Val McDermid Books in Order

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

When four mutilated men are found in Bradfield, criminal psychologist Tony Hill is called in to profile the serial killer. His unusual insight into the murderer’s motives makes him indispensable to the investigation, but also places him in a dangerous personal contest.

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.

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.

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 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.

Glasgow journalist Lindsay Gordon investigates the murder of Alison Maxwell after a former lover is convicted. As she revisits Alison’s tangled relationships, Lindsay uncovers blackmail, stolen documents, and a widening circle of people with reasons to conceal the truth.

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.

As teenage girls disappear across the country, profiler Tony Hill’s new task force looks for a connection others have missed. When one of the team is murdered, Hill and Carol Jordan confront a calculating killer in a perilous psychological battle.

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.

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.

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.

Edited by Shelley Silas, this anthology contains twelve short stories inspired by the successive gifts in “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Val McDermid contributes “Four Calling Birds,” alongside work by writers including Stella Duffy, Sophie Kinsella, and Mike Gayle.

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 this collaborative serial mystery, Caroline Blessing arrives at the Phoenix Spa for privacy and a chance to reconnect with her mother. When the spa’s owner is murdered, the guests’ secrets deepen the danger, with each chapter written by a different crime novelist, including Val McDermid.

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.

A killer begins targeting psychologists across northern Europe, and profiler Tony Hill is drawn into the hunt despite wanting to leave such work behind. Meanwhile, Carol Jordan works undercover in Germany, where criminal networks and the case’s historical roots place both of them in danger.

An annual anthology collecting mystery, crime, and suspense fiction published in 2001, alongside surveys of the genre and an honors roundup. Edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, it draws stories and perspectives from the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Germany, and beyond.

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.

Edited by Stella Duffy and Lauren Henderson, this anthology contains 20 original crime stories by women writers, including Val McDermid’s “Metamorphosis.” The collection centers tough, complicated female characters in tales that range from darkly comic to violent, sexual, and noir-tinged.

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.

This crime anthology links sixteen dark tales through a single charm bracelet that brings misfortune to everyone who touches it. Lynda La Plante joins other mystery writers in contributing stories set across decades and cities, each exploring how greed, obsession and bad luck can turn deadly.

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.

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.

Back in Bradfield, Tony Hill and Carol Jordan investigate murders that exactly replicate crimes supposedly solved years earlier. The convicted killer remains confined in a secure hospital, leaving the team to determine how the impossible deaths are happening before an undercover operation turns disastrous.

Magnetic North collects new short fiction by North East writers, including Val McDermid, Andrew Crumey, Julia Darling, Sean O’Brien, Neil Astley, and Jacob Polley. The volume brings together distinct voices in a regional literary showcase of contemporary stories.

Edited by Edward Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, this anthology brings together contemporary crime and mystery fiction in a variety of styles. Its selection ranges from clue-driven mysteries to thrillers and psychological suspense, and includes a story by Val McDermid.

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 special issue of Chapman devoted to Scottish popular fiction. It includes an interview with Ian Rankin, discussion of Iain Banks’s work, critical and creative contributions from a range of writers, and artwork by Don McNeil.

In this twisty short story, a famous performer’s most devoted admirer decides that admiration is no longer enough. As the fan’s attention shifts from distant support to intrusive presence, Deaver explores how entitlement and obsession can turn deadly.

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.

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.

Bradfield is shaken when a football star is poisoned and a bomb devastates the local stadium. Injured profiler Tony Hill tries to piece together the attacks while DCI Carol Jordan is sidelined by intelligence services, and the two disagree over the threat they face.

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 short crime story featuring forensic psychologist Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan. First published in 2008, it later appeared in several crime-fiction anthologies, including Exit Wounds and Christmas Is Murder.

Edited by Lynne Patrick, this crime-fiction anthology brings together short stories by established British crime writers alongside winning entries from a 2009 writing competition. Mark Billingham supplies an introduction, and Val McDermid is among the contributors.

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.

After the murder and mutilation of a teenager, Tony Hill recognizes the opening move in a ruthless campaign against seemingly unconnected young people. Haunted by personal memories, the criminal psychologist races to identify the killer while Carol Jordan’s team confronts an escalating investigation.

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.

Edited by Maxim Jakubowski, this audio-themed crime collection presents five newly commissioned short stories by Lawrence Block, Peter James, Val McDermid, Mark Billingham, and Christopher Fowler. The anthology was created for spoken-word listening as well as print-style crime storytelling.

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 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.

Jacko Vance, the serial killer who has long haunted profiler Tony Hill, returns seeking revenge on both Tony and DCI Carol Jordan. Facing an enemy who knows their weaknesses, the pair must anticipate his next move before his campaign destroys their lives.

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.

Edited by Caro Ramsay, this darkly playful collection gathers recipes from crime writers for the Million for a Morgue campaign. It is part cookbook, part gift book, with plenty of black humor for readers who like their food with a side of murder.

A multi-author celebration of public libraries, bringing together essays, memoirs, history, and fiction. Its contributors consider the roles libraries play in personal lives, communities, imagination, and the future of access to books.

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 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.

Guilt and grief have separated psychologist Tony Hill from former DCI Carol Jordan, but a new murder investigation forces them to confront danger together. The victims resemble Carol, and the disturbing evidence makes the case increasingly personal for both investigators.

Disgraced former cop Perry Christo, now a private investigator, is hired to find the wealthy daughter of an Upper East Side socialite. The search moves through wintry New York and the Hamptons in a serial noir novel written chapter by chapter by twenty mystery authors.

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.”

Val McDermid explores how forensic science helps investigate crime, combining interviews with specialists, historical cases, and modern investigations. Chapters cover pathology, toxicology, entomology, fingerprints, DNA analysis, anthropology, and digital forensics while considering the limits of forensic evidence.

Set during the Depression, this short crime tale follows Vasili, a young Greek immigrant bussing tables in Washington, who gets pulled into a Pinkerton agent's ruthless campaign against union organizers and must decide what justice looks like in his adopted city.

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.

Edited by Zoë Strachan, this anthology brings together Scottish LGBT writing in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Its contributors include established and emerging voices, with Val McDermid appearing alongside writers such as Ali Smith, Jackie Kay, and Louise Welsh.

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 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.

Psychologist Tony Hill sees a sinister pattern when outspoken women, each besieged by online abuse, die in apparent suicides. Former DCI Carol Jordan is battling her own troubles, but a chance to lead a new major-incident team reunites her with Tony as the deaths mount.

Created to mark a decade of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, this anthology collects stories by Mark Billingham, Ann Cleeves, Harlan Coben, P. D. James, Val McDermid, and Steve Mosby. Some of the pieces had not previously been published.

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 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 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.

When women who attended weddings begin turning up dead in burned-out cars, DCI Carol Jordan and profiler Tony Hill investigate a killer who appears to be selecting victims at the celebrations. At the same time, Paula McIntyre’s household faces a vicious cyberblackmail threat.

Eleven women thriller writers and eleven men thriller writers collaborate in paired short stories that bring together characters from their separate series. The collection includes Nelson DeMille’s contribution, “Getaway,” which is also available as a standalone ebook story.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Tony Hill is imprisoned while Carol Jordan helps investigate alleged wrongful convictions, leaving them estranged. When construction workers uncover graves at a former orphanage—including one linked to a supposedly living prisoner—DI Paula McIntyre’s inquiry draws the pair back into the same case.

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.

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.

In this chilling short piece, well-meaning parents slowly realise their clever, difficult child has done something unspeakable. As guilt and denial war with fear, the story edges toward a reckoning that raises uncomfortable questions about love, responsibility and vengeance.

A man who endured relentless bullying as a child believes he’s finally moved on—until a chance encounter suggests his tormentor has prospered unchecked. Torn between letting the past lie and exacting overdue justice, he discovers that revenge rarely plays out the way it’s imagined.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

This anthology gives Jane Marple twelve new cases, from quiet village trouble to crimes far from St. Mary Mead. Alyssa Cole joins the lineup with a story that sends the famous sleuth into Manhattan.

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 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.

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 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.