Out of bounds - Val McDermid

Don't miss Past Lying, the twisty new Karen Pirie thriller

'It grabs the reader by the throat and never lets go' Daily Mail

'Incredibly suspenseful' Sunday Mirror
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'There are lots of things that ran in families, but murder wasn't one of them . . .'

When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up in a coma, a routine DNA test could be the key to unlocking the mystery of a twenty-year-old murder inquiry. Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie is an expert at solving the unsolvable. With each cold case closed, justice is served. So, finding the answer should be straightforward, but it's as twisted as the DNA helix itself.

Meanwhile Karen finds herself irresistibly drawn to another case, one that she has no business investigating. And as she pieces together decades-old evidence, Karen discovers the most dangerous kinds of secrets. Secrets that someone is willing to kill for . . .

An atmospheric, gripping mystery from the number one bestseller.
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Praise for Val McDermid:

'Brilliant . . .
Sensational . . . Unforgettable' Guardian

'Compulsively readable' Irish Times

'As good a psychological thriller as it is possible to get' Sunday Express

This is the fourth book in the bestselling Karen Pirie series.

Val McDermid is a number one bestseller whose novels have been translated into forty languages, and have sold over nineteen million copies. She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009, was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2010 and received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award in 2011.

In 2016, Val received the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award at the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and in 2017 received the DIVA Literary Prize for Crime, and was elected a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Val has served as a judge for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize, and was Chair of the Wellcome Book Prize in 2017. She is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates, is an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford and a Professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand. She writes full time and divides her time between Edinburgh and East Neuk of Fife.

An incredibly suspenseful thriller, elegantly plotted with smartly drawn characters and fascinating detail
Sunday Mirror

What superlatives are there left to describe the phenomenon that is the multi award-winning McDermid? . . .
Told with McDermid's legendary verve and eye for detail, it grabs the reader by the throat and never lets go
Daily Mail

It is evident in her 30th novel that her mastery of the crime has matured well
Sunday Express

[An] engaging new novel . . . McDermid's 30th novel offers fascinating insights into the ethical dilemmas thrown up by advances in forensic science
Sunday Times

Her books combine ironclad storytelling technique, cogent commentaries on modern society and an attitude to the crime genre's long history that is both interrogative and innovative . . . we are reminded that the new Queen of Crime is still at the top of her game
Independent

McDermid's expertly juggled plotlines and masterful handling of pace and tension tick all the best boxes, but what makes this book a real cracker is Pirie herself - grieving, insubordinate and dogged in her pursuit of the various culprits
Guardian

Quite simply, nobody does British crime writing better . . . [a] twisty, deliciously tangled thriller
Peterborough Telegraph

As intelligent and chillingly good as ever
Good Housekeeping

Packed with intrigue, warmly drawn characters and dollops of tension, McDermid's 30th novel leaves the reader looking forward to the 31st
Irish Independent

On her 30th novel . . . none is more deserving of the queen-of-crime mantle than Val McDermid . . . I would like to see a great deal more of DCI Pirie
Irish Times

McDermid proves herself to be as adept as ever at mixing thrilling crime fiction with psychological study . . . Karen is a compelling character, and her personal baggage lends Out of Bounds a great backstory . . . she writes with a brisk light touch, but the book does not stint on realistic detail. Out of Bounds is a fine, tense, and multi-layered addition to the canon of the queen of Scottish crime fiction
Irish Sunday Business Post

It's a treat to watch DCI Pirie once again as she pursues a tantalising forensic trail through a brilliantly realised Scottish setting . . . the back-and-forths with her pusillanimous boss, as she deflates his attempts to undermine her, are a particular joy
Scotland on Sunday

McDermid concocts complex plots with plenty of twists and red herrings. At times the tension is palpable and there are genuine surprises . . . McDermid is a dab hand at creating enough plausibility to make her contributions to the genre intensely readable
Sunday Herald

A celebrated crime author with an attention to detail which makes her stories both gripping and totally authentic
Western Daily Press

Her thrillers never fail to entertain, and this - her 30th (!) novel - is no exception. Another twisted treat
Heat