Out of Bounds

by Val McDermid Narrated by Cathleen McCarron

Overview

A stunning new cold case novel from internationally bestselling crime writer Val McDermid about a car crash that opens up an unsolved murder from decades before Internationally bestselling author Val McDermid is one of our finest crime writers, whose gripping, impeccably plotted novels have garnered millions of readers worldwide. In her latest, Out of Bounds, she delivers a riveting cold case novel featuring detective Karen Pirie. 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's as twisted as the DNA helix itself. 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.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

10/24/2016
At the outset of Scottish author McDermid’s engaging if at times overstuffed third Karen Pirie novel (after 2014’s The Skeleton Road), 17-year-old Ross Garvie and three mates steal a Land Rover after a night of drinking in Dundee. The subsequent high-speed crash on the Perth road kills his friends and leaves Garvie in a coma. Pirie, head of Police Scotland’s tiny Historic Cases Unit in Edinburgh, is intrigued when Garvie’s DNA is a familial match to the 20-year-old unsolved rape and murder case of a Glasgow hairdresser. Complications ensue when Pirie tries to track down Garvie’s male relatives. Meanwhile, Pirie is hung up on the death of Fife man Gabriel Abbott and how his death is—or isn’t—linked to that of his mother in a plane crash 22 years earlier, though it’s not Pirie’s case. Authorities assumed the plane exploded due to an IRA bomb, but Pirie isn’t so sure. Pirie, a tough heroine cut from the same cloth as McDermid’s other fictional stalwart, Carol Jordan, never backs down from a thorny question or a seemingly impossible case. Agent: Jane Gregory, Gregory & Company. (Dec.)

Library Journal

10/15/2016
DCI Karen Pirie's 22-year-old cold case gets a new rush of energy when 17-year-old Ross Garvie's DNA is a familial hit after he is left comatose in a stolen car crash. Trying to find Garvie's father, however, involves dealing with a new set of red tape. A leak to the media within the force means that Pirie must work quickly. Recently divorced social worker Giorsal Kennedy trades Pirie information on how the bureaucratic system works in these cases in exchange for an outing where the two can catch up. Pirie, mourning the loss of Phil, sleeplessly walks the town at night and decides to find a way to help a group of local Syrian refugees. Meanwhile, DI Alan Noble investigates the suicide of Gabriel Abbott, believing it's an open-and-shut case, but something about it piques Pirie's interest. Not that she has any business investigating a case that isn't cold. And Simon Lees, the assistant chief constable, would love a reason to remove Pirie and her disregard of his authority. VERDICT McDermid delivers a fun and exciting police procedural for fans of Stephen Booth and Anne Perry in this fourth series installment (after The Skeleton Road). [See Prepub Alert, 6/13/16; library marketing]—Michelle Gilbert, Fox Lake Dist. Lib., IL

Kirkus Reviews

2016-09-20
A fatal car crash leads to information about a cold murder case in the fourth DCI Karen Pirie mystery.The drunken accident reveals DNA which may allow Karen to make an arrest in a decades old rape/murder. But that's only one of three mysteries in the course of the book. There's also the suicide of a local oddball, which may not be a suicide, and the questions surrounding the death of the man's mother years before in a plane explosion hastily credited to the Irish Republican Army. There's also Karen's interactions with a group of Syrian refugees, which stop just short of being sentimental, and her own continuing attempts to get over the murder of her lover and colleague. That the book is so overstuffed is a mark of the current trend for mysteries to weigh in at 400 pages rather than 200 (or less) lean ones. And since the car crash and the information that flows from it are gradually pushed aside in favor of an investigation of the suspicious death and the plane crash, it would have made sense to allot it far less space. What holds the novel together is Karen. Enough of us have encountered stupid people put in positions of power who take delight in running down the far smarter people beneath them that Karen's refusal to suffer her foolish superiors gladly is very appealing. As is her winning combination of being both brooding and no-nonsense. 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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170733019
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	12/06/2016
Series:	Karen Pirie Series , #4
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos