Val McDermid is known for creating gripping crime fiction filled with complex investigations, atmospheric Scottish settings and characters who stay with readers long after they’ve finished the book. Her Karen Pirie series is no different, following a determined cold-case detective as she investigates crimes that have remained unsolved for years, and sometimes decades.
Table of Contents
Who Is Karen Pirie?
Karen Pirie is a determined Scottish detective who specialises in cold cases and long-unsolved crimes. When readers first meet her in The Distant Echo, she is a young detective working within the newly established Cold Case Unit. As the series progresses, Pirie rises through the ranks and takes charge of Police Scotland’s Historic Cases Unit.
Karen is intelligent, persistent and willing to challenge authority when an investigation demands it, but has compassion for victims and their families.
Karen Pirie Books in Order
The Distant Echo (2003)
In the winter of 1978, four university students stumble across the body of a young woman named Rosie Duff in a snow-covered Fife cemetery. Despite their attempts to help her, suspicion falls on the group, and the murder continues to follow them throughout their lives. Advances in forensic science lead police to reopen the case, and when one of the original suspects is murdered, Karen Pirie becomes involved.
A Darker Domain (2008)
During the 1984 miners’ strike, Mick Prentics disappeared from his Fife community, supposedly leaving his family to begin a new life. More than twenty years later, his daughter reports him missing, prompting Karen Pirie to reconsider what really happened. Karen Pirie is also working the case of heiress Catroina Grant’s death and the fate of her son Adam twenty-five years ago.
The Skeleton Road (2014)
When builders discover a skeleton hidden on the roof of an abandoned Edinburgh building, Karen Pirie and her team must determine who the victim was and how the body remained undiscovered for so long. The investigation leads Karen to the Balkans and back to conflicts that tore the former Yugoslavia apart.
Out of Bounds (2016)
A teenage joyrider is left in a coma after crashing a stolen car. A routine DNA test unexpectedly connects him to the unsolved murder of a woman two decades earlier, giving Karen Pirie a new opportunity to investigate the cold case.
Broken Ground (2018)
Alice Somerville travels to a remote Highland peat bog to recover an unusual inheritance buried by her grandfather following the Second World War. However, the excavation uncovers something the family never expected: a body hidden alongside it.
Still Life (2020)
When fishermen pull a body from the Firth of Forth, the discovery creates a possible breakthrough in the decade-old disappearance of a senior civil servant. Pirie begins examining the connections and soon finds herself following a trail extending far beyond Scotland.
Past Lying (2023)
While Edinburgh is locked down during the pandemic, an archivist discovers an unfinished manuscript written by a recently deceased crime novelist. The story appears to bear a disturbing resemblance to the real-life disappearance of university student Lara Hardie. Pirie suspects the manuscript may contain clues as to what happened, but sometimes fact and fiction are difficult to separate.
Silent Bones (2025)
Torrential rain triggers a motorway landslide, revealing a body that was concealed beneath the road eleven years earlier. The victim is journalist Sam Nimmo, who disappeared after becoming the main suspect in his fiancée’s murder.
Do You Need to Read the Karen Pirie Books in Order?
Each Karen Pirie novel features a separate investigation, so it is possible to pick up an individual book and follow the central story without having read the earlier stories. However, it is recommended to read the book in publication order.
Karen’s friendships, career, relationships and personal experiences develop throughout the series and later books often refer to important events from earlier instalments, which may carry less weight if you haven’t read the books in order. You’ll also miss out on seeing Pirie grow from a young detective to head of Police Scotland’s Historic Cases Unit.
Frequently asked questions
How many Karen Pirie books are there?
There are eight Karen Pirie books, with the most recent release in 2025. At this stage, no ninth book has been announced for the series. Val McDermid often alternates between writing and publishing the Karen Pirie books, the Allie Burns series and other standalone projects.
Who wrote the Karen Pirie books?
Valarie McDermid is a Scottish crime writer with more than 30 novels published, including the Karen Pirie series. Her work is generally considered part of the Tartan Noir subgenre and is known for its depictions of violence. She has received numerous awards for her books, including the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award and the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award.
Do you have to read Karen Pirie books in order?
While you don’t need to read Val McDermid’s Karen Pirie books in order, it is recommended. Each book features a standalone cold-case investigation that is resolved by the end of the book; however, Pirie’s personal life, career promotions and team dynamics grow across the series. And a slight spoiler alert: personal relationships and past events carry over from book to book, so reading out of order can spoil the characters’ story.
Will there be any more Karen Pirie books?
At this stage, there has been no information about a ninth book in the Karen Pirie series, but Val McDermid often has a few years between books before publishing another in the series.