Title: Still Life by Val McDermid
Inspector Karen Pirie Series Book Six
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 436 pages
Book Rating: B
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley
Summary:
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:
Still Life by Val McDermid is an enthralling police procedural which features two distinct mysteries to solve. Although this newest release is the sixth mystery in The Inspector Karen Pirie series, it can be read as a standalone.
Head of the Historic Cases Unit Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie and her co-worker Detective Constable Jason Murray are working to identify the skeletal remains found in the back of a camper van. The bones were discovered following the homeowner’s death so they have to search for answers elsewhere. Karen and Jason discover the former owner’s ex-partner has also apparently has vanished. They are getting close to locating her when Karen is assigned to another case that is connected to a cold case she reviewed a few years earlier. So Jason is on his own as he tracks down their suspect.
Detective Chief Inspector Charlie Todd and Detective Sergeant Daisy Mortimer’s newest case is solving the murder of a man whose body was found in the Firth of Forth. The victim appears to be a French citizen who performs with a jazz band. Closer inspection reveals that Paul Allard is really James Auld, who vanished ten years ago. He was the suspect in the possible murder of his brother Iain, who also disappeared without a trace. A few years earlier, Karen reviewed Iain’s case so her boss thinks she would be better suited to lead the investigation.
Karen and Daisy’s investigation takes them to Paris, where they unearth puzzling details. Talking to the detective first assigned to Iain’s case sheds no no light on the case. However, an old friend of James provides a vital piece of information that takes their investigation in a stunning direction. Armed with new details, Karen and Daisy go to Dublin in search of the final pieces that will hopefully solve this twist-filled case.
Still Life is a multilayered mystery that is well-written and engrossing. The two cases are both very intriguing and the investigations move at a brisk pace. Karen is rather pleased that Jason is taking a bit more initiative. Karen is also very impressed with Daisy who is a brilliant investigator. Val McDermid brings this marvelous mystery to an interesting close since this novel takes place in early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Readers will be eager to see if the next installment in The Inspector Karen Pirie series will continue to be affected by the still on-going health crisis.
