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Silent Bones

The brand-new, iconic Karen Pirie thriller from the no.1 bestselling author
Series: Karen Pirie
Brief Description
The Masterful New Thriller in the Karen Pirie Series, Now a Major TV Series The truth is buried just beneath the surface . . . When torrential rain causes a landslide on a motorway in Scotland, it reveals a crime scene: someone hid a body in... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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A thrilling new novel in the Karen Pirie series from number one bestseller and Queen of Crime, Val McDermid

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The Masterful New Thriller in the Karen Pirie Series, Now a Major TV Series

The truth is buried just beneath the surface . . .

When torrential rain causes a landslide on a motorway in Scotland, it reveals a crime scene: someone hid a body in the tarmac eleven years before. Journalist Sam Nimmo had been the prime suspect in the murder of his fiancΓ©e when he disappeared, and now DCI Karen Pirie and her Historic Cases Unit must find out who buried him, and why.

Meanwhile in Edinburgh, new evidence reopens a closed case and the accidental death of a hotel manager starts to look like murder. But what did Tom Jamieson's book club have to do with his demise - and what will they do to keep their secrets?

Karen and her team begin to untangle a web of lies, one which connects their murder cases with Scotland's rich and powerful. They will be tested to their limits - and possibly beyond . . .

Series: Karen Pirie

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  • Past Lying
    KAREN PIRIE RETURNS. A MASTERFUL THRILLER BY THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER VAL MCDERMID THE HEART-POUNDING NEW KAREN PIRIE NOVEL - NOW A MAJOR ITV SERIES STARRING LAUREN LYLE 'Another jewel in Val McDermid's crown' MICK HERRON 'A must-read for anyone who enjoys top-notch crime fiction' YOURS 'A chilling, twisting triumph. Past Lying is a classic mystery' CHRIS WHITAKER ____...
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  • Silent Bones
    The powerful new thriller in the Karen Pirie series, now a major TV series 'Beautifully structured, witty and twisty' β€” ANN CLEEVES 'A perfect crime novel' β€” KATE MOSSE 'Powerful, moving and wise' β€” HARLAN COBEN 'Full of humour, heart and trademark twists' β€” CHRIS WHITAKER 'A corkscrew twist at every turn' β€” DAILY MAIL The truth is buried just...
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    Silent Bones
    The Masterful New Thriller in the Karen Pirie Series, Now a Major TV Series The truth is buried just beneath the surface . . . When torrential rain causes a landslide on a motorway in Scotland, it reveals a crime scene: someone hid a body in the tarmac eleven years before. Journalist Sam Nimmo had been the prime suspect in...
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  • Broken Ground
    Number one bestseller and queen of crime Val McDermid returns with her most breathtakingly atmospheric and exhilarating novel yet. 'Somebody has been here before us. And he's still here . . .' When a body is discovered in the remote depths of the Highlands, DCI Karen Pirie finds herself in the right place at the right time. Unearthed with someone's...
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  • Still Life
    Don't miss Past Lying, the twisty new Karen Pirie thriller 'No one can tell a story like she can' Daily Express 'The queen of psychological thrillers' Irish Independent 'The bodies never stay buried forever . . .' On a freezing winter morning, fishermen pull a body from the sea. It is quickly discovered that the dead man was the prime...
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  • The Skeleton Road
    When a skeleton is discovered hidden at the top of a gothic Victorian building in Edinburgh, which is scheduled for renovation, Cold Case Squad detective Karen Pirie is given the task of identifying the decades-old bones. Her investigation leads her back to past conflicts, false identities, and buried secrets... The Skeleton Road unravels a web of intrigue, taking readers on...
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  • Broken Ground
    Number one bestseller and queen of crime Val McDermid returns with her most breathtakingly atmospheric and exhilarating novel yet. 'Somebody has been here before us. And he's still here . . .' When a body is discovered in the remote depths of the Highlands, DCI Karen Pirie finds herself in the right place at the right time. Unearthed with someone's...
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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781408734032

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 23 October 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Sphere

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 22.0mm

Width: 153.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 540g

Pages: 432

About the Author

Val McDermid is a number one bestseller whose novels have been translated into forty languages, and have sold over nineteen million copies. She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009, was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2010 and received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award in 2011.

In 2016, Val received the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award at the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and in 2017 received the DIVA Literary Prize for Crime, and was elected a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Val has served as a judge for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize, and was Chair of the Wellcome Book Prize in 2017. She is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates, is an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford and a Professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand. She writes full time and divides her time between Edinburgh and East Neuk of Fife.

X @valmcdermid

Instagram @quineofcrime

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