Val McDermid

The dead talk - to the right listener. They can tell us all about themselves: where they came from, how they lived, how they died, and, of course, who killed them. Forensic scientists can unlock the mysteries of the past and help serve justice using the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene...

As a favor to her rock journalist boyfriend, Thai-boxing, rock-and-roll private detective Kate Brannigan agrees to track down a missing song-writer Moira Pollock, a search that takes her into some of the seediest parts of Leeds and Bradford....

English kick-boxer and Rudyard Kipling fan Kate Brannigan appears in her fourth adventure, chasing down art thieves in Italy while unravelling a nasty case of product tampering in her homeland. When a precious Monet painting is nicked from a posh British estate where she arranged the security...

Hailed as Britain’s Queen of Crime, Val McDermid’s award-winning, internationally bestselling novels have captivated readers for over three decades. The second novel in McDermid’s newest series, 1989 is a full-body immersion in a world gone by, and a constant reminder of how history...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Each author captures Christie—and Marple—perfectly, while also displaying just a bit of her own unique touch. . . . This new and entertaining collection by some of our favorite writers will hook a new group of readers to the formidable Miss Marple." — Rhys Bowen...

World-class crime writer Val McDermid has sold millions of copies of her books worldwide. In The Retribution, clinical psychologist Tony Hill and detective Carol Jordan face a terrifying reality: Serial killer Jacko Vance has escaped imprisonment - and appears hell-bent on revenge against those...

A stunning new cold case novel from internationally best-selling crime writer Val McDermid about a car crash that opens up an unsolved murder from decades before. Internationally best-selling author Val McDermid is one of our finest crime writers, whose gripping, impeccably plotted novels have...

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...

The new installment in the “relentlessly engrossing series” (The Wall Street Journal) finds Karen Pirie and her team investigating the murder of a journalist paved under a motorway—but was it his work or his private life that put him there? Scotland, 2025. When torrential winter rain...

Hailed as the UK's Queen of Crime, Val McDermid is the award-winning, internationally best-selling author of more than 30 novels and one of the best crime writers working today. With Still Life, McDermid returns to her propulsive series featuring cold-case Detective Karen Pirie, who finds...

Winter 1963: two children have disappeared off the streets of Manchester; the murderous careers of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady have begun....

This "cunningly plotted" (New York Times) thriller is now on Britbox as Karen Pirie! Bestselling, award-winning author Val McDermid delivers her most stunning story yet in The Distant Echo--an intricate, thought-provoking tale of murder and revenge. Four in the morning, mid-December, and snow...

The Mermaids Singing is a chilling and taut psychological mystery from Val McDermid, the basis for the ITV series Wire in the Blood, starring Robson Green and Hermione Norris. This was the summer he discovered what he wanted—at a gruesome museum of criminology far off the beaten track of more...

In this incredible follow-up to the New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller FaceOff, twenty-two of the world’s most popular thriller writers come together for an unforgettable anthology. MatchUp takes the never-before-seen bestseller pairings of FaceOff and adds a delicious new twist: gender...

Dr. Tony Hill and Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan return in the award-winning series that is the basis for the ITV television show Wire in the Blood. In a small grim room, the body of a woman is discovered, panic and pain etched in her face. The scene matches in every detail a series of...

In this radiant work of creative nonfiction, internationally beloved novelist Val McDermid delivers a dazzling ode to a lost world, ruminating on a single winter in her life as she journeys into the heart of the season’s ever-evolving community-based traditions Val McDermid has always had a...

The Washington Post calls CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger Award winner Val McDermid “one of the bright lights of the mystery field.” In her Trick of the Dark, forensic psychiatrist Charlotte Flint is in desperate need of a distraction after her testimony in a high-profile case comes under fire...

In The Grave Tattoo, suspense master Val McDermid spins a psychological thriller in which a present-day murder has its roots in the eighteenth century and the mutiny on the H.M.S. Bounty. After torrential summer rains uncover a bizarrely tattooed body on a Lake District hillside, a...

There was only one reason Manchester-based private eye Kate Brannigan was prepared to let her boyfriend help out with an investigation into a car sales fraud - nothing bad could happen. But by now Kate should know that with Richard you have to expect the unexpected. With Richard behind bars...

After an explosive case that forced Tony Hill and Carol Jordan to reassess everything they thought they knew about right and wrong, both are dealing with the fallout in their own separate ways. While Tony must pay the price for his actions, Carol is conducting investigations into suspected...