Showing results by author "Val McDermid" in All Categories

It's 1989, and Allie Burns is back. Older and maybe wiser, she's running the northern news operation of the Sunday Globe, chafing at losing her role in investigative journalism and at the descent into the gutter of the UK tabloid media. But there's plenty to keep her occupied. The year begins with the memorial service to the victims of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, but Allie has barely filed her copy when she stumbles over a story about HIV/AIDS that will shock her into a major change of direction.

A vicar nailed to a tree in Yorkshire. The theft of a priceless artefact during a fire. A detective forced to tell the truth for 24 hours. A body hidden in a basement. From the restless streets of London to the wilds of the Lake District, displaying all his trademark humour, playfulness and clever plotting, this landmark collection brings together the very best of Reginald Hill’s short stories for the first time, complete with a foreword from Val McDermid.

The dead talk. To the right listener, they tell us all about themselves: how they lived, how they died--and who killed them. Val McDermid uncovers the secrets of forensic medicine with groundbreaking research and her own experience. Along the way you’ll wonder at how maggots collected from a corpse can help determine time of death and how a DNA trace a millionth the size of a grain of salt can be used to convict a killer.

Spraining an ankle is rarely a stroke of luck, but for Lindsay Gordon, jobless in Glasgow, the injury is her introduction to young freelance journalist Rory McLaren and the opening of a new chapter in her life. Rory's invitation to work alongside her in her booth at the Cafe Virginia is irresistible. From there it is just a short step to political corruption and other juicy stories - all welcome distractions from Lindsay's problems at home, where her long-term lover, Sophie, has decided to heed the ticking of her biological clock and get pregnant.

Der erste Teil der erfolgreichen Thriller-Serie um das Ermittlerduo Carol Jordan und Tony Hill beginnt mit dem Fund von vier männlichen Leichen in Yorkshire. Diese Entdeckung ist selbst für das hartgesottene Team der Mord-Kommission ein Schock: Offenbar wurden die Opfer vor ihrer Ermordung mit mittelalterlichen Folter-Instrumenten gequält und verstümmelt. Obwohl alles nach der Tat eines Serienkillers aussieht, besteht der Superintendent darauf, dass die Morde getrennt voneinander untersucht werden.

When Alison Maxwell, a well-known Glaswegian journalist with an irresistible sexual attraction to both sexes, is found murdered the police look no further than the owner of the scarf used to strangle her. Lindsay Gordon, however, has other ideas. Maxwell was a serial seductress who kept a secret record of her encounters – including one with Lindsay herself. Recalling the threats that followed the end of the relationship, Lindsay knows all too well the feelings of rage, fear and passion that Alison Maxwell could invoke.

The brand new thriller from the award-winning crimewriter. 'Death is a hollow drum whose beat has measured out my adult life.' So writes Jay Macallan Stewart in her latest volume of memoirs. But nobody has ever asked whether that has been by accident or design. Nobody, that is, until Jay turns her sights on newly-wed and freshly-widowed Magda Newsam. For Magda's mother Corinna is an Oxford don who knows enough of Jay's history to be very afraid indeed...

Why would anyone want to kill Penny Varnavides, best-selling author of the Teen Dreams series? Her demise can't be the freak accident it first appeared - it's an exact replica of the murder method in her forthcoming book. Only three people knew the plot of Penny's unpublished novel: her literary agent, her editor and her ex-girlfriend, Meredith. In an effort to clear Meredith, Lindsay Gordon delves beneath the glittering facade of the seemingly glamorous world of London publishing in search of a murderer.

A protest group hits the headlines when unrest at a women's peace camp explodes into murder. Already on the scene, journalist Lindsay Gordon desperately tries to strike a balance between personal and professional responsibilities. As she peels back the layers of deception surrounding the protest and its opponents, she finds that no one - ratepayer or reporter, policeman or peace woman - seems wholly above suspicion. Then Lindsay uncovers a truth that even she can scarcely believe....

The fourth in the series featuring investigative journalist Lindsay Gordon. Leaving her new home in California for a trade union conference in Sheffield, Lindsay Gordon finds herself in the company of old friends - and enemies, including Tom Jack. When this unethical union leader is found dead, having catapulted out of Lindsay’s tenth-floor hotel room, she is taken in for questioning by the police.

Five-year-old Jimmy Higgins is brazenly snatched from the middle of a busy airport; but this is no ordinary kidnapping. Jimmy’s mother is Scarlett, a reality TV star who, dying of cancer, entrusted the boy to her friend Stephanie Harker. Now Stephanie, reaching into the past to discover the motive behind the abduction, soon encounters a shocking tale of murder and conspiracy, and is faced by the most difficult choice of her life.

Der erste Cold Case für DCI Karen Pirie. Eine eisige Winternacht im schottischen Universitätsstädtchen St. Andrews, 1978: Im dichten Schneetreiben wollen vier Studenten auf dem Heimweg von ihrer Stammkneipe eine Abkürzung nehmen - und stolpern auf dem alten keltischen Friedhof über die blutüberströmte Leiche der Kellnerin Rosie Duff. Obwohl ihnen die Polizei nichts nachweisen kann, geraten Alex Gilbey und seine Freunde unter Mordverdacht, der Fall bleibt ungelöst.

In My Scotland, number one best-selling author Val McDermid takes readers to the landscapes she has known all her life and the places where her stories and characters reside. This remarkable book uncovers Val's own Scotland in all its glory - from the iconic Isle of Skye to the majestic streets of Edinburgh, from the undiscovered hideaways of the Highlands to the wild and untamed Jura. Featuring excerpts from Val McDermid's best-selling novels and charting Karen Pirie's Fife to Lindsay Gordon's Glasgow, My Scotland is an unforgettable and uniquely personal journey.

Ein Verbrechen hat Carol Jordan und Tony Hill tief entzweit: Der Mord an Carols Bruder. Noch immer trägt sie schwer daran, dass Tony diese Tat nicht verhindert hat und will nichts mehr mit ihm zu tun haben. Doch plötzlich geschehen bizarre Morde. Ein Unbekannter tötet Frauen, die Carol erstaunlich ähnlich sehen. Alle Indizien deuten auf Tony. Will er sich so an ihr rächen?

Sebastian Fitzek, Val McDermid, Michael Connelly und zehn weitere Thrillerautoren lassen Ihnen das Blut in den Adern gefrieren...

A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three bosom companions–a healer, a weaver and a seer. If the men hunting her find them, they will kill her because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth. Shakespeare fed us the myth of the Macbeths as power-hungry murderous conspirators. But now Val McDermid drags the truth out of the shadows, exposing the patriarchal prejudices of history.

In McDermids neuntem Thriller um das Ermittleduo Hill/Jordan ist der Polizeipsychologe Tony Hill mit einer mysteriösen Serie von Selbstmorden konfrontiert. Stets sind es Frauen, die mitten im Leben stehen, mit ihren prononcierten Meinungen jedoch einen Shitstorm von Internet-Trollen hervorgerufen und diesen offenbar nicht verkraftet haben. Merkwürdig nur, dass sie alle den Freitod berühmter Schriftstellerinnen wie Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf oder Anne Sexton imitieren und sich deren Werke jeweils in der Nähe der Toten finden.

Um die Wahrheit ans Licht zu bringen, muss sie sich ins Herz der Finsternis wagen: "1979 – Jägerin und Gejagte" ist der erste Fall für Investigativ-Journalistin Allie Burns von Bestseller-Autorin Val McDermid. Schneestürme, Stromausfälle, Streiks und ungeklärte Todesfälle: Der Winter 1979 beschert Schottland ein Debakel nach dem anderen. Für die junge Journalistin Allie Burns sind schlechte Nachrichten jedoch die einzige Chance, über etwas anderes als Familiendramen und Babywunder zu berichten und vom "Boys' Club" der Zeitung endlich ernst genommen zu werden.

Kein Grab ist tief genug für die Wahrheit! Eine "Schatzkarte" ihres verstorbenen Großvaters führt eine junge Amerikanerin in die schottischen Highlands zu einem abgelegenen Ort mitten im Moor: Dort stößt sie auf ein vergrabenes, erstaunlich gut erhaltenes Motorrad, Baujahr 1944 - und auf eine männliche Leiche deutlich jüngeren Datums. DCI Karen Pirie, spezialisiert auf Cold Cases, ist eigentlich wegen eines anderen Falles in der Gegend, doch der Tote im Moor lässt ihr keine Ruhe. Er trägt ein sehr spezielles Paar Nike-Sneakers, eine Sonderanfertigung aus dem Jahr 1995. Und er ist offensichtlich keines natürlichen Todes gestorben.

From an irresponsible baron whose body is discovered beneath a silver birch tree, to a classic detective duo solving a historic case as the lights go out across Europe, and an exclusive Tony Hill and Carol Jordan story, the characters McDermid conjures are enigmatic and dangerous. These evocative, atmospheric tales will shock and delight.