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Out of Bounds

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Inspector Karen Pirie is a well written character that gives lots of scope to the author to develop further. A very strong fiery intelligent woman who I would hate to be on the wrong side of and her boss knows exactly what I mean. Meanwhile, 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… She walked. Whenever sleep slipped from her grasp, she walked. It occurred to her that her life had come to resemble the first draft of an advertising script for Guinness or Stella Artois. “She walks. That’s what she does.” Except that there was no brightly lit pub full of cheery faces waiting to greet her at the end of her wanderings. The DNA taken from a teenager involved in a fatal accident appears to match up with a cold case Karen has worked on and never forgotten. It matches the DNA evidence found under the nails of a murdered woman more than 20 years ago. Now Karen has to find a familial DNA match since that teenager wasn't alive at the time of the murder.

The second chapter features a young man who has mental issues, is fanatical about Southeast Asia, and paranoid when he’s off his meds. DCI Karen Pirie is a dedicated, determined and wonderfully flawed protagonist. I have a soft spot for this Detective and enjoyed her strengths and weaknesses because they made her believable. I liked that she was not afraid to question/challenge her colleagues, no matter their rank. I also enjoyed her vulnerabilities which were the foundations of her dedication and ability to get the job done. I felt her loss in terms of her partner, Phil and how she placed herself in risky situations – almost taunting someone to do something so she could be with Phil – knowing the she would fight for survival if anyone were to dare. In alternate chapters we meet Gabriel Abbott, a young man with mental health issues. He suffers from periodic episodes of paranoia & has always been a solitary guy. When he was a child his mother was killed in a plane crash that was unofficially blamed on the IRA. Now he lives alone in Kinross & carefully follows a daily routine until the morning he’s found dead on a park bench.As one of the biggest names in crime writing, Val McDermid has written 30 books, has been translated into 30 languages and sold more than 10 million copies of her work worldwide. So, was her latest book as good as the rest? Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Coupled with this case,is the recent death of one Gabriel Abbott. A young man, whose life was derailed by the very sudden death of his mother,Caroline,and her dearest friend,Ellie, Gabriel's body is found on a park bench with a gun in his hand. The story itself, is complex, a series of almost perfectly timed coincidental meetings which lead Karen to the two cold cases that form the focus of the story. Alongside that, there is a strong social commentary on the condition and terms under which Syrian refugees are accommodated or perhaps more aptly, tolerated, in current society. There is an almost inevitable feeling of where that part of the story will lead, and I wasn’t surprised to see it head there, as sure and true as the Restalrig Railway Path on which it took place. But this was perhaps the only predictable part of the story, the rest of it branching off as series of possibilities, with any one of a number of possible resolutions to the two sordid tales.

Meanwhile, Karen 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.An enthralling, twisty read, Out of Bounds reaffirms Val McDermid’s place as one of the most dependable professionals in the mystery and thriller business. This wayward and entertaining mystery has the grace of a heroine on the verge of coming into her own as a character whom readers will want to spend time with. Still Pirie is fierce and jumps into the case with no holds barred. There are unusual twists that complicate the investigation. She also stumbles into another cold case, a small airplane bombed years ago supposedly by the IRA and all four passengers were killed. Pirie's investigation negates the Irish connection and leads to another murder just committed. The voice at the other end had the unmistakable vowels of Dundee. 'Aye, this is Sergeant Torrance from Tayside. Traffic Division.' He stopped abruptly, as if he'd given her enough information to be going on with. Brooks, Roddy (12 September 2016). "Book Review: Out Of Bounds by Val McDermid". Press and Journal . Retrieved 25 October 2016.

The sense of place, not only Edinburgh, but much of Scotland, is very strong in this novel. I read novels set in various places hoping to get a feeling for the setting and the people who inhabit it. McDermid excels at this here. Close attention to the geography of Edinburgh, the streets that Pirie covers in her insomniac nightly walks, is one detail I appreciated. Police in Scotland, as in Ireland, and England, don't always work in the places where they were raised. As a result, Pirie is aware that this officer is from Dundee, as he talks in a distinct way. Another police officer's Glasgow accent gives him away. The narrator shifts accents, and though I don't actually know how accurate these accents are, it certainly adds to the texture of the narration, as does McDermid's attention to the diversity of Scottish talk, and the importance of geography. Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie, leading the Cold Case Unit has stumbled upon a small plane crash some 20 years ago with all four passengers killed. Forward to current day and it appears the son of one of the victims either committed suicide or was murdered. Karen is also involved in another cold case of a young girl who was brutally murdered with no suspects in sight until DNA emerges from a crash victim. The same clues will be offered many times throughout the chapters, along with forcing the reader to try to understand why other officials in both cases want Karen to stop all the investigating work. Val McDermid has many fans that enjoy her style of writing. Has she taken on too much? Will she ever find the answers she wants and needs? Can Karen finally admit that she is desperately lonely and doesn’t know how to deal with the pain?Karen Pirie is a Detective Inspector working in Edinburgh. She hails from Fife, still referred the Kingdom of Fife, which lies across the Firth of Forth from the capital city. Her bumbling assistant is the only other person in the Historic Cases Unit, in other words, the cold case division. In this novel, Karen is called in when the DNA of a teenage joyrider is a familial match to the DNA found in the rape and murder 20 years earlier of a young woman in Glasgow. Karen also gets involved in the case of a death that is initially judged a suicide. This is the case which seems out of bounds for the historic case unit. But Karen is like a dog with a bone and she won't let go of this one, much to the fury of her supervisor who constantly threatens to suspend her or worse. Karen doesn't stop with these two cases. She also encounters a group of Syrian refugees, and befriends them, while seeking to find a way to help. Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth Indeed their characters were so well developed,that I felt like dropping by the police station for a can of Irn Bru and a doughnut!

First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Val McDermid, Grove Atlantic, and Atlantic Monthly Press for providing me with a copy of this book, which allows me to provide you with this review. Scottish crime writer Val McDermid’s 30th novel, is a suspenseful thriller called Out of Bounds, with Little, Brown – AVAILABLE NOW! Delighted that DNA evidence has now borne fruit,Karen is surprised at the sudden twist the case takes and ponders if she will ever discover the real culprit responsible for Tina's death and bring him to justice. Karen Pirie finds herself irresistibly drawn to another mystery that she has no business investigating…If that is not enough to juggle, she also makes the acquaintance of some Syrian refuges and involves herself in their adjustment. She is still coping with the death of her lover, another Scottish policeman. It's no wonder she has trouble sleeping.

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