Past Lying

April 2020 in Edinburgh during lockdown. DCI Karen Pirie is working from home reviewing a series of cases that have been transferred to the Historic Crimes Unit which she runs. Then a phone call from Jason, one of her colleagues, presents Karen and her team with a new case. A staff member at the National Library had been sorting through new items deposited in the archive collection when she discovered a document that could be related to the murder of Lara Hardie twelve months earlier. Karen decides that her team should investigate the case.

Carrying out a police investigation during lockdown presents additional challenges for Karen and her team as they attempt to unravel the true meaning of the short story that has been discovered. Life during COVID-19 in Edinburgh features strongly in this novel and having experienced a series of COVID lockdowns in Victoria during 2020 and 2021 this background to the story resonated strongly. The strategies of chess also feature in the novel as Karen and her team work to unravel the true meaning of the story found in the archives of a well-known author.  

Past Lying by Val McDermid is no. 7 in the Karen Pierie series. As with the other books in the series the challenges faced by the characters in the book are an important feature of the novel.