Out of Bounds (Karen Pirie Series #4)

by Val McDermid

Overview

“Tightly plotted . . . McDermid applies her formidable intelligence and muscular style to the kind of urban crime novel that gives Scotland its tough rep and vigorous lingo . . . [A] superior series.”—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up in a coma, a routine DNA test reveals a connection to an unsolved murder from twenty-two years before. It’s a cold case that should be straightforward. But it’s as twisted as the DNA helix itself. Meanwhile, Karen, mired in grief after the death of her partner, finds herself irresistibly drawn to a mystery that has its roots in a terrorist bombing two decades ago. Karen’s intuition is telling her something doesn’t add up. But is she onto something? Or has she, as her boss has been waiting for, gone too far this time? An enthralling, twisty read that takes Karen into the vagaries of privacy law, the history of the Northern Irish Troubles, and right into the heart of power in London, Out of Bounds reaffirms Val McDermid’s place as one of our finest crime writers.

“A thriller as steely and superlative as its heroine.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“There are few other crime writers in the same league as Val McDermid . . . Another terrific and intricate suspense novel by a writer who has given us 30 of them.”— Washington Post

“Exciting . . . [McDermid] balances the intense character studies in Out of Bounds with an inside view of the Scottish legal system and again shows her acuity in producing intelligent thrillers.”— Associated Press

“Thirty books in, most crime writers start to flag, but not Val McDermid . . . McDermid’s work always slashes like a knife.”—The Globe and Mail (Canada)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802127266
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	12/19/2017
Series:	Karen Pirie Series , #4
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	91,870
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Val McDermid is a world-class crime writer, whose 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 and author of the Edgar Nominee for Fact Crime Forensics. She lives in Scotland.

Editorial Reviews

[A] tightly plotted procedural…McDermid applies her formidable intelligence and muscular style to the kind of urban crime novel that gives Scotland its tough rep and vigorous lingo…In McDermid's fiction, plot is always front and center, and this plot is a good one. But it's the brawny characters and their beefy dialect that really keep us coming back to this superior series.

The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio

10/24/2016
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. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Out of Bounds:

“McDermid balances the intense character studies in Out of Bounds with an inside view of the Scottish legal system and again shows her acuity in producing intelligent thrillers.” —Associated Press

“There are few other crime writers in the same league as Val McDermid.” —Washington Post

“A thriller as steely and superlative as its heroine.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“McDermid applies her formidable intelligence and muscular style to the kind of urban crime novel that gives Scotland its tough rep and vigorous lingo . . . It’s the brawny characters and their beefy dialect that really keeps us coming back to this superior series.” —New York Times

“Readers will easily connect with Karen, whose unwavering confidence is tempered by a strong dose of kindness and sense of justice . . . 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.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Engaging . . . 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.” —Publishers Weekly

“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 . . . 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.” —Kirkus Reviews

“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” —The Guardian (UK)

“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 (UK)

“[An] engaging new novel...McDermid’s 30th novel offers fascinating insights into the ethical dilemmas thrown up by advances in forensic science” —Sunday Times (UK)

“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 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” —Glasgow Herald

From the Publisher

10/15/2016
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

Library Journal

2016-09-20
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.

Kirkus Reviews