds journalist Allie Burns has become an editor, and as the Cold War and...Read more

1979, Val McDermid

The first in the Allie Burns series, 1979 was released in 2021 with the second, 1989 out in October 2022. It was the arrival of the second book that made me realise I hadn't read the the first - and then I realised I'm behind with the Karen Pirie novels (now a TV series into the bargain),...Read more

Author: 

1979

The year started badly and only got worse–blizzards, strikes, power cuts, and political unrest were the norm. For journalist Allie Burns, however, someone else's bad news was the unmistakable sound of opportunity knocking, and the year is ripe with possibilities. But Allie is a woman in a man's world.Read more

Criminal Tendencies

Val McDermid, Reginald Hill, and Peter James are just some of the 24 top selling crime writers who have contributed stories to Criminal Tendencies, an exciting new crime short collection. Alongside the big names will be stories from first-time authors Chris Nickson and Caroline Shiach,...Read more

Criminal Tendencies, Lynne Patrick (editor)

In his foreword to this fantastic collection Mark Billingham points out so many of the mysteries behind the decline of the short story.  In these days of short periods of available quiet time for reading, it does seem strange that fewer and fewer short story collections seem to be published...Read more