Val McDermid Books in Order

A seasonal nonfiction tour that moves through winter traditions and landscapes, from Bonfire Night and Christmas to Burns Night and Up Helly Aa. McDermid mixes travel, memory, and the small details of cold-weather life.

A landslide exposes a body sealed into an old stretch of road, and suspicion points at a man already in prison. Karen Pirie digs deeper and finds a case shaped by coercion, cover-up, and a suspect named Sam Nimmo.

A historical novella that reimagines Macbeth’s queen as a real woman in medieval Scotland, hunted through a harsh landscape with a small band of companions. Political ambition closes in, and survival becomes a form of power.

During Scotland’s lockdown, Karen Pirie receives an unfinished crime manuscript that reads like a blueprint for a real disappearance: an Edinburgh University student who never came home. She has to separate fiction from confession before the trail goes cold.

A set of snowbound mysteries where weather traps suspects and witnesses in the same place. Expect icy settings, tight circles of suspicion, and crimes that look different once the snowfall stops.

Allie Burns is older, tougher, and chasing bigger stories when a lead on the exploitation of vulnerable people takes her behind the Iron Curtain to East Berlin. With Danny Sullivan, she navigates Cold War politics where every contact could be a trap.

A mysterious illness erupts at a British music festival and starts spreading fast. In this graphic novel thriller, a journalist races to trace the source and warn the world before the outbreak becomes a full-blown pandemic.

A collection of mysteries set on long winter nights, when a power cut or an empty road can turn fear into fact. Each story plays with the idea that danger feels closer after dark.

In late-1970s Glasgow, ambitious reporter Allie Burns fights to do real investigations beyond the “women’s pages.” With colleague Danny Sullivan, she follows a lead on tax fraud that grows into a bigger, riskier story.

When a body is pulled from the water with no clear identity, Karen Pirie is handed a puzzle with missing pieces. Her search for who he was opens a decade-old trail of secrets, money, and betrayal.

A selection of cold-weather crime stories that use snow, darkness, and isolation to raise the stakes. The puzzles range from clever whodunits to more unsettling tales of what winter can cover up.

A festive collection of crime tales, from a body discovered in a wintry landscape to a mystery unfolding during a Europe-wide blackout. It also includes an exclusive Tony Hill and Carol Jordan story.

A photo-rich journey around Scotland through the landscapes that shaped McDermid’s life and fiction. From famous cities to wild islands, it links real places to the moods and settings readers know from her novels.

A winter-themed collection of mysteries centered on the day itself, where traditions and tight timelines add pressure to every clue. Sleuths and suspects are stuck together, and motives hide behind tinsel and smiles.

Human remains are uncovered during redevelopment, and the evidence points to crimes that never truly ended. Tony Hill and Carol Jordan return to a case where the dead have one last story to tell.

In this crossover short story, detectives Carol Jordan and Roy Grace compare notes when a woman’s body is found without its feet and a separate pair of feet turns up elsewhere. With Tony Hill’s help, they hunt a predator with a grisly fixation.

A body turns up during building work, pulling Karen Pirie into a mystery rooted in land, money, and family loyalty. What looks like an old disappearance quickly becomes a present-day danger.

An anthology of holiday-set mysteries that leans into dark humor and misdirection. From family gatherings to country-house weekends, the goodwill gets tested when someone ends up dead.

A set of Christmas Eve mysteries where celebrations become cover for blackmail, revenge, and sudden violence. Expect wintry atmospheres, tight circles of suspects, and puzzles that hinge on what’s happening just offstage.

A case that should be straightforward refuses to stay contained, and Jordan and Hill face an offender who manipulates victims and investigators alike. The closer they get, the more the truth twists away from them.

A new DNA lead links a current investigation to a long-forgotten crime. As Karen Pirie digs through old files and reluctant memories, she finds a case built on secrets—and people who still want it buried.

A collection of classic Christmas mysteries featuring famous detectives, where locked doors, snowy footprints, and holiday gatherings turn deadly. It’s made for short, cozy whodunits with sharp twists and plenty of seasonal atmosphere.

A missing woman and a body found in the wrong place leave Jordan’s team chasing two timelines at once. Tony Hill spots the psychological tells that everyone else overlooks, but the killer is learning, too.

A skeleton is discovered in a derelict Edinburgh building, and Karen Pirie is asked to find a name for the dead. The identification leads her across Europe, where old wars and modern grudges collide.

A modern retelling of Jane Austen’s story, following sheltered Catherine Morland as she heads to Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival. New friends, a charming Henry Tilney, and Catherine’s gothic imagination combine into romance and misread danger.

Val McDermid’s nonfiction tour of forensic science follows evidence from the crime scene to the courtroom. Along the way, she explains how modern investigators use pathology, DNA, and other tools to let the dead “speak.”

A murder case escalates into a wider threat that puts the city on edge. Jordan and Hill chase a trail of obsession and violence where every clue feels like a trap—and the stakes keep climbing.

At an airport security checkpoint, Stephanie Harker’s adopted son is led away by a uniformed officer and vanishes. Branded a threat, she has to explain her past to the FBI and uncover why someone would take the boy at all.

A playful, rhyming picture book where a child learns a family secret: Granny used to sail the seas as a pirate. From walking rogues off the plank to singing sea shanties with her dog, she’s always home for tea—somehow.

A brutal killer seems to be settling scores, and the case forces Tony Hill and Carol Jordan to confront the damage left by past investigations. As the body count rises, their own survival becomes part of the equation.

Psychiatrist Charlie Flint is sent press cuttings about a brutal murder at her old Oxford college: a groom killed just hours after his wedding. When she starts asking questions, other deaths—and old secrets—surface fast.

A quick, wide-ranging anthology about working life, collecting short pieces that capture jobs at their most stressful, funny, and bleak. It’s built for dipping in, with snapshots from many different workplaces.

A teenage boy disappears, and the trail leads into online grooming and exploitation. Tony Hill and Carol Jordan have to move fast in a world where predators hide behind screens—and the next message could be the last.

A 1984 kidnapping of a wealthy Scottish heiress and her young son ends in death and disappearance. When a clue surfaces decades later in Tuscany, Detective Karen Pirie follows the trail back to Fife and a buried past.

A high-profile death rocks Bradfield and puts Carol Jordan’s unit under intense scrutiny. Tony Hill’s analysis points to motives tangled in power and resentment, where the truth could cost more than either of them can afford.

Heavy rains uncover a tattooed corpse in England’s Lake District, sparking rumours of an eighteenth-century mystery. Wordsworth scholar Jane Gresham follows the trail from old manuscripts to modern murder.

When career criminal Jack Farlowe is found drowned, police assume it’s suicide after a family tragedy. Then his enemies start dying one by one, and the case turns into a race to find out who’s delivering revenge—and why now.

A new series of murders echoes a notorious old case, raising the fear of a copycat—or a return. Carol Jordan and Tony Hill reopen past evidence while the killer’s pattern tightens around the present.

A short-story collection that ranges from passion and revenge in St Petersburg to darker tales of publishing, cybersex, and sudden violence. Each story drops you into a new situation—and cuts away when things turn sharp.

In 1978, four students find the body of barmaid Rosie Duff in a snowy graveyard. Twenty-five years later, Detective Karen Pirie reopens the case—and the old secrets still have teeth.

Out of work and nursing an injury, Lindsay Gordon is pulled into the search for a kidnapped boy tied to a Glasgow car dealer’s family. The trail becomes an international chase, taking her to St Petersburg and a dangerous “snatch-back” plan.

A missing person case turns into a hunt for someone who wants an audience for cruelty. Tony Hill and Carol Jordan follow the psychology behind the spectacle, knowing every wrong step could hand the killer another victim.

Someone is murdering crime writers in ways that echo the books they’ve written. When her lover is killed, profiler and academic Fiona Cameron uses her expertise—and her tech skills—to hunt a killer who loves an inside joke.

In the winter of 1963, a teenage girl vanishes from an isolated Derbyshire community, and DI George Bennett is sent in to find her. Decades later, a journalist revisits the case—and the story begins to change.

Kate Brannigan takes a job that brushes up against fame, where attention can be a weapon and lies travel fast. As obsession turns dangerous, she uncovers what people will do for a spotlight.

A collection of crime and suspense stories that lets Val McDermid play with different settings, voices, and kinds of danger. Some pieces are unsettling, others wry, but all turn on one question: what people will do under pressure.

Women are snatched, brutalized, and left alive—until the next one isn’t so lucky. Tony Hill and Carol Jordan race to build a profile of a predator who thrives on fear, while the pressure to stop him turns personal.

Two Lindsay Gordon mysteries in one volume. First, Lindsay tries to clear a friend accused of killing a bestselling novelist; then she’s drawn into a kidnapping case that turns into an international chase.

To clear a friend accused of killing a bestselling novelist, Lindsay Gordon starts asking the questions the police won’t. Her digging exposes grudges, literary egos, and motives that look a lot like revenge.

Two Kate Brannigan mysteries in one volume. In Blue Genes, Kate is drawn into fertility-clinic secrets after a doctor is murdered; in Star Struck, she brushes up against fame and obsession where the spotlight can be lethal.

Kate Brannigan is juggling cons, threats, and personal upheaval when her friend Alexis asks for help after a fertility doctor is murdered. Kate’s digging pulls her into medical experimentation, secrets, and a level of greed that kills.

A serial killer is abducting men and leaving grotesque clues behind. DCI Carol Jordan turns to clinical psychologist Tony Hill, whose insights might be the only thing standing between the city and the next killing.

A simple assignment turns messy when Kate Brannigan stumbles into a scheme that’s already cost someone their life. To get out clean, she’ll need sharp instincts, stubborn courage, and help from the few people she trusts.

Two Kate Brannigan mysteries in one volume, following the Manchester private investigator as routine jobs slide into violence. Expect fast talk, hard choices, and cases where the people paying for answers aren’t always the good guys.

Hired to untangle a seemingly ordinary problem, Kate Brannigan finds Manchester’s criminal undercurrents closer than she thought. The deeper she pushes, the more she risks becoming the next target.

In this nonfiction look at private investigation, Val McDermid talks to real PIs—especially women—about what the job is actually like. It’s part behind-the-scenes tour, part reality check, from surveillance to personal risk.

Journalist Lindsay Gordon is suspected of murder when union boss Tom Jack falls to his death after a public row with her. To clear her name, she investigates among old friends and enemies, confronting hard choices from her own past.

Kate Brannigan expects a routine job, but a client’s secrets drag her into a case where intimidation and money do the talking. As the pressure rises, Kate has to decide how far she’ll go to stay alive.

Two Kate Brannigan mysteries in one volume. Manchester private investigator Kate hunts down a missing figure tied to the music world, then stumbles into a second case where intimidation turns deadly and nothing stays “small.”

Manchester private investigator Kate Brannigan is hired by rock legend Jett to track down his missing former partner, Moira, last seen in Leeds. Finding Moira is only the start—the case spirals into violence and murder.

Two Lindsay Gordon mysteries in one volume. Lindsay gets pulled into bitter rivalries in London publishing, then faces a second case where a union leader’s death leaves her fighting to clear her own name.

Lindsay Gordon is pulled into the cutthroat world of London publishing, where rivalries run hot and reputations matter. When someone turns up dead, she follows the trail through manuscripts, gossip, and the people who want the story buried.

A killing at a women’s protest turns political fast, and Lindsay Gordon finds herself uncomfortably close to the fallout. When her former lover becomes a key suspect, Lindsay has to chase the truth without burning bridges—or getting burned.

Two Lindsay Gordon mysteries in one volume. Journalist Lindsay investigates a musician’s murder at a school fundraiser, then tackles a killing linked to a women’s protest—where someone close to her is under suspicion.

Freelance journalist Lindsay Gordon agrees to cover a charity gala at a girls’ school—and ends up with a corpse backstage. With the star musician garrotted with her own cello string, Lindsay digs into a tight circle of jealousies and secrets.