Broken Ground by Val McDermid is part five of the Karen Pirie series. I had no problems following the events or the relationships presented in Broken Groud. The author gives readers enough that the novel works fine as a stand-alone. DCI Karen Pirie of Police Scotland's Historic Cases Unit is good at her job. With Karen deeply involved in three separate cases, I worried the plot would suffer from overload. Honestly, at times it did to a degree. However, the mysteries unfold in a way that kept me intrigued. I felt sympathy and remorse for the victims and was eager for the DCI to bring them justice.

Intelligent and strong-willed, Karen is a female protagonist I enjoy. Despite the loss of a loved one, Karen retains healthy relationships with those around her. She even gets the opportunity to explore a new one. Karen is proud of her job. She gives it her best and expects the same from her team. Confronted with the constant condemnation from her direct supervisor, eventually leads to a gratifying encounter between the two.

Overall, Broken Ground was an enjoyable crime mystery novel. As previously stated, I did get slightly bogged down by the multiple plots, but it was never so much I did not enjoy the novel. I would recommend this story to those looking for a decent mystery from abroad. I was granted an ARC copy of this book by Grove Atlantic, through NetGalley, for my honest opinion. I encourage all readers to reach their own conclusions.

I used to have a policy not to jump into a series midstream but, since joining NetGalley, that has fallen by the wayside as I take the opportunity to read arcs of new books. In this case, it has led me to discover a prodigious author (32 books!) who is totally new to me. Now I can look forward to reading many more of her books in various mystery series.

Broken Ground is the fifth book in the Inspector Karen Pirie series. Detective Chief Inspector Pirie heads the Historic Crime Unit for Police Scotland and in this novel, there are 3 crimes she's working on, including one present day case she got involved in because of an overheard conversation.

Her assistant, Detective Constable Jason 'the Mint' Murray, is a bit of a bumbler but she's mentoring him. But she also seems to have a cuckoo in the nest in the form of Detective Sergeant Gerry McCartney, who has been foisted on their unit by her new boss, Assistant Chief Constable Ann Markie. Karen assumes he's there to spy on her for the boss.

With a cold case police procedural, it's really fascinating to watch the team dig out information from the past that they need to solve the case. There are many frustrations, dead ends but occasionally a remarkable success. I enjoyed the pace at which the story unfolded.

I have recently found a new love for Scottish mysteries which began when I read Peter May's The Blackhouse. The rugged landscape is the perfect backdrop for these stories.

I received an arc from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I am grateful foe the opportunity and look forward to reading many more of Val McDermid's novels.

Broken Ground is the fifth book in the Karen Pirie series about a resolute cold case Detective set in Scotland. I had read the earlier instalments a while ago, but have broken one of my usual rules and skipped number four in the interests of not being too late with my review for this one. My sense of the others was that they could easily be read as stand-alones, and I can confirm that the same is true of this one, although there is reference to events from earlier books.
I will however be buying the one I missed on the strength of this.

DCI Karen Pirie is dismayed with the new addition to her team, a grumpy disrespectful Glaswegian who is just as unhappy with his deployment by the glamorously nasty new ACC to keep an eye on the Historical Crimes Unit. Investigating a series of brutal rapes from the 1980s because new evidence has become available, she is brought into the case of a body found underneath an old motorbike that had been buried in the peat bog at the end of the war, and also gets involved in her friend DCI Jimmy Hutton’s case of a marital dispute that has turned deadly. Meanwhile, a hunky man in a kilt is paying her some unexpected attention...

This was an excellent procedural by an author who delivers, time after time. Her characters, even the minor ones, are so well drawn that I cared immediately about what happened to them. I liked the historical elements and the gradual reveal of information which didn’t end to rely on a shocking twist or implausible coincidences to wrap everything up. Sometimes separate cases are just that. This ends with enough for several more books which I will be awaiting eagerly, but at least I have book 4, and the latest Tony Hill offering to keep me going in the meantime.

My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest voluntary review.
Broken Ground is available now.

It was an ok book. Not the biggest fan nor the biggest hater. Lots of British slang that I had to get used to as an American. There were three plot lines that didn't really connect at all and all wrapped up too quickly and conveniently. I thought the book was overly long. I don't regret reading it, but I can't see myself reading anything else by this author.

Review given in exchange from receiving a book through NetGalley. Thoughts are my own.

This was an excellent book, with an interesting setup. Not the usual (plotline) suspects. I really enjoy the storyline that emerges from the past.

Broken Ground by Val Mcdermid is an exciting, fast paced, police procedural thriller. It follows Karen Pirrie. Karen is DCI for Scotland’s elite unit that is tasked with investigating cold cases. Karen is a true bulldog if ever there was one, and she has a phenomenal clearance rate for a cold case unit. While Karen is investigating a series of long stale violent rape cases, her friend River, a forensic anthropologist, throws her a new case involving a well preserved body uncovered by a couple of treasure hunters looking for a pair of rare Indian motorcycles that were buried during the close of WW11. The body is buried in a peat bog, and shows little signs of decomposition. The clothing covering the body dates it to a much more recent time, and puts it firmly in Karen’s wheelhouse. Karen throws herself into the case, and soon uncovers the identity of her bog body. It belongs to Joey Southerland, a body builder making rounds on the circuit in the mid nineties. No one has seen or heard from him in over 20 years. Karen and her team pick through Joey’s history laying bare details of his past in the hunt for a cold blooded killer who lured Joey out to the Scottish Highlands and ended his life. The endless list of suspects is soon narrowed down until a most unlikely primary suspect emerges.

The story is engaging and fun to read. I enjoyed the tenacity and thoroughness that Karen and her team approach their investigation with. Karen is all at once a vulnerable protagonist and a fierce investigator. She soldiers on and gets her man despite inner doubts and a case of sabotage being carried out against her unit by her boss, who wants to discredit Karen and throw her out of the cold case unit. A very enjoyable read. Look forward to reading the other novels in this series. Novel provided by Net Galley.

This is the first book I've read by this author but I found it to be an intriguing story with enough twists and turns to keep me interested (although maybe a little slow in some places). Not having read any other books in this series left me behind in the dynamics of the main character and her colleagues but I was still able to follow along with them.
I haven't decided yet if I want to read other books in this series (or by this author) but we'll see.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. My thoughts and opinions are my own and without bias.

A Gripping and Atmospheric Thriller

Broken Ground is a police procedural set in Scotland and the fifth book in the Karen Pirie series. Despite being the fifth book of the series, readers will not have any problem picking up on the main characters or understanding the story. It is absolutely not necessary to read the other books to enjoy this novel.

This is third thriller set in Scotland that I have read this year and I am now convinced that all great thrillers are set in Scotland.The plot is unique as it weaves together not one or two but 3 cases at once. The first involves the discovery of an old dead body in a peat bog, the second, about a string of unsolved rape cases and the third a domestic murder case. Unlike other police procedurals, this book is about solving old & unsolvable criminal cases (historical cases unit) which have reached a dead end in terms of investigation. The cases investigated in this novel are all completed in a satisfactory way. If these 3 cases are not enough, Karen also has to deal with office politics & difficult boss at her work.

Without facts, the science of criminal investigation is nothing more than a guessing game

The investigation in these old cases with a cold murder trail, many dead ends and painstakingly looking for pieces of evidences like a needle in a haystack, all adds a unique dimension to the story. But the story also incorporates a lot of modern techniques from DNA analysis, rapid facial reconstruction to stab wound forensics. The book includes crimes from different time lines from the distant past to the present. Narrating a story with different tracks can be tough but the writer manages it effortlessly. The chapters are short and the story never loses momentum. Having said I feel that packing the story with 3 cases slowed the progress of the main case a bit. The story could have been a lot tighter without one of the cases.

For those new to the series, Karen Pirie proves to be a great character. Sharp, witty, sarcastic and courageous, Working within the law but having a near disdain for authority, Karen Pirie is the most fascinating characters, I have read in recent times. Still struggling to recover from the death of her lover but devoted to her work which gives her character a emotional touch. She is not infallible but she is a hero. Though the story mostly revolves around Pirie, other characters were developed well.

Val McDermid has now written over 30 novels and she is a clearly a master of her craft. Reading this book is watching a master artist at the peak of her powers. McDermid manages to hold on the reader’s attention through each of the case and never lets the story gets confusing. Her ability to and attention to detail are incredible. This was my first Val McDermid book and it certainly won't be my last!

Overall, Broken Ground is a highly entertaining police procedural with a brilliant story and some excellent characters. If you love thrillers, you will definitely enjoy this one.

Many Thanks to Grove Atlantic and the author Val McDermid for the ARC.

Fan’s of Val McDermid’s Karen Pirie series will not be disappointed in her latest outing. Pirie is investigating a case whose roots reach back to the end of World War II when returning soldiers sometimes came back with souvenirs that they didn’t own. As usual, Pirie is fiercely loyal to her job: to justice and equity for the victims. That loyalty sets her (again) at odds with her more political superiors, and the tension of the several criminal investigations that are ongoing is ratcheted up by Pirie’s conflict with her boss. “Broken Ground” kept me reading, and dreaming of a trip to Scotland!

Never having read the previous books in this series, I was a bit worried that I would be totally lost. Surprisingly, I wasn’t! With a slow start, it took a while to get into this book, but with several cases going at once, the readers attention is grabbed and held. Excellent police procedural!

I really enjoyed McDermid's previous book but this one fell so short for me I didn't even finish it. I was initially intrigued about Karen looking into a cold case but the alternating perspectives were filled with so much extraneous, boring details that I lost interest. I'm not sure why she included so many irrelevant details about restaurants, parking situations, what Karen ate etc. This was not only a super slow burn, it seemed to be lacking in important details. I didn't find it plausible that Karen would be rude to a witness, incorporate herself into an invesstigation in which she was a witness and assault another police officer. The flashbacks weren't helpful for furthering the story either as they were often repetitive. I just couldn't bring myself to care about the outcome or the characters.

I received a free copy of this book from the author. I had the opportunity to review or not.

I love Karen Pirie. She is tenacious, focused, and a dedicated police officer. And a little on the sneaky side. I found some of her actions, let us say, not quite up to snuff, but certainly interesting. It was a great look into the process of investigating whether old or new cases. The characters were well-developed and interesting. I enjoyed getting to know them.

The plot was unique and kept me guessing. The way a simple case of hiding two motorbikes turned into a deadly situation, while criminal, was not exactly what the perpetrators were attempting to do. It was a plot within a plot, suspicious characters sliding out of focus and new ones entering the picture. Very nicely developed.

I would definitely recommend this book and look forward to reading more of Mr. McDermid’s novels. I especially look forward to more of Karen Pirie.

It's wonderfully refreshing to read a thriller that relies on a well crafted mystery rather than shocking and frequently implausible plot twists, so I am happy to say that Broken Ground by Val McDermid is just such a tale. Flashbacks to the end of the second world war shape the origins of a story that is some how connected to the discovery of a corpse buried in the Scottish highlands in the 1990s. Cold case detective Karen Pirie is soon on the case, and refuses to be distracted despite her unit being under attack from her superiors. This was my first experience of this character, and I have to say I really liked her, Despite this being the fifth book in an ongoing series, it reads perfectly well as a stand alone, and I found the characters and setting intriguing enough to make me seek out the previous books in the series.
I read and reviewed a copy of the book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved this book! Broken Ground is an intricate story full of well developed characters living their non-charmed lives in the background of a criminal investigation. The bad guys are not all bad, and the good guys aren't perfect. It is realistic and possible. The investigation captures you so that your mind is also pursuing other avenues of inquiry. I especially loved reading the Scottish accent and colloquialisms! Incredibly well written, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes police procedural novels and thrillers.

Broken Ground by Val McDermid returns to cold case detective Karen Pirie. It is hard to pick a favorite among McDermid's series, but I do like Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie, Jason, and the Historic Cases Unit.

Karen Pirie is sarcastic and often brash, and her dislike for her boss creates a problematic atmosphere--especially when her boss assigns a snitch to her unit.

When a young woman searching for the WWII motorcycles her grandfather buried in a peat bog after the war discovers the body of a man who has been missing for years, Karen's investigation into the cold case of a rape victim is interrupted. In addition to these two cases, Karen overhears a conversation in which a woman tells her friend that she intends to confront her abusive husband. Stepping in to warn the woman that she might be putting herself in danger, Karen hopes she has kept the woman safe. Uh oh. Best laid plans and all that.

McDermid never disappoints. Her characters feel genuine and her knowledge of forensics goes a long way to giving her plots a sense of realism.

Read in August

NetGalley/Grove Atlantic
British Detectives/Cold Cases. Dec. 4, 2018. Print length: 432 pages.

Cold Case Detective Karen Pirie is back in another page turner involving multiple cases she and her team are investigating.

Detective Pirie is facing one difficult challenge after another. Good news ... she's been given an extra 'body' to help with her investigations. Bad news ... The new help is a spy given the post in order to report to the supervisor who wants Pirie gone.

Pirie and her team are looking into a sex crime committed many years ago. Just now receiving some additional information, they are on a search for a car the night the crime took place. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Something a bit more interesting for them is the finding of a body buried in a peat bog along with two brand new motorcycles that were buried at the end of World War II. The men who did the burying are long dead and when one's grand-daughter uncovers this, they are more than surprised to find a buried body along the the motorcycles. Only this man did not die in the 40's ... he's wearing Nike shoes and a bullet between the eyes.

As if this isn't enough for her three-person squad, she becomes involved in a double murder.

It's non-stop action from beginning to end ... lots of travel, lots of door-knocking .. lots of suspects ... and lots of resistance from her fellow police.

Many thanks to the author / Atlantic Monthly Press / Netgalley / Edelweiss for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

This is the 5th book in McDermid’s DCI Karen Pirie series (although the first that I have read). Pirie is the head of the HCU (Historic Cases Unit, or cold cases in American terms). When DI Gerry McCartney is added to her small unit (he is the third member), she suspects that her boss, Annie Markie, has planted him in order to force her out. And when she becomes involved other cases, Markie is moving ahead, her plan based on personal history. While investigating one cold case, a second current case arises, and Pirie is convinced she had some responsibility for the death of a woman. And a third case, which appears to be a current case, draws her in as the murdered man had been killed over 20 years earlier. Sound confusing? Not really. McDermid does a good job of blending the three stories together, and Pirie is a worthy lead character. While there was clearly some history to Pirie from the earlier editions, I don’t feel that it affected the read of this book at all. Worth your time. Thanks to Atlantic Monthly Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

A Treasure Hunt Ends with a Long Dead Body

Alice Somerville and her husband Will are in the highlands looking for buried treasure. Her grandfather buried two rare motorcycles at the end of WWII. She has a map and with the help of Hamish, a highland crofter, has found the exact spot. With excited expectation they dig down, but before they uncover the motorcycles, they find a body riddled with bullet holes.

Since the body was killed in 1995, it is categorized as a cold case. DCI Karen Pirie, head of the Cold Case Unit, is given the assignment. As Pirie and her team struggle to solve the case, she has to deal with a new, insubordinate team member, and the animosity of her boss.

The story is not fast paced. Much of the action involves the relationships between Pirie, her team, and her superior. She is also is tracking two other cases, so the focus on the old murder is diluted by findings on the other cases. The novel reads more like a character study, or a police procedural where many cases are being followed.

The descriptions of the highlands are enticing. They make you see the area even if you’ve never been there. The character descriptions are realistic. Pirie is struggling with personal issues from the death of her lover, and the animosity of her superior.

I recommend this book if you enjoy an interesting location and a character driven story. The plot is good, but there are many digressions. The resolution is almost startling it comes on so rapidly at the end of the book.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.

It's supposed to be her inheritance and it's looking good when they dig the first motorcycle out. The second motorcycle has an attachment, though. There's a dead body on it...

Atlantic Monthly Press and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It will be published on the 5th.

Since the body has been there for twenty-five years or more, the coroner calls DCI Pirie to investigate. Her boss is not happy about that; she's the one that gives orders, not coroners.

As she works on the case, she gives a new man in her office work on another case. He hates it but then he finds the DNA matches and he's probably found the killer. When the suspect is brought to the police station to be questioned, he gets killed on the entry way by a grieving father, who should have known nothing about it. The new man, who was a spy and a pain, is disciplined and removed from her department because he told the father about it.

They keep digging, looking for the killer from long ago. When they find the murderer, new trouble develops. Will DCI Pirie be able to solve her case?

Karen Pirie, a Detective Chief Inspector of the Historic Cases Units, builds her cases brick by brick with her Detective Constable Jason. Even though these are cold cases, Karen feels that it is just as important to solve these cases. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. This is my honest and voluntarily given review. This is the first book that I have read by this author. This is a well written mystery. It was very interesting to see how Karen and her team solve cases. I did have to look up some Scottish words and expressions, but it didn't pull me away from the story. As soon as I get through my backlog of books to read, I plan to start reading this series from the beginning. I highly recommend this book.