DCI Karen Pirie investigates in a new thriller of deceit and vengeance, set against the disquiet and investigative challenges of a global pandemic. - (Baker & Taylor)

"It's April 2020 and Edinburgh is in lockdown. It would seem like a strange time for a cold case to go hot-the streets all but empty, an hour's outdoor exercise the maximum allowed-but a mere pandemic doesn't mean crime takes a holiday. When a source at the National Library contacts DCI Karen Pirie's team about documents in the archive of a recently deceased crime novelist, it seems it's game on again. At the center of it, a novel: two crime novelists facing off over a chessboard. But it quickly emerges that their real-life competition is drawing blood. What unspools is a twisted game of betrayal and revenge, and as Karen and her team attempt to disentangle fact from fiction, it becomes clear that this case is more complicated than they ever imagined"-- - (Baker & Taylor)

In this superb new addition to Val McDermid’s masterful crime series, DCI Karen Pirie returns in a propulsive thriller of deceit and vengeance, set against the disquiet of a global pandemic

Britain’s reigning “Queen of Crime” (The Scotsman), Val McDermid is the award-winning, internationally bestselling author of over thirty novels. The long-awaited seventh novel in the acclaimed series that has captivated audiences for twenty years, both on the page and now in the Edgar Award–nominated ITV/BritBox show, Past Lying is a full tilt novel of ego, retribution, deceit, and just how far one will go to settle the score.

It’s April 2020 and Edinburgh is in lockdown. It would seem like a strange time for a cold case to go hot—the streets all but empty, an hour’s outdoor exercise the maximum allowed—but a mere pandemic doesn’t mean crime takes a holiday. When a source at the National Library contacts DCI Karen Pirie’s team about documents in the archive of a recently deceased crime novelist, it seems it’s game on again. At the center of it, a novel: two crime novelists facing off over a chessboard. But it quickly emerges that their real-life competition is drawing blood. What unspools is a twisted game of betrayal and revenge, and as Karen and her team attempt to disentangle fact from fiction, it becomes clear that their investigation is more complicated than they ever imagined.

A tense, atmospheric page-turner, Past Lying reaffirms McDermid as one of the most talented crime writers of her generation.

Val McDermid’s bestselling novels have won the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year Award, and the Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger and Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding achievement. She is also a multiple finalist for the Edgar Award, including for the Fact Crime nominee Forensics. She lives in Scotland.  - (Perseus Publishing)

Booklist Reviews

DCI Karen Pirie, head of Police Scotland's Historic Cases Unit (HCU, formerly the Cold Case Squad), returns (after Still Life, 2020) with her team, known as "the lassies that wake the dead." It is April 2020, three weeks into COVID-19 lockdown, and Karen traverses a deserted Edinburgh after a librarian finds a recently deceased mystery author's unpublished book describing the murder of a young woman who went missing a year earlier. The HCU meticulously follows the manuscript's narrative and finds the woman's body. Everything points to the author himself having been the murderer, but Val McDermid's fans know better than to trust such a simple solution. She 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, especially shoogly (shaky) alibis and stooshie (wild) goings-on. Fans of the Karen Pirie television series, which debuted on British ITV in 2022 and has been commissioned for a second season, will be eager to read. Copyright 2023 Booklist Reviews.

Library Journal Reviews

From CWA Diamond Dagger winner McDermid, Past Lying gives Edinburgh's DCI Karen Pirie a cold case to crack in the midst of pandemic lockdown as mysterious documents surface in the archives of a recently deceased crime novelist. Prepub Alert. Copyright 2023 Library Journal

Library Journal Reviews

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

Publishers Weekly Reviews

The riveting seventh installment in McDermid's Karen Pirie series (after 2020's Still Life) sees the Edinburgh DCI parsing a potentially deadly literary rivalry at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. As head of Scotland's Historic Cases Unit, Karen has spent the bulk of her time in lockdown researching details on a stack of unsolved crimes. An especially intriguing one lands on her desk courtesy of a researcher at the National Library, who's unearthed new evidence about the year-old disappearance of Lara Hardie, a novice crime writer who idolized bestseller Jake Stein. Stein, whose career hit the skids after he was accused of sexual assault at a book launch before the pandemic, has recently died of cancer, and a subsequent perusal of his belongings has turned up a manuscript that reads like a chilling roman à clef of Hardie's murder. In it, Stein appears to admit to strangling Hardie and planning to frame his personal and professional rival, Ross McEwan. More digging reveals that McEwan has been carrying on an affair with Stein's wife, Rosalind, so Karen and her team set out to determine the level of Stein's and McEwan's involvement in Hardie's disappearance. McDermid keeps the twists coming hard and fast, and she bolsters them with sharp observations about the toll of Covid on the public psyche. This page-turner grips from the outset and doesn't let go. Agent: Lizzy Kremer, David Higham Assoc. (Nov.)