Book Review: Still Life by Val McDermid

 Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book from Grove Atlantic via Netgalley,  free of charge, for review purposes on this blog. No compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it, all opinions are my own

Meanwhile, across the pond...LOL

Synopsis:

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.

Review:

Yes, I've been on a British procedural read-a-thon these past few months! But it's hard to find characters and places that can take you away for a mini-vacation, without making you want to grown at their unbelievability, and these books seem to offer what I'm looking for right now .LOL But the good news is you get to check out series you might not know about, like this one!

I've only read a few of McDermid's books (this is book 6 in the series), but they definitely capture the uniqueness of Scotland, along with some very tough cases to solve! No grisly murder here, no it all starts with a found skeleton, and the case unravels, backwards, and Karen and her team strive to figure out who it actually IS and what happened. It;s such a tightly woven web of deceit, that when the end happens, you find yourself wanting to wind it back up a bit, and send the team off on a few more red herrings or two, to keep the story going longer! This book will get you hooked on the series, so be prepared to catch up on the previous 5!

About the Author:

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.