Still life

Author:

McDermid, Val, author.

Genre:

Abstract:

"Cold case detective Karen Pirie ... finds herself investigating the shadowy world of forgery, where things are never what they seem ... When a lobster fisherman on an early morning run pulls in his traps, he finds something he wasn't expecting to catch--a body. Turns out the dead man was the brother of a senior Scottish government official who vanished without a trace, and Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie is asked to take over the investigation. At the same time, a woman in the wealthy enclave of Perth is clearing out her sister's home after a fatal road accident and finds a mysterious camper van in the garage containing a skeletonized body. But who is it? And how long has it been there? The two cases will draw Karen into the world of imposters, identity theft, and art forgery"-- Provided by publisher.

Geographic Term:

Edinburgh (Scotland) -- Fiction.

Scotland -- Fiction.

Edition:

First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition.

ISBN:

9780802157447

Series:

Karen Pirie novels

Karen Pirie novel.

Physical Description:

436 pages ; 24 cm.

Subject Term:

Women detectives -- Scotland -- Edinburgh -- Fiction.

Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Cold cases (Criminal investigation) -- Fiction.

Missing persons -- Fiction.

Art forgers -- Fiction.

Impostors and imposture -- Fiction.

Personal Author:

McDermid, Val, author.

Title:

Still life

Karen Pirie novels

Karen Pirie novel.

Available:*

Library	Shelf Number	Material Type	Status
Searching... Hattiesburg Library	FICTION MCDERMID	Book	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Hattiesburg Library	FICTION MCDERMID	Book	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

From internationally bestselling author Val McDermid comes a propulsive new Karen Pirie thriller that delves into a historic missing persons case, fake identities, and art forgery.

Val McDermid is the award-winning, international bestselling author of more than thirty novels and has been hailed as Britain's Queen of Crime. In Still Life , McDermid returns to her propulsive series featuring DCI Karen Pirie, who finds herself investigating the shadowy world of forgery, where things are never what they seem.

When a lobster fisherman discovers a dead body in Scotland's Firth of Forth, Karen is called into investigate. She quickly discovers that the case will require untangling a complicated web--including a historic disappearance, art forgery, and secret identities--that seems to orbit around a painting copyist who can mimic anyone from Holbein to Hockney. Meanwhile, a traffic crash leads to the discovery of a skeleton in a suburban garage. Needless to say, Karen has her plate full. Meanwhile, the man responsible for the death of the love of her life is being released from prison, reopening old wounds just as she was getting back on her feet.

Tightly plotted and intensely gripping, Still Life is Val McDermid at her best, and new and longtime readers alike will delight in the latest addition to this superior series.

Author Notes

Val McDermid 's best-selling 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 .

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In Edgar finalist McDermid's cunningly crafted fifth novel featuring Det. Chief Insp. Karen Pirie (after 2018's Broken Ground), the Historic Cases Unit head is working to identify skeletal remains found in a Perth garage when Asst. Chief Constable Ann Markie of Police Scotland intervenes. After a decade on the lam, James Auld--a suspect in the disappearance of his older brother, senior civil servant Iain Auld--was fished from the Firth of Forth with his skull bashed in. Pirie is familiar with the elder Auld's cold case, and the local cops are too inexperienced to run a high-profile homicide investigation, so Markie orders Pirie to reopen the former and commandeer the latter. Pirie grudgingly complies after delegating the skeleton to her protégé, Det. Constable Jason Murray, who promises frequent updates. Meanwhile, Pirie struggles to set relationship boundaries with her new boyfriend, Hamish Mackenzie. McDermid expertly balances the book's multiple mysteries, giving none short shrift. Vividly sketched characters, a colorful narrative, and myriad twists keep the pages turning, despite a somewhat leisurely pace. McDermid continues her reign as queen of the police procedural. Agent: Jane Gregory, David Higham Assoc. (U.K.). (Oct.)

Booklist Review

Detective Inspector Karen Pirie, head of the cold-case squad in Fife, Scotland, returns for a sixth time (after Broken Ground, 2018) to juggle two cases, both made extremely complex by confounding sets of false identities that emerge after a lobster fisherman pulls a dead body from the Firth of Forth, and the death of a woman in a motorcycle accident leads to the discovery of a skeleton in an old VW van in her garage. The investigations unfold as she deals with the "bubble of rage" inside her head that's just about to burst when the man responsible for the gruesome death of the great love of her life is released from prison. Pirie prevails despite the usual administrative interference, an assault on a team member, and the experience of a brief visit to Paris that finds Madame Commandant Pirie's "monoglot self" surprisingly uneasy and in an unusual contrast to her usual self-confident demeanor. In an email to her current lover, Hamish, she describes herself as "gallus" (daring, cheeky) and "thrawn" (obstinate, intractable), two Lowland Scottish terms that fans will be delighted to bandy about. In her acknowledgements, McDermid notes her experience of writing in the "strange half-world of lockdown," finding sustained concentration difficult, but she has nonetheless managed to keep her detective right on target and the reader enthralled.