<div>A chilling, high-velocity thriller featuring psychologist Dr. Tony Hill and detective Carol Jordan from the international bestselling crime writer. Tony Hill has had a good run. He and detective Carol Jordan have put away scores of dangerous criminals at a rate that colleagues envy. But there is one serial killer who has shaped and defined their careers, and whose evil surpasses all others: Jacko Vance, ex-celebrity and sociopath whose brilliance and utter lack of remorse have never left Tony&rsquo;s mind in the ten years since his imprisonment. Now Jacko has escaped from prison&mdash;even more twisted and cunning than before, he is focused on wreaking revenge on Tony and Carol for his years spent behind bars. Tony and Carol don&rsquo;t know when Jacko will strike, or where. All they know is that Jacko will cause them to feel fear like they&rsquo;ve never known. An utterly gripping tour de force, The Retribution is the ideal introduction or re-introduction to the world of Tony Hill and Carol Jordan. It is an unforgettable read. &ldquo;I love every word Val McDermid writes. If you haven&rsquo;t discovered her genius yet, you are in for a rare treat.&rdquo; &mdash;Harlan Coben </div>

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The Retribution

<div>Psychologist Tony Hill and ex-DCI Carol Jordan&mdash;the UK crime fighting partners from the TV series Wire in the Blood&mdash;face down a serial killer. International bestselling crime writer Val McDermid&rsquo;s work speaks for itself: her books have sold millions of copies worldwide, won numerous accolades, and attracted a devoted following of readers around the globe. Cross and Burn picks up where The Retribution left off: following the best crime-fighting team in the UK&mdash;clinical psychologist Tony Hill and police detective Carol Jordan&mdash;who when we last saw them were barely speaking, and whose relationship will now be challenged even further. But just because they&rsquo;re not talking doesn&rsquo;t mean the killing stops. Women are being murdered&mdash;ones who bear an unsettling resemblance to Carol Jordan. And when the evidence begins to point in a disturbing direction, thinking the unthinkable seems the only possible answer. Cornered by events, Tony and Carol are forced to fight for themselves and each other as never before. &ldquo;McDermid is as smooth a practitioner of crime fiction as anyone out there . . . She&rsquo;s the best we&rsquo;ve got.&rdquo; &mdash;The New York Times Book Review</div>

Cross and Burn

<div>A must-read collection of stories by Scottish crime writer Val McDermid, &ldquo;one of the bright lights of the mystery field&rdquo; (The Washington Post). Val McDermid&rsquo;s novels have won the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year Award and the Crime Writers&rsquo; Association&rsquo;s Gold Dagger and Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding achievement. Enjoyed by millions of fans worldwide, her intelligent, incisive crime fiction showcases the best and worst of human nature. Here it is now, distilled into a superb collection of nineteen nail-biting, perfectly plotted short stories, including two featuring private eye Kate Brannigan and a foreword by Ian Rankin. &ldquo;McDermid is as smooth a practitioner of crime fiction as anyone out there . . . She&rsquo;s the best we&rsquo;ve got.&rdquo; &mdash;The New York Times Book Review</div>

Stranded

<div>&ldquo;Marked by [McDermid&rsquo;s] trademark stunners, including a climax that packs a vicious punch. And readers are again left to marvel at her ingenuity.&rdquo; &mdash;Jay Strafford, Richmond Times-Dispatch From one of the finest crime writers we have, The Vanishing Point kicks off with a nightmare scenario&mdash;the abduction of a child in an international airport. Stephanie Harker is in the screening booth at airport security, separated from Jimmy Higgins, the five-year-old boy she&rsquo;s in the process of adopting, when a man in a TSA uniform leads the boy away. The more Stephanie sounds the alarm, the more the security agents suspect her, and the further away the kidnapper gets. It soon becomes apparent that nothing in this situation is clear-cut. For starters, Jimmy&rsquo;s birth mother was a celebrity&mdash;living in a world where conspiracy and obfuscation are excused for the sake of column inches. And then there are the bad boys in both women&rsquo;s pasts. As FBI agent Vivian McKuras and Scotland Yard Detective Nick Nicolaides investigate on both sides of the pond, Stephanie learns just how deep a parent&rsquo;s fear can reach. And the horrifying reality is that she has good reason to be afraid&mdash;for reasons she never saw coming. &ldquo;[McDermid&rsquo;s] work is taut, psychologically complex and so gripping that it puts your life on hold.&rdquo; &mdash;The Times (London)</div>

The Vanishing Point

<div>The bestselling &ldquo;Queen of Crime reigns again&rdquo; when a profiler and an ex-cop investigate the suspicious deaths of women targeted by Internet trolls (Independent, UK). From the international bestselling author of The Mermaids Singing and The Wire in the Blood comes the ninth installment of her beloved series featuring psychologist Tony Hill and former DCI Carol Jordan . . . Vicious online attacks seem to be driving outspoken women to silence themselves through suicide. Yet for profiler Tony Hill, who knows a thing or two about patterns in human behavior, something doesn&rsquo;t add up. Carol Jordan, meanwhile, is too busy tackling her own demons to think about a potential serial killer. But when she gets an opportunity for a second chance, it&rsquo;s game on. This time around, though, the stakes have never been higher. One of the Boston Globe&rsquo;s Best Books of 2015</div>

Splinter the Silence

<div>Bestselling author of Broken Ground &ldquo;offers fascinating glimpses&rdquo; into the real world of criminal forensics from its beginnings to the modern day (The Boston Globe). The dead can tell us all about themselves: where they came from, how they lived, how they died, and, of course, who killed them. Using the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene, or the faintest of human traces, forensic scientists unlock the mysteries of the past and serve justice. In Forensics, international bestselling crime author Val McDermid guides readers through this field, drawing on interviews with top-level professionals, ground-breaking research, and her own experiences on the scene. Along the way, McDermid discovers how maggots collected from a corpse can help determine one&rsquo;s time of death; how a DNA trace a millionth the size of a grain of salt can be used to convict a killer; and how a team of young Argentine scientists led by a maverick American anthropologist were able to uncover the victims of a genocide. Prepare to travel to war zones, fire scenes, and autopsy suites as McDermid comes into contact with both extraordinary bravery and wickedness, tracing the history of forensics from its earliest beginnings to the cutting-edge science of the modern day.</div>

Forensics

<div>The internationally bestselling crime writer &ldquo;offers a canny new twist on Jane Austen&rsquo;s early novel . . . a reimagined delight for Austen fans&rdquo; (Booklist). A homeschooled minister&rsquo;s daughter in the quaint, sheltered Piddle Valley in Dorset, Cat Morland loses herself in novels and is sure there is a glamorous adventure awaiting her beyond the valley&rsquo;s narrow horizon. So, imagine her delight when the Allens, neighbors and friends of her parents, invite her to attend the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh as their guest. With a sunny personality, tickets every night, and a few key wardrobe additions courtesy of Susie Allen, Cat quickly begins to take Edinburgh by storm and is taken into the bosom of the Thorpe family, particularly by eldest daughter Bella. And then there&rsquo;s the handsome Henry Tilney, an up-and-coming lawyer whose family home is the beautiful and forbidding Northanger Abbey. Cat is entranced by Henry and his charming sister, Eleanor, but she can&rsquo;t help wondering if everything about them is as perfect as it seems. Or has she just been reading too many novels? A delectable, note-perfect modern update of the Jane Austen classic, Northanger Abbey tells a timeless story of innocence amid cynicism, the exquisite angst of young love, and the value of friendship. &ldquo;McDermid&rsquo;s success lies in her ability to allow her version of Northanger Abbey to dovetail tidily and enjoyably with Austen&rsquo;s original while infusing it with her own humor, wit, and style.&rdquo; &mdash;The Boston Globe &ldquo;Rife with conflicts of love, gossip, misunderstandings, and updates on social media, it is an accessible and enjoyable read, especially rewarding for young readers as a gateway into appreciating the classics.&rdquo; &mdash;Publishers Weekly</div>

Northanger Abbey

<div>The fifth and sixth novels starring the self-proclaimed &ldquo;cynical socialist lesbian feminist journalist&rdquo; from the internationally bestselling crime writer. &ldquo;The macho world of the whodunit has never seen a sleuth like Lindsay Gordon&rdquo; and now she must investigate the murder of a bestselling author and a kidnapping with international implications (Manchester Evening News). Booked for Murder: Why would anyone want to kill Penny Varnavides, bestselling author of the Darkliners series? Her demise can&rsquo;t be the freak accident it first appeared; it&rsquo;s an exact replica of the murder method in her forthcoming book. Only three people knew the plot of Penny&rsquo;s unpublished novel: her literary agent, her editor, and her ex-girlfriend Meredith. In an effort to clear Meredith&rsquo;s name, Lindsay Gordon delves beneath the glittering facade of the seemingly glamorous world of London publishing in search of a murderer. While hobnobbing with industry notables, Lindsay encounters an unsavory mix of soured relationships, desperate power plays, underhanded fraud, and seething rivalries. Hostage to Murder: 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 when a local car dealer&rsquo;s stepson is kidnapped, Lindsay and Rory trade journalism for detection. The trail leads them to St. Petersburg and a dangerous snatch-back operation. It&rsquo;s a journey that brings a whole new dimension of risk into Lindsay&rsquo;s life. Back in Glasgow, it becomes clear that Lindsay and Rory have stumbled into a bigger, more violent piece of business than either of them could have guessed&mdash;one which will test Lindsay to her absolute limits.</div>

Booked for Murder & Hostage to Murder

<div>Two novels starring a tough PI in Manchester, England, from an author known for “crime writing of the very highest order” (The Times). There was only one reason Manchester-based private eye Kate Brannigan was prepared to let her boyfriend help out with the investigation into a car sales fraud: Nothing bad could happen. In Crack Down, Kate learns once again that with Richard, you have to expect the unexpected. This time the unexpected is that he’s currently behind bars—so Kate will be looking after his eight-year-old while at the same time being dragged into a world of drug traffickers, gangland enforcers, and the worst the criminal element has to offer. And in Clean Break, Kate is not amused when thieves have the audacity to steal a Monet from a stately home where she’s arranged security. She’s even less thrilled when the hunt for the thieves drags her on a treacherous foray across Europe as she goes head to head with organized crime. And as if that isn’t enough, a routine industrial case starts leaving a trail of bodies across the Northwest. Unfortunately, cleaning up this mess will mean confronting some truths about her own life…</div>

Crack Down & Clean Break

<div>Diamond Dagger Award-Winning Author: Two mysteries introducing a Thai boxing, rock-and-roll female private detective from Manchester, England… As a favor to her rock journalist boyfriend, Kate Branningan agrees to track down missing song-writer Moira Pollock, a search that takes her into some of the seediest parts of Leeds and Bradford. But little does she realize that finding Moira is only a prelude to murder. Juggling her other cases, including a search to uncover the source of counterfeit luxury goods, Brannigan finds herself for the first time on the trail of a killer. In Kick Back, Kate Brannigan investigates the bizarre case of the missing conservatories. Before long she’s up to her neck in crooked land deals, mortgage scams, financial chicanery, and murder. But when a favor for a friend puts Kate’s own life in danger, bizarre is not the first word she thinks of… “One of crime fiction’s most eminent writers.”—Entertainment Weekly</div>

Dead Beat & Kick Back

<div>Two mysteries in one volume featuring the investigating journalist, from the Diamond Dagger Award-winning author. Final Edition 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. Reporter Lindsay Gordon, however, suspects there&rsquo;s more to the story. 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&mdash;and she will be stepping into a sordid world of lies to solve the case. &ldquo;Compelling characters [and] a mystery that is profoundly twisted.&rdquo;&mdash;Bay Area Reporter Union Jack When unethical union leader Tom Jack falls to his death from the window of Lindsay Gordon&rsquo;s tenth-floor hotel room after a spectacularly public row between the two of them, it seems the only way to prove her innocence is to find the real culprit. But that will requireuncovering a seething cauldron of blackmail, corruption and abuse of power, all brought to the boil by her investigation. &ldquo;A wonderful read?thrilling, scary and funny.&rdquo;?Evening Standard (UK)</div>

Final Edition & Union Jack

<div>An Edinburgh detective encounters skeletal remains that may be connected to the brutal Balkan Wars of the 1990s in this “tightly paced mystery” (Los Angeles Times). In the center of historic Edinburgh, Scotland, builders are preparing to demolish a disused Victorian Gothic building. They are understandably surprised to find skeletal remains hidden in a high pinnacle that hasn’t been touched by maintenance for years. Who do the bones belong to, and how did they get there? Could the eccentric British pastime of free climbing the outside of buildings play a role? Enter cold case detective Karen Pirie, who gets to work trying to establish the corpse’s identity. And when it turns out the bones may be from as far away as former Yugoslavia, Karen will need to dig deeper than she ever imagined into the tragic history of the Balkans: to war crimes and their consequences, and ultimately to the notion of what justice is and who serves it. “McDermid melds the political thriller with the police procedural for an intense novel.”—Associated Press</div>

The Skeleton Road

<div>Two novels from “one of crime fiction’s most eminent writers”: A female PI in Manchester, England pokes around in some dangerous business (Entertainment Weekly). In Blue Genes, Kate Brannigan’s not just having a bad day, she’s having a bad week. The worst week of her life, if you really want to know. Her boyfriend’s death notice is in the paper, her plan to catch a team of fraudsters is in disarray and a neo-punk band want her to find out who’s sabotaging their publicity. And her business partner wants her to buy him out. If only she had the cash. Kate can’t even cry on her best friend’s shoulder, for Alexis has worries of her own. Her girlfriend’s pregnant, and when the doctor responsible for the fertility treatment is murdered, Alexis needs Kate like never before. So what’s a girl to do? Delving into the alien world of medical experimentation and the underbelly of the rock-music business, Kate confronts betrayal and cold-blooded greed as she fights to save not only her livelihood, but her life as well… Bodyguarding never made it to Manchester PI Kate Brannigan’s wish list. But in Star Struck, Kate’s still broke, and the only earner on offer is playing nursemaid to a paranoid soap star. So this time Kate has to swallow her pride and slip into something more glam than her Thai boxing kit. But when offstage dramas threaten to overshadow the fictional storylines, and the unscripted murder of the self-styled “Seer to the Stars” stops the show, it leaves Kate with more questions than answers…</div>

Blue Genes & Star Struck

<div>Forensic evidence leads to places a Scottish cop never expected in &ldquo;a thriller as steely and superlative as its heroine&rdquo; (O, The Oprah Magazine). When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up in a coma, a routine DNA test reveals a connection to an unsolved murder from twenty-two years before. Finding the answer to the cold case should be straightforward. But it&rsquo;s as twisted as the DNA helix itself. Meanwhile, Inspector Karen Pirie finds herself irresistibly drawn to another mystery that she has no business investigating, a mystery that has its roots in a terrorist bombing two decades ago. And again, she finds that nothing is as it seems. From a Diamond Dagger Award-winning author, Out of Bounds is a riveting cold case novel starring detective Karen Pirie, who&rsquo;s been described by the Associated Press as &ldquo;a formidable character worthy of her own series.&rdquo; &ldquo;I would like to see a great deal more of DCI Pirie.&rdquo; &mdash;Irish Times</div>

Out of Bounds

<div>A killer targets single women at weddings: &ldquo;[An] intense plot&hellip;McDermid keeps each twist believable.&rdquo; &mdash;The Washington Post In the north of England, single women are beginning to disappear from weddings. A pattern soon becomes clear: Someone is crashing the festivities and luring the women away&mdash;only to leave the victims&rsquo; bodies in their own burned-out cars in remote locations. Psychologist Tony Hill and former police detective Carol Jordan are called upon to investigate&mdash;but this may be the toughest case they&rsquo;ve ever had to face. Meanwhile, Detective Sergeant Paula McIntyre and her partner Elinor must deal with a cruel cyber-blackmailer targeting their teenage ward. Impeccably plotted and intensely gripping, Insidious Intent comes from Val McDermid, Diamond Dagger Award winner, multiple Edgar Award nominee, and &ldquo;one of crime fiction&rsquo;s most eminent writers&rdquo; (Entertainment Weekly).</div>

Insidious Intent

<div>A Scottish police inspector deals with forgeries and false identities in a new murder mystery in the &ldquo;superior series&rdquo; (The New York Times). When a lobster fisherman discovers a dead body in Scotland&rsquo;s Firth of Forth, DCI Karen Pirie is called into investigate. She quickly discovers that the case will require untangling a complicated web&mdash;involving a long-ago disappearance, art forgery, and secret identities&mdash;that seems to surround a painter who can mimic anyone from Holbein to Hockney. Meanwhile, a traffic accident leads to the discovery of a skeleton in a suburban garage. Karen has a full plate, and it only gets more stressful as the man responsible for the death of the love of her life is scheduled for release from prison, reopening old wounds just as she was getting back on her feet. From a Diamond Dagger Award winner and multiple Edgar Award finalist, Still Life is a tightly plotted mystery featuring an investigator &ldquo;whose unwavering confidence is tempered by a strong dose of kindness and sense of justice&rdquo; (Booklist). &ldquo;There are few other crime writers in the same league.&rdquo;&mdash;Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post</div>

Still Life

<div>A woman digs up a buried treasure&mdash;and a buried body&mdash;in the Scottish Highlands: &ldquo;There are few other crime writers in the same league.&rdquo;&mdash;Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post Six feet under in a Highland peat bog lies Alice Somerville&rsquo;s inheritance, buried by her grandfather at the end of World War II. But when Alice finally uncovers it, she finds an unwanted surprise&mdash;a body with a bullet hole between the eyes. Meanwhile, DCI Karen Pirie is dealing not only with this cold case but with a domestic violence case, and as as she gets closer to the truth, it becomes clear that not everyone shares her desire for justice. Or even the idea of what justice is. An engrossing, twisty thriller, Broken Ground is an outstanding entry in this Diamond Dagger-winning author&rsquo;s &ldquo;superior series&rdquo; (The New York Times Book Review). &ldquo;As always, McDermid&rsquo;s story lines are as richly layered as her protagonist.&rdquo;&mdash;Publishers Weekly &ldquo;One of the best things about this series is the details of Karen&#39;s working life, the obstacles as well as the satisfactions, and the small pleasures of her off hours.&rdquo;&mdash;Kirkus Reviews</div>

Broken Ground

<div>Unmarked graves are found on the grounds of an old orphanage in this &ldquo;riveting&rdquo; British crime thriller by an Edgar Award finalist (Publishers Weekly, starred review). With profiler Tony Hill behind bars and Carol Jordan no longer with the police, he&rsquo;s finding unexpected outlets for his talents in jail and she&rsquo;s joined forces with a group of lawyers and forensics experts looking into suspected miscarriages of justice. But they&rsquo;re doing it without each other; being in the same room at visiting hour is too painful to contemplate. Meanwhile, construction is suddenly halted on the redevelopment of an orphanage after dozens of skeletons are found buried at the site. Forensic examination reveals they date from between twenty and forty years ago, when the nuns were running their repressive regime. But then a different set of skeletons is discovered in a far corner&mdash;young men from as recent as ten years ago. When newly promoted DI Paula McIntyre discovers that one of the male skeletons is that of a killer who is supposedly alive and behind bars&mdash;and the subject of one of Carol&rsquo;s miscarriage investigations&mdash;it brings Tony and Carol irresistibly into each other&rsquo;s orbit once again in this masterfully plotted novel by &ldquo;the queen of psychological thrillers&rdquo; (Irish Independent).</div>

How the Dead Speak

<div>In one volume, the first two mysteries featuring a journalist who investigates murder, from the Diamond Dagger winner known as &ldquo;Britain&rsquo;s Queen of Crime&rdquo; (The Times). From the Edgar Award-nominated author of the DCI Karen Pirie series, this two-in-one volume includes: Report for Murder Self-proclaimed cynical socialist-lesbian-feminist and freelance journalist Lindsay Gordon is strapped for cash. Why else would she agree to cover a fund-raising gala at a girls&rsquo; public school? But when the star attraction is found garroted with her own cello string moments before she is due on stage, Lindsay finds herself investigating a vicious murder. &ldquo;A timeless mystery, well-plotted with crisp dialogue and solid characterization.&rdquo;&#8213;Orlando Sun-Sentinel Common Murder When her former lover is accused of murder&mdash;at a women&rsquo;s peace protest, no less&mdash;Lindsay must bring all of her expertise as an investigative reporter into play&mdash;and uncovers a truth even she can scarcely believe. &ldquo;McDermid&rsquo;s snappy, often comic prose keeps the story humming.&rdquo;&#8213;Publishers Weekly</div>

Report for Murder & Common Murder

<div>A mysterious illness appears in Scotland while a reporter searches for the truth in this graphic novel by the bestselling author of the Karen Pirie series. The first graphic novel from Britain&rsquo;s &ldquo;Queen of Crime&rdquo; (Scotsman) and gorgeously illustrated by up-and-comer Kathryn Briggs, Resistance is a chilling but incredibly moving and inspiring story of individuals pressed to rise above their station, first to nail down the truth of a looming pandemic, and later to try to fight it. Journalist Zoe Meadows has taken a break from hard-hitting investigative reporting to spend more time with her family, which is how she finds herself doing celebrity Q&amp;As at an outdoor music festival near the Scottish border. She and her friends, who run a food truck, head north, along with 150,000 festivalgoers for a weekend of music and camping. Then, some of the food truck&rsquo;s customers begin to fall ill, and many point to food poisoning. But when the festival ends and the attendees scatter across England, more people begin to get sick and die. What&rsquo;s worse, it is spreading fast and baffles doctors, resisting all efforts to contain or cure it. With time running out, Zoe is compelled to fight for the truth, even as she loses that which she holds most dear. Please note this thriller is in graphic novel, or comic book, format. Praise for International #1 Bestselling Author Val McDermid &ldquo;Fascinating . . . Val McDermid is one of the most skilled of crime writers and she has gone a step beyond killing by writing with crisp authority on the facts that lie behind gruesome events.&rdquo; &mdash;Washington Times on Forensics &ldquo;McDermid continues to dazzle us with the range and depth of her creative imagination.&rdquo; &mdash;New York Times bestselling author Sara Paretsky</div>

Resistance

<div>A Scottish journalist is drawn into a world of corruption, terror, and murder in the new novel by &ldquo;one of crime fiction&rsquo;s most eminent writers&rdquo; (Entertainment Weekly). The year started badly and only got worse&mdash;blizzards, strikes, power cuts, and political unrest were the norm. For investigative journalist Allie Burns, however, someone else&rsquo;s bad news was the unmistakable sound of opportunity knocking, and 1979 is ripe with possibilities. But Allie is a woman in what is still a man&rsquo;s world. Desperate to get away from the &ldquo;women&#39;s stories&rdquo; the Glasgow desk keeps assigning her, she strikes up an alliance with wannabe investigative journalist Danny Sullivan. From the start, their stories create enemies. First an international tax fraud, then a potential Scottish terrorist group aiming to cause mayhem ahead of an impending referendum. And then Danny is found murdered in his flat. For Allie, investigative journalism just got personal. The debut of an intense new series, 1979 is an atmospheric journey into the past with intriguing insight into the present, from a Diamond Dagger winner and multiple Edgar Award finalist. &ldquo;The queen of psychological thrillers.&rdquo; &mdash;Irish Independent &ldquo;There are few other crime writers in the same league.&rdquo; &mdash;The Washington Post</div>

Val McDermid

Books By Val McDermid (21 Books)