Val McDermid recommendations please

[SpeckledyHen]

Thank you :)

Val McDermid has written a number of crime fiction series in quite different styles, some standalone novels and non fiction.

Her series characters

Lindsay Gordon is a Scottish lesbian journalist who keeps finding herself caught up in murder investigations. These were first published by the Women's Press in the 1980s, apart from the last one which she wrote some years later after acquiring bestseller status. I really enjoyed them but they are of their time. Titles include Common Murder and Union Jack (#3). 5 books.

Kate Brannigan, is a private investigator working in South Manchester. There are 6 books about her. I like these for the settings, as I come from Leeds and lived in south Manchester as a student.

Carol Jordan and Tony Hill - police officer and psychological investigator. Serial killers. It took me years to try the first one as I wasn't at all sure about this change in direction, but I do like this series very much, though there was one that I found disappointing. This together with the standalone A Place of Execution were breakthroughs for her. Started in late 90s and now 11 books in series and ongoing.

Karen Pirie is a Scottish police detective. She first appears in The Distant Echo mainly set in the late 70s, though I think she's in the storyline set later - it's a cold case story. But I don't see The Distant Echo as really the start of the series because she's a character, it's not really focused on the police detective character/investigation as the 5 or 6 books that feature her as a central character properly are.

I really like her non fiction book A Suitable Job for a Woman about real female PIs and what they do in real life rather than in ficiton. bit I'm not sure whether it's in print.

I like the Karen Pirie ones the best.

The Carol Jordan/Tony Hill books are very well written but also very gruesome, and [spoiler?] nasty things happen to regular characters you've already got to know.

The Lindsay Gordon ones are definitely dated, and as her first series the writing is not quite up there imo. A bit unsubtle.

I really liked A Place of Execution but haven't read the other standalones.

Many thanks to both of you for your recommendations and all the details. Much appreciated.
I’ll start with the Karen Pirie ones :)

Yes, I think the Karen Pirie books are a good place to start. I set the info out like that because I wasn't sure from the original post what you were looking for. I actually quite like them all in their way.

I have read all her books, I think, or most of them. I agree to start with Karen Pirie. The Wire in the Blood series are quite disturbing, though I used to love them!

I really like the Kate Brannigan books. They’re funny and have the advantage of being shorter than some of her later stuff.

I like the Kate Brannigan ones asthma are a bit less gory than the rest, standalone The Grave Tattoo is also good.

"as they are" sorry autocorrect..

IMO the Lindsay Gordon and Kate Brannigans are dire.
If I'd read them first I'd never have touched any of her others. They're almost like parodies of police procedurals.

A Place of Execution (standalone loosely based on the Moors Murders) is my favourite but I like the Tony Hill ones too. (never quite forgiven ITV for casting Hermione Norris as Carole Jordan though!)

Neither the Lindsay Gordon or Kate Brannigan series are police procedurals or aiming to be. The central series characters aren't police detectives. One is an investigative journalist, the other is a private investigator.

Val McDermid is an author I've always meant to read as she comes across so well as a talking head on book programmes.

Until I realised that I had actually read one of her books, many, many times to the DC as she's the author of My Granny is a Pirate

@elkiedee which one of the Jordan/Hill ones were you not keen on?

I'm working my way through them atm and enjoy them but have mixed feeling about many aspects.

A Place of Execution is one of the best crime novels I’ve ever read and may be in my top 10 favourite books of all time. The only other of hers I’ve read is Wire in the Blood, which contained a scene so gruesome that it still haunts me years later. It is well written though, so if you like that kind of thing, go for it!

@MintyCedric I didn't dislike any of the Jordan/HIll books but I was a bit disappointed by #4 - but as I've now read, I think, 9 of the 11 books so far in the series.... this is a series where character and relationship development are significant and it's a good idea to read in order. I wouldn't say it's so bad people shouldn't read it as part of the series. I think I read it fairly soon after publication on that occasion, and had a bit of a wait for the next instalment.

Another Karen Pirie fan here, I can't cope with the really gory stuff in some of the other books!

I have a real soft spot for Val McDermid but not her Jordan/Hill ones - I'm glad they paid her bills and happy for her success but I'm not a fan of that serial killer stuff for various reasons. I read the one that everyone thought was about a veiled Jimmy Saville and it was horribly gruesome.

@elkiedee that's interesting, no 4 is next on my list.

I wasn't sure about Number 3 from the blurb but wanted to see where the characters went and ended up enjoying it although I thought the loose ends of one case were tied up a bit too fast at the end.

I've listened to them all on audiobook so far but might give reading the next one a go as I'm not entirely convinced by the narrator.

banivani I gave up after that one too - think it was the 2nd Jordan/Hill one? Much too gruesome for me. Though I thought it was fascinating how blatant some of the Savile references were given that it was written some years before his death.

There’s an interview with McDermid somewhere where she says it’s not directly based on Savile as such but she’d heard rumours in general and had the idea thinking how easy it is for a “loved public figure” to hide in plain sight. Then it turned out to be true and she was horrified.

ah that's interesting - I didn't know that.

banivani, I've heard or read that from Val McDermid too, and Jimmy Saville wasn't the only one. Plus I think the fictional character is more of a conventional heartthrob type, whereas JS was never publicly identified as someone you imagined having relationships (or any other type of sex life), though I don't remember when he was younger (again, I think the man in the book is rather younger than JS would have been by the late 70s and early 80s).

Love love love the Karen Pirie series too. Def start there and you should read in order, they do build upon each other more so than other series do.

Also A Place of Execution is fantastic.

Elkiedee I tried googling for the interview just now but only found stuff where she's supposed to have said "it was definitely based on JS" whereas I think I read something a bit more buried in the archives where she said she didn't know but he was someone (along with others) that gave her the creeps when she was a journo and she suspected stuff so created a celeb killer from that.

Tough position though, if you say you "knew" you'll get asked "why didn't you do something".

Thoroughly enjoyed the Karen Pirie novels . Thank you:)

Great, thanks for coming back to tell us. I love feedback on book recs!