Still Life

August 17, 2020
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.).

Starred review from October 1, 2020
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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

October 16, 2020

The body of Jamie Auld is fished out of Scotland's Firth of Forth. Ten years prior, he was suspected of the murder of his brother, Ian Auld, a high-ranking government employee, and fled Scotland for France. DCI Karen Pirie of the Edinburgh Historic Crimes Unit is to determine if the two deaths are connected. She is also lead investigator on the case of the unidentified skeleton of a long-dead body found in a camper van stored in a garage. To solve these cold cases, Karen and her team travel between pre-Brexit international borders into France and Northern Ireland. Mindful that the cooperation from those authorities are a Brexit agreement away from disappearing, they still break protocol along the way. Meanwhile, Karen is dealing with the release of the man responsible for her lover's murder three years earlier, as well as distrusting a new relationship that began during her last cold case. VERDICT In the sixth in her "Karen Pirie" series (after Broken Ground), McDermid rewards readers with a timely and cracking good mystery that keeps the pages flying. New readers are brought up to speed and will join longtime fans cheering on the well-drawn characters.--Susan Santa, North Merrick Lib., NY

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