After I read the first Karen Pirie book recently I realised I actually really liked her - I don't like some of Val's other series - so when I came across three more of the Karen Pirie books while on an afternoon out in Holmfirth I bought them. They were only a couple of quid each so I did well! This is the fourth one in the series and there's a massive spoiler for something that must have happened in book two or three, but I don't really care about that and I'll get around to them eventually. I made my mum read the first one and she really enjoyed it, but she says she needs to read them in order! So I will lend this to her at some point.
Karen is DCI of the Historic Crimes Unit, which looks at cold cases, and in this book the unit has been moved to Edinburgh. She is going through something - which I won't spoil - and she's taken to walking around late at night, where she meets some Syrian asylum seekers. This is one small strand of the book which I actually really liked.
But the main case she is looking at is the rape and murder of Tina Macdonald twenty years ago. No one was ever caught for her murder. But then some lads get into a joyride and the driver ends up in a coma. When his DNA is matched against the database, it turns out that Tina's murderer must have been a close male relative of his. Problem is: Ross Garvie was adopted and he doesn't know about it, and his records are sealed. Karen has to go to court for the right to access the records. I found that really interesting actually.
She also meets a friend of hers who is a social worker, and while she's there, a detective is looking into the death of a man called Gabriel. At first it was considered suicide, and then a murder, but then Karen's colleague has decided it is a suicide after all and is basically ready to shut the case. But Karen's interest is piqued. It turns out that Gabriel's mother, Caroline, was killed in a place explosion over Scotland twenty five years ago. Flying the plane was an MP who had been outspoken about the IRA, so the death was thought to be terrorist activity. But no one was ever caught and no one ever took responsibility. Karen doesn't like coincidences so she starts looking into the old case as well as Gabriel's death too.
Her colleague in the unit, Jamie Murray, is nice enough but a bit dim. Karen needs to train him. She also struggles with her superiors because she is just such a maverick which yes is a huge cliche in crime novels but I like her so I just can't be cross about it.
In all I really liked this and I found it really compelling so I will probably pick the others up soon. I'm giving this four out of five.
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