An Interview with Val McDermid

Longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2024, Val McDermid, joins Harrogate International Festivals and host Joe Haddow, to talk about her book, Past Lying.

Edinburgh, haunted by the ghosts of its many writers, is also the cold case beat of DCI Karen Pirie. So she shouldn’t be surprised when an author’s manuscript appears to be a blueprint for an actual crime.

Karen can’t ignore the plot’s chilling similarities to the unsolved case of an Edinburgh University student who vanished from her own doorstep. The manuscript seems to be the key to unlocking what happened to Lara Hardie, but there’s a problem: the author died before he finished it.

As Karen digs deeper, she uncovers a spiralling game of betrayal and revenge, where lies are indistinguishable from the truth and with more than one unexpected twist . . .

A little more about the author…

Often hailed as the modern Queen of Crime, Scottish author Val McDermid’s work includes several bestselling series, including the Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan, Inspector Karen Pirie series and the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series, the first of which, The Mermaids Singing, won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year. The Hill ⁄Jordan series was adapted for the highly successful television drama; Wire in the Blood.