Out of Bounds

October 24, 2016
At the outset of Scottish author McDermid’s engaging if at times overstuffed third Karen Pirie novel (after 2014’s The Skeleton Road), 17-year-old Ross Garvie and three mates steal a Land Rover after a night of drinking in Dundee. The subsequent high-speed crash on the Perth road kills his friends and leaves Garvie in a coma. Pirie, head of Police Scotland’s tiny Historic Cases Unit in Edinburgh, is intrigued when Garvie’s DNA is a familial match to the 20-year-old unsolved rape and murder case of a Glasgow hairdresser. Complications ensue when Pirie tries to track down Garvie’s male relatives. Meanwhile, Pirie is hung up on the death of Fife man Gabriel Abbott and how his death is—or isn’t—linked to that of his mother in a plane crash 22 years earlier, though it’s not Pirie’s case. Authorities assumed the plane exploded due to an IRA bomb, but Pirie isn’t so sure. Pirie, a tough heroine cut from the same cloth as McDermid’s other fictional stalwart, Carol Jordan, never backs down from a thorny question or a seemingly impossible case. Agent: Jane Gregory, Gregory & Company.

October 1, 2016
A fatal car crash leads to information about a cold murder case in the fourth DCI Karen Pirie mystery.The drunken accident reveals DNA which may allow Karen to make an arrest in a decades old rape/murder. But that's only one of three mysteries in the course of the book. There's also the suicide of a local oddball, which may not be a suicide, and the questions surrounding the death of the man's mother years before in a plane explosion hastily credited to the Irish Republican Army. There's also Karen's interactions with a group of Syrian refugees, which stop just short of being sentimental, and her own continuing attempts to get over the murder of her lover and colleague. That the book is so overstuffed is a mark of the current trend for mysteries to weigh in at 400 pages rather than 200 (or less) lean ones. And since the car crash and the information that flows from it are gradually pushed aside in favor of an investigation of the suspicious death and the plane crash, it would have made sense to allot it far less space. What holds the novel together is Karen. Enough of us have encountered stupid people put in positions of power who take delight in running down the far smarter people beneath them that Karen's refusal to suffer her foolish superiors gladly is very appealing. As is her winning combination of being both brooding and no-nonsense. This wayward and entertaining mystery has the grace of a heroine on the verge of coming into her own as a character whom readers will want to spend time with.

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Starred review from October 1, 2016
Cold-case work in Edinburgh usually begins when routine evidence checks drop DNA hits into DCI Karen Pirie's in-box. This time, a joyrider's DNA is a close match to the perpetrator of a 20-year-old rape and murder. In a perfect world, Karen could sort through his nearest male relatives to find her killer, but the investigation stalls when she discovers that the teen is adopted. While she petitions family court for access to his birth records, Karen is drawn into a pair of murders whose investigation offers the added benefit of riling the Macaroon, her hostile, buffoonish boss. Gabriel Abbott was found shot to death on a public bench, and the circumstances are all the more suspicious considering that his mother was murdered decades ago in a bombing that was unclaimed by terrorist groups. Intrigued by the unlikely coincidence, Karen wields her authority as head of the Historical Crimes Unit to dig into the lives of London's rich and untouchable. Readers will easily connect with Karen, whose unwavering confidence is tempered by a strong dose of kindness and sense of justice. The fourth Karen Pirie novel (following The Skeleton Road, 2014) boasts satisfying investigative detail, swift pacing, and realistic mysteries steeped in the intricacies of Scottish law; a sure fit for fans of Tana French and of Denise Mina's Alex Morrow series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2016

Last seen in 2015's The Skeleton Road, Det. Karen Pirie faces a surprising cold case: DNA that shows up after a teenage joyrider's car crash puts him in a coma could provide the answer to a murder case that's gone unsolved for 22 years. But the investigation is complicated by the detective's interest in a terrorist bombing that took place two decades ago. McDermid, a Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger Award winner whose books have sold 12 million copies worldwide, has been building lately in the U.S. market.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2016

DCI Karen Pirie's 22-year-old cold case gets a new rush of energy when 17-year-old Ross Garvie's DNA is a familial hit after he is left comatose in a stolen car crash. Trying to find Garvie's father, however, involves dealing with a new set of red tape. A leak to the media within the force means that Pirie must work quickly. Recently divorced social worker Giorsal Kennedy trades Pirie information on how the bureaucratic system works in these cases in exchange for an outing where the two can catch up. Pirie, mourning the loss of Phil, sleeplessly walks the town at night and decides to find a way to help a group of local Syrian refugees. Meanwhile, DI Alan Noble investigates the suicide of Gabriel Abbott, believing it's an open-and-shut case, but something about it piques Pirie's interest. Not that she has any business investigating a case that isn't cold. And Simon Lees, the assistant chief constable, would love a reason to remove Pirie and her disregard of his authority. VERDICT McDermid delivers a fun and exciting police procedural for fans of Stephen Booth and Anne Perry in this fourth series installment (after The Skeleton Road). [See Prepub Alert, 6/13/16; library marketing]--Michelle Gilbert, Fox Lake Dist. Lib., IL

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.