Val McDermid (1989; How the Dead Speak; Broken Ground) continues the gripping story of detective Karen Pirie in Past Lying, the seventh entry in the Karen Pirie mystery series, which is also a major BritBox TV show. Past Lying is set in the dark early days of the Covid pandemic, ratcheting up the tension from the get-go. It's April 2020, and Detective Chief Inspector Pirie and her team are sequestered at their Edinburgh homes, fearing the worst as the death toll rises. A source at the National Library, who spends her lockdown reading through the archive of papers donated by the estate of Jake Stein, a famous Scottish crime novelist, notices weird similarities between one of Stein's unfinished manuscripts and the disappearance of college student Lara Hardie the year before. She contacts Pirie's team, which sets them on an urgent quest to determine what's fact and what's fiction. The streets are empty and everyone is scared, but Pirie and her young sergeants are determined to question everyone who knew Lara, using Zoom and outdoor meet-ups to continue their investigation.
McDermid masterfully uses the lockdown as another character in the book, making the novel especially atmospheric. Stay-at-home orders preclude the usage of the detectives' normal strategies and nearly get Pirie and her team in trouble with the higher-ups for breaking regulations. The book-within-the-book of Stein's manuscript is fascinating, and the twists and turns the case takes will keep readers guessing until the final pages. Tartan noir at its finest, Past Lying is perfect for fans of Ian Rankin or Denise Mina. --Jessica Howard, freelance book reviewer