I’ve been fan of Val McDermit for several years now https://www.jackreidy.com/blog/tag/val-mcdermid/ .

Past Lying: A Karen Pirie Novel is her latest.  DCI Karen Pirie heads Police Scotland’s Historic Case Unit (HCU). We Americans would call it cold cases.  The Scots prefer the “Historic” designation for reasons  given in this book.

I eagerly requested an Advance Reader’s Copy (ARC) when I saw one was available for her latest novel.  I thank both Netgalley https://www.netgalley.com and Grove Atlantic for the chance to read this before publication. The book will be published on November 14.

Past Lying is a return to the Karen Pirie series after a 2 year break to begin another series featuring journalist Allie Burns.  I enjoy both series but it was good to return.  I was pleased to see that  DS Daisy Mortimer who was assigned to Karen’s unit a previous book returns here.

The story takes place during the COVID pandemic so depending on your experience there could influence your decision on reading this story.  The story is complicated and there are many twists and turns.  Investigating is made even more complicated by the COVID restrictions.

Val McDermid  has been called the “Queen of Crime” by the Scotsman.  In my experience each of her books that I have read has been great.

Once again, I highly recommend this book.