Val Mcdermid Books In Order – Complete List

International bestselling Scottish crime fiction author Val McDermid, is best known for her Tony Hill and Carol Jordan crime mystery books. In addition, she has four other series worth checking out, including the Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie series, the Allie Burns series, the Scottish journalist and amateur sleuth Lindsay Gordon series, and the private investigator Kate Brannigan series.

If you love the works of Ian Rankin, Ruth Rendel, James Lee Burke and Reginald Hill, reading the Val McDermid books in order for each series is a must for any crime mystery enthusiast.

Here are all the books for the various series, standalone novels, and other writings listed for each in order of publication and reading order, including the author’s short stories, novellas, collections, and anthologies as well.

Latest Val McDermid Books

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Tony Hill & Carol Jordan Books in Publication Order

1. The Mermaids Singing, 1995
2. The Wire in the Blood, 1997
3. The Last Temptation, 2002
4. The Torment of Others, 2004
5. Beneath the Bleeding, 2007
6. Fever Of The Bone, 2009
7. The Retribution, 2011
8. Cross and Burn, 2013
9. Splinter the Silence, 2015
10. Insidious Intent, 2017
11. How the Dead Speak, 2019

Lindsay Gordon Books In Publication Order

1. Report for Murder, 1987
2. Common Murder, 1989
3. Final Edition, 1991 (aka Open And Shut / Deadline for Murder)
4. Union Jack, 1993 (aka Conferences are Murder)
5. Booked for Murder, 1996
6. Hostage to Murder, 2003

Kate Brannigan Books in Publication Order

1. Dead Beat, 1992
2. Kick Back), 1993
3. Crack Down, 1994
4. Clean Break, 1995
5. Blue Genes, 1996
6. Star Struck, 1998

Inspector Karen Pirie Books In Publication Order

1. The Distant Echo, 2003
2. A Darker Domain, 2008
3. The Skeleton Road, 2014
4. Out of Bounds, 2016
5. Broken Ground, 2018
6. Still Life, 2020
7. Past Lying, 2023
8. Silent Bones, 2024

Allie Burns Books in Publication Order

1. 1979, 2021
2. 1989, 2022

Standalone Novels in Publication Order

• A Place of Execution, 1999
• Killing the Shadows, 2000
• Naked Came the Phoenix, 2001 (with Nevada Barr, Mary Jane Clark, Diana Gabaldon, J A Jance, Faye Kellerman, Laurie R King, J.D. Robb, Pam and Mary O’Shaughnessy, Anne Perry, Nancy Pickard, Lisa Scottoline, and Marcia Talley)
• The Grave Tattoo, 2006
• Trick Of The Dark, 2011
• The Vanishing Point, 2012
• Inherit the Dead, 2013 (serial novel with others)

Novellas and Short Stories in Publication Order

• When Larry Met Allie, 2020
• Cleanskin, 2006 (Quick Reads 2006)
• Life’s Too Short (Quick Reads 2010)
• Footloose, 2018 (with Peter James, in the MatchUp Collection)
• Queen Macbeth, 2024 (a retelling of the story of Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth) (The Darkland Tales)

Murderous Christmas Stories in Publication Order

• Murder Under the Christmas Tree: Ten Classic Crime Stories for the Festive Season, 2016
• Murder on Christmas Eve, 2017
• A Very Murderous Christmas: Ten Classic Crime Stories for the Festive Season, 2018

Anthologies and Short Story Collections in Publication Order

• 3rd Culprit, 1995 (A Crime Writers’ Annual)
• 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 (Crime Writer’s Association Anthology)
• The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories Fourth Annual Collection, 2003
• Mysterious Pleasures, 2003 (Crime Writer’s Association Anthology) edited by Martin Edwards
• 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 (with Ian Rankin)
• A Merry Band of Murderers, 2006
• The Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries, 2008
• Criminal Tendencies, 2009 (Great Stories from Great Crime Writers edited by Lynne Patrick)
• The Sounds Of Crime, 2010
• The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 7, 2010
• The Dark End of the Street, 2010 (New Stories of Sex and Crime edited by S J Rozan and Jonathan Santlofer)
• 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
• Deadlier, 2017 (100 of the Best Crime Stories Written by Women edited by Sophie Hannah)
• Bloody Scotland, 2017 (New Fiction from Scotland’s Best Crime Writers edited by James Crawford)
• Murder On Christmas Eve: Classic Mysteries for the Festive Season, 2017 (Vintage Murders #2)
• MatchUp, 2017 (edited by Lee Child)
• Exit Wounds, 2019 (edited by Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan)
• Bloody Scotland, 2019
• Imagine A Country, 2020
• Christmas is Murder, 2020
• Afraid of the Christmas Lights, 2020 (Afraid of the Light Collection)
• Marple: Twelve New Mysteries, 2020
• Ink and Daggers, 2023 (edited by Maxim Jakubowski)

MatchUp Collection Books in Publication Order

• Honor & …, 2017, by C.J. Box, Sandra Brown
• Deserves to Be Dead, 2017, by John Sandford, Lisa Jackson
• Getaway, 2017, by Lisa Scottoline, Nelson DeMille
• Midnight Flame, 2018, by Christopher Rice, Lara Adrian
• Short Story, 2019, by Karin Slaughter, Michael Koryta
• Past Prologue, 2019, by Diana Gabaldon, Steve Berry
• Faking a Murderer, 2019, by Lee Child, Kathy Reichs
• Dig Here, 2019, by Charlaine Harris, Andrew Gross
• Taking the Veil, 2019, by J.A. Jance, Eric Van Lustbader
• Rambo on Their Minds, 2019, by Gayle Lynds, David Morrell
• Footloose, 2019, with Peter James

Graphic Novels and Picture Books in Publication Order

• My Granny is a Pirate, 2012 (picture book for kids)
• Resistance, 2020 (graphic novel)

Austen Project Books in Publication Order

• Sense & Sensibility by Joanna Trollope, 2013
• Northanger Abbey, 2014
• Emma by Alexander McCall Smith, 2014
• Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld, 2016

Non-Fiction Books in Publication Order

• 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)

Val McDermid Biography – About the Author

One of the finest crime writers around, Val McDermid was born in Fife, Scotland in 1955, in a working-class family. She spent most of her childhood in Fife, until, at the age of 17, she moved to Oxford where she was accepted at St Hilda’s College, which was quite the culture shock for both sides, due to the common language barrier. She was, in fact, the first student to be admitted there from a Scottish state school.

She always wanted to write and after college, she pursued her goal first by training for two years in Devon, after which working for 14 years as a journalist in Glasgow and Manchester. While working in Devon she wrote her debut novel which was soon turned into a playscript for the BBC radio.

In 1987 her first official book, Report For Murder (which would be the first book in the Lindsay Gordon series) was published, and this was her first success to a rewarding career of crime mystery writer, a career she is still faithful to until today.

With over 40 books under her belt ranging from 4 different crime mystery series to standalone books to short story collections, anthologies, children stories, and even non-fiction books, the author is one of the most popular British contemporary mystery authors today.

Her Tony Hill series has been adapted to a TV show called Wire In The Blood with Robson Green playing the main character.

In her books, Tony is a clinical psychologist, Lindsay Gordon is a journalist, Kate Brannigan is a female private investigator, Karen Pirie is a detective chief inspector, while Allie Burns is an investigative reporter. Val McDermid classifies her books in the Tartan Noir crime fiction from Scotland. Readers who are sensitive to violence might want to check up on the Carol Jordan books in particular, as there is an excessive graphic depiction of violence in them.

The popular Karen Pirie series is one that has the most recent additions with Silent Bones, a novel published in October 2024. It is the 8th book in the series, which is now a major British TV series that started airing in 2022. It features Lauren Lyle as DS Karen Pirie. There is a second commissioned season which is yet to air.

The first book in the series starts in 1978, when the body of a young barmaid, Rosie Duff, is found at a Scottish cemetery on a cold winter morning. Alex Gilbey and his three best friends were the four young men who were suspected but never convicted of her murder.

Now, 25 years later, the cold case is reopened when someone has their own idea for revenge. Alex, who is now targeted after two of his friends ended up dead, knows he’s next on the line along with his family.

The fast-paced novel starts the series with interesting flashbacks, going from the past to the current timeline. Karen works in Fife investigating cold cases and she now has to untangle the very old threads before more bodies our found.

One of my favorite books in the series is Out of Bounds, where 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. DCI Karen Pirie, the Scottish cold-case detective, is still struggling with the death of her former partner and boyfriend, Phil, so she throws herself at this case with everything she’s got, just to forget about her personal problems.

In addition to writing novels, Val McDermid also contributes columns to various British newspapers. In 2009 she was added to the Hall of Fame of the ITV3 Crime Thriller authors.

She is co-founder of the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival and Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, which is a part of the Harrogate International Festivals.

In 2011 McDermid was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Sunderland.

Her books have been translated into over 30 languages and have sold more than 11 million copies all over the world.

As an interesting fact, in 2022 Val McDermid told the Edinburgh Book Festival that the Agatha Christie estate had previously trademarked the term “Queen of Crime,” and they had threatened to sue her over this name.

The Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series has been adapted for television under the title Wire in the Blood, starring Robson Green as the main protagonist.

Val McDermid Awards and Nominations

• Crack Down was shortlisted for the 1994 CWA Gold Dagger
• A Place of Execution was shortlisted for the 1999 CWA Gold Dagger and received the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel in 2000 It was also nominated for the 2001 Edgar Award for Best Novel and received the Anthony Award for Best Novel, the Dilys Award for Best Book, and the Macavity Award for Best Novel in 2001 In 2010, it received the CWA Diamond Dagger
• Killing The Shadows was nominated for the 2002 Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel
• The Torment of Others was shortlisted for the 2004 CWA Gold Dagger and received Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year in 2006
• The Distant Echo was shortlisted for the 2005 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and received the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel in 2004
• The Grave Tattoo was shortlisted for the 2008 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and was nominated for the 2008 BCA Crime Thriller of the Year
• Beneath the Bleeding was shortlisted for the 2009 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year
• A Darker Domain was shortlisted for the 2010 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year
• Fever of the Bone was shortlisted for the 2011 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and received the Barry Award for Best Paperback Original in 2011
• The Retribution was shortlisted for the 2012 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year
• Cross and Burn was nominated for the 2014 CrimeFest: eDunnit Award
• Splinter the Silence was shortlisted for the 2016 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and was nominated for the 2016 McIlvanney Prize
• Out of Bounds was shortlisted for the 2017 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and was nominated for the 2017 McIlvanney Prize
• Insidious Intent was shortlisted for the 2018 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year
• Broken Ground was shortlisted for the 2019 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and was nominated for the 2019 McIlvanney Prize
• How the Dead Speak was shortlisted for the 2020 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and was nominated for the 2020 McIlvanney Prize
• Still Life was shortlisted for the 2021 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and was nominated for the 2021 McIlvanney Prize
• 1979 was nominated for the 2022 Macavity Award for Best Novel
• 1989 was shortlisted for the 2023 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and was nominated for the 2023 McIlvanney Prize
• Past Lying was shortlisted for the 2024 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year

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