Hardcover / ISBN-13: 9781408734025

Price: £22

ON SALE: 23rd October 2025

Genre: Crime & Mystery / Suspense

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ebook

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THE MASTERFUL NEW THRILLER IN THE KAREN PIRIE SERIES, NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES

The truth is buried just beneath the surface . . .

When torrential rain causes a landslide on a motorway in Scotland, it reveals a crime scene: someone hid a body in the tarmac eleven years before. Journalist Sam Nimmo had been the prime suspect in the murder of his fiancée when he disappeared, and now DCI Karen Pirie and her Historic Cases Unit must find out who buried him, and why.

Meanwhile in Edinburgh, new evidence reopens a closed case and the accidental death of a hotel manager starts to look like murder. But what did Tom Jamieson’s book club have to do with his demise – and what will they do to keep their secrets?

Karen and her team begin to untangle a web of lies, one which connects their murder cases with Scotland’s rich and powerful. They will be tested to their limits – and possibly beyond . . .

Reviews

Praise for Val McDermid
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Praise for Val McDermid
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A supremo of the genre at the height of her powers . . . An unmissable new series
Peter James
A tour-de-force . . . The Queen of Crime has delivered another masterpiece
David Baldacci
McDermid is at her considerable best here
Guardian