Out of Bounds by Val Mcdermid

Out of Bounds by Val Mcdermid

"Tightly plotted . . . McDermid applies her formidable intelligence and muscular style to the kind of urban crime novel that gives Scotland its tough rep and vigorous lingo . . . [A] superior series."--Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

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. It's a cold case that should be straightforward. But it's as twisted as the DNA helix itself. Meanwhile, Karen, mired in grief after the death of her partner, finds herself irresistibly drawn to a mystery that has its roots in a terrorist bombing two decades ago. Karen's intuition is telling her something doesn't add up. But is she onto something? Or has she, as her boss has been waiting for, gone too far this time? An enthralling, twisty read that takes Karen into the vagaries of privacy law, the history of the Northern Irish Troubles, and right into the heart of power in London, Out of Bounds reaffirms Val McDermid's place as one of our finest crime writers.

"A thriller as steely and superlative as its heroine." --O, The Oprah Magazine

"There are few other crime writers in the same league as Val McDermid . . . Another terrific and intricate suspense novel by a writer who has given us 30 of them."-- Washington Post

"Exciting . . . [McDermid] balances the intense character studies in Out of Bounds with an inside view of the Scottish legal system and again shows her acuity in producing intelligent thrillers."-- Associated Press

"Thirty books in, most crime writers start to flag, but not Val McDermid . . . McDermid's work always slashes like a knife."--The Globe and Mail (Canada)

Val McDermid is a number one bestseller whose novels have been translated into forty languages, and have sold over seventeen 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 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 six 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.