Val McDermid Books in Order - Complete Book List

Val McDermid is a bestselling crime fiction author best known for the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series, along with several other long-running crime series.

This page lists all Val McDermid books in order, including her series, standalone novels, short stories, and non-fiction books, organized by publication order.

Table of Contents

Latest Val McDermid Books

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Tony Hill and Carol Jordan Series (Books in Order)

The Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series follows a criminal profiler and a senior police detective as they investigate violent crimes across the United Kingdom.

Reading Order

Karen Pirie Series (Books in Order)

The Karen Pirie series follows a detective inspector in Scotland’s cold case unit as she investigates unresolved crimes.

Reading Order

Kate Brannigan Series (Books in Order)

The Kate Brannigan series follows a private investigator based in Manchester who handles criminal investigations and missing-persons cases.

Reading Order

Lindsay Gordon Series (Books in Order)

The Lindsay Gordon series follows an investigative journalist based in the United Kingdom as she solves crimes through her reporting.

Reading Order

Report for Murder, 1987
Common Murder, 1989
Final Edition, 1991 (also titled Open And Shut / Deadline for Murder)
Union Jack, 1993 (also titled Conferences are Murder)
Booked for Murder, 1996
Hostage to Murder, 2003

Allie Burns Series (Books in Order)

The Allie Burns series follows an investigative journalist working in Scotland as she becomes involved in major criminal and political cases.

Reading Order

1979, 2021
1989, 2022
1999, 2026

Standalone Novels

A Place of Execution, 1999
Killing the Shadows, 2000
Naked Came the Phoenix, 2001
The Grave Tattoo, 2006
Trick Of The Dark, 2011
The Vanishing Point, 2012
Inherit the Dead, 2013
Northanger Abbey, 2014 (Austen Project)

Novellas and Short Stories

Cleanskin, 2006
Life’s Too Short, 2010
Footloose, 2018
Queen Macbeth, 2024

Short Story Collections and Anthologies

3rd Culprit, 1995
Northern Blood 2, 1995
The Writing on the Wall and Other Stories, 1997
Northern Blood: A Third Collection of Northern Crime Writing, 1998
12 Days: A Modern Twist on The Twelve Days of Christmas, 2000
The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 3, 2002
Crime in the City, 2002
The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories Fourth Annual Collection, 2003
Mysterious Pleasures, 2003
Tart Noir, 2003
Like a Charm, 2004
The Adventure of the Missing Detective and 19 of the Year’s Finest Crime and Mystery Stories, 2005
Magnetic North: New Work from North East Writers, 2005
The Best New British Mysteries Volume II, 2005
Stranded, 2005
A Merry Band of Murderers, 2006
The Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries, 2008
Criminal Tendencies, 2009
The Sounds Of Crime, 2010
The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 7, 2010
The Dark End of the Street, 2010
The Library Book, 2012
The Killer Cookbook, 2012
The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 9, 2012
Crime Writers: A Decade of Crime, 2013, with Harlan Coben, Ann Cleeves, P D James, Mark Billingham, and Steve Mosby
OxCrimes: 27 Killer Stories from the Cream of Crimewriters, 2014
Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 11, 2014
Out There: An Anthology of Scottish LGBT Writing, 2014
Crime Plus Music, 2016
Murder Under the Christmas Tree, 2016
Deadlier, 2017
Bloody Scotland, 2017
Murder On Christmas Eve, 2017
MatchUp, 2017 (edited by Lee Child)
A Very Murderous Christmas, 2018
Exit Wounds, 2019
Bloody Scotland, 2019
Imagine A Country, 2020
Christmas is Murder, 2020
Afraid of the Christmas Lights, 2020
Marple: Twelve New Mysteries, 2020
Ink and Daggers, 2023
CrimeBits 2, 2025

Graphic Novels

Resistance, 2020

Picture Books

My Granny is a Pirate, 2012

Non-Fiction Books

A Suitable Job for a Woman: Inside the World of Private Eyes, 1995
The Library Book, 2012
Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA and More Tell Us About Crime, 2014
My Scotland, 2019
Imagine A Country, 2020 (with Jo Sharp)
Winter, 2025

Val McDermid Biography

Val McDermid is a Scottish author and former journalist whose work includes multiple crime series, standalone novels, and non-fiction works.
Official website: valmcdermid.com

Val McDermid was born in Fife, Scotland in 1955, in a working-class family, and was educated at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. After university, she trained in Devon and worked as a journalist in Glasgow and Manchester.

She published her debut novel, Report for Murder, in 1987, which introduced the journalist Lindsay Gordon. This also began her career as a crime novelist. Over the years, she created several series, including the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan novels, as well as the Karen Pirie books, alongside other crime fiction and non-fiction works.

Outside of her career as a fiction writer, Val McDermid has also written columns and commentary for British newspapers. She is co-founder of the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival and Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. In 2011, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Sunderland.

Val McDermid lives in Scotland and writes full-time.

Val McDermid Book Adaptations

Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series – adapted into the television series Wire in the Blood (2002–2008)
Karen Pirie series – adapted into the television series Karen Pirie (2022)

Val McDermid Awards and Nominations

Major Awards

The Mermaids Singing – CWA Gold Dagger (1995)
A Place of Execution – Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel (2000)
A Place of Execution – Anthony Award for Best Novel (2001)
A Place of Execution – Macavity Award for Best Novel (2001)
The Distant Echo – Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel (2004)
CWA Diamond Dagger (2010)

Awards (Full List)

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The Mermaids Singing – CWA Gold Dagger (1995)
A Place of Execution – Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel (2000)
A Place of Execution – Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller (2000)
A Place of Execution – Anthony Award for Best Novel (2001)
A Place of Execution – Dilys Award for Best Book (2001)
A Place of Execution – Macavity Award for Best Novel (2001)
The Distant Echo – Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel (2004)
The Torment of Others – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2006)
CWA Diamond Dagger (2010)
Fever of the Bone – Barry Award for Best Paperback Original (2011)
Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award (2016)

Nominations and Shortlists

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Crack Down – CWA Gold Dagger (1994)
Crack Down – Anthony Award for Best Novel (1995)
A Place of Execution – CWA Gold Dagger (1999)
A Place of Execution – Edgar Award for Best Novel (2001)
Killing the Shadows – Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel (2002)
The Torment of Others – CWA Gold Dagger (2004)
The Distant Echo – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2005)
The Grave Tattoo – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2008)
The Grave Tattoo – BCA Crime Thriller of the Year (2008)
Beneath the Bleeding – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2009)
A Darker Domain – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2009)
A Darker Domain – Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller (2009)
A Darker Domain – CrimeFest: Sounds of Crime Award (2009)
Fever of the Bone – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2011)
The Retribution – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2012)
The Vanishing Point – McIlvanney Prize (2013)
Cross and Burn – CrimeFest: eDunnit Award (2014)
Splinter the Silence – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2016)
Splinter the Silence – McIlvanney Prize (2016)
Out of Bounds – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2017)
Out of Bounds – McIlvanney Prize (2017)
Insidious Intent – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2018)
Broken Ground – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2019)
Broken Ground – McIlvanney Prize (2019)
Ancient and Modern – Edgar Award for Best Short Story (2019)
How the Dead Speak – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2020)
How the Dead Speak – McIlvanney Prize (2020)
How the Dead Speak – British Book Award for Crime and Thriller Book of the Year (2020)
Still Life – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2021)
Still Life – McIlvanney Prize (2021)
1979 – Macavity Award for Best Novel (2022)
1979 – British Book Award for Crime and Thriller Book of the Year (2022)
1989 – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2023)
1989 – McIlvanney Prize (2023)
Past Lying – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year (2024)
Past Lying – McIlvanney Prize (2024)

Edited by

Marika

Founder of Mystery Sequels, a reference site focused on listing mystery and thriller books in the correct reading order. I maintain and update the site’s bibliographies as new titles are released, ensuring accuracy and consistency across author and series pages.