#BookReview Broken Ground by Val McDermid @valmcdermid @groveatlantic

Broken Ground by Val McDermid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Internationally bestselling author Val McDermid is one of our finest crime writers, and her gripping, masterfully plotted novels have garnered millions of readers from around the globe. In Broken Ground, cold case detective Karen Pirie faces her hardest challenge yet.

Six feet under in a Highland peat bog lies Alice Somerville's inheritance, buried by her grandfather at the end of World War II. But when Alice finally uncovers it, she finds an unwanted surprise--a body with a bullet hole between the eyes. Meanwhile, DCI Pirie is called in to unravel a case where nothing is quite as it seems. And as she gets closer to the truth, it becomes clear that not everyone shares her desire for justice. Or even the idea of what justice is.

An engrossing, twisty thriller, Broken Ground reaffirms Val McDermid's place as one of the best crime writers of her generation.

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I had the great joy of reading OUT OF BOUNDS and BROKEN GROUNDS back-to-back. Both books are really good. I quite like that in this book Karen Pirie seems to be on the brink of happiness after the loss of Phil a year before. Also, the case is really interesting. A body is found in with a treasure from WW2, however, the body is more recent than so. So, the question is, who is this man and who killed him?

If there is one thing I love is it cold cases and that's why I enjoy this series so much. I especially liked that the case in question dates back all the way to the WW2 Now it's up to Karen and her team to try to figure out who the dead man is and who was it that killed him. But, it's not an easy case to solve, a great deal of digging must be done. Meanwhile, while Karen is working this case does she also overhear a heated discussion in a café and she can't resist butting in. This will have some consequences...

BROKEN GROUND is an excellent crime novel. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

#BookReview Out of Bounds by Val McDermid @valmcdermid @groveatlantic

Out of Bounds by Val McDermid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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.

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OUT OF BOUNDS is the fourth book in the Inspector Karen Pirie series and I have previously read book two and three in this series. This is a series that is growing on me. I still prefer the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series by the author, but this one and the one that comes after (that I picked up straight after I finished this one) are really good and I now want to read the first book that I haven't yet read.

Karen Pirie lost the love of her life recently and she spends her nights walking around in the city trying to come to grips with her loss. That doesn't mean that she isn't doing her damn best to solve cold cases. A joyride crash has given new life to an old rape and murder case. However, finding the answers will not be that easy. Karen is also drawn to a recent murder case that is linked to a terrorist bombing that happened twenty years ago. Could there be a link between the two deeds?

OUT OF BOUNDS is a really good book and it's not necessarily to read the books in the right order since each book has new cases.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid (SWE/ENG)

The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

SWEDISH REVIEW

Döden vittnar är en samtida psykologisk thriller som tar läsaren genom Skottland, från Edinburghs gator, vidare till Oxford och till sist, tillbaka till det forna Jugoslavien.

Ett skelett hittas i en gammal förfallen skola i Edinburgh. Ett skotthål genomborrar skallbenet och kriminalkommissarie Karen Pirie, expert på cold cases, kallas in. Samtidigt blir en man mördad på Kreta och bägge dödsfallen tycks ha kopplingar till Balkankriget på 1990-talet. Den trogna Val McDermidläsaren har tidigare stiftat bekantskap med kriminalkommissarie Karen Pirie i Ett fjärran eko och Mörka domäner.

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Jag hade helt glömt bort att jag hade läst en tidigare bok i denna serie. Och, jag är tacksam över det då det inte var en bok som jag fann speciellt intressant. Jag är en stor fan av Val McDermids Tony Hill och Carol Jordan serie men jag har inte direkt utforskat hennes andra böcker så det var intressant att läsa denna bok och till viss del tyckte jag det var riktigt bra, dock så var det rätt så lätt att lista ut vem som låg bakom mordet på mannen som hittades skjuten upp på taket till en byggnad. Jag kände på mig vem det var och sedan släppte inte min misstanke om personen i fråga och det visade sig att jag hade rätt.

Men, trots det så fann jag berättelsen intressant, speciellt att det var olika synviklar. Vi har Karen Pirie som försöker lösa mordet, sedan har vi professor Maggie Blake som har kopplingar till fallet och vars förflutna vi får ta del av då hon för första gången skriver ner hennes minnes från Balkankriget. Slutligen har vi två advokater som får i uppdrag att finna en person som dödar krigsförbrytare innan de ställs inför rätta.

Personligen hade jag gärna sluppit sidospåret med de två advokaterna från Internationella krigsförbrytartribunalen. De var allt bra löjliga och deras kapitel var de minst intressanta att läsa. Om de hade varit mer seriösa och inte så fjantiga kanske de hade varit mycket mer intressant att läsa om.

Fallet i sig själv var intressant, jag gillade kopplingen till det forna Jugoslavien och jag tyckte allra bäst om Maggies berättelse och det är tack vare hennes berättelse som jag i slutändan tyckte att boken trots allt var riktigt bra.

Tack till Alfabeta Bokförlag för recensionexemplaret!

ENGLISH REVIEW

When a skeleton is discovered hidden at the top of a crumbling, gothic building in Edinburgh, Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie is faced with the unenviable task of identifying the bones. As Karen's investigation gathers momentum, she is drawn deeper into a world of intrigue and betrayal, spanning the dark days of the Balkan Wars.

Karen's search for answers brings her to a small village in Croatia, a place scarred by fear, where people have endured unspeakable acts of violence. Meanwhile, someone is taking the law into their own hands in the name of justice and revenge -- but when present resentment collides with secrets of the past, the truth is more shocking than anyone could have imagined...

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I had completely forgotten that I had read a previous book in this series. And, I'm actually pretty grateful for it when it was not a book that I found particularly interesting. I'm a big fan of Val McDermids Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series, but I have not really found time to explore her other books so I found it interesting to read this book and to some extent did I think it was really good. However, was quite easy to figure out who was behind the murder of the man, who was found shot, on the roof of a building. I just felt quickly that I knew who was the killer and it turned out I was right.

But, I found the story interesting, despite that, I especially liked the story's different point of views. First, we have Karen Pirie trying to solve the murder, then we have Professor Maggie Blake who is linked to the case, in some way. We also get Maggie's past as she writes down her memory from the Balkan War and how she met a man there that she came to love and loose. Finally, we have two lawyers who are assigned to find a person who kills the criminals before they are brought to justice.

Personally, I could have lived without the two lawyers from the International Criminal Tribunal. They were very ridiculous and their chapters were the least interesting to read. If they had been more serious and not so silly they might have been much more interesting to read about.

The case itself was interesting, I liked the connection to the former Yugoslavia and I personally liked Maggie's story the best, both her past in Yugoslavia and her present life in England. And I can honestly say that thanks to her story did this book turn out to be quite good!

Thanks to Alfabeta Bokförlag for the review copy!

Splinter the Silence by Val McDermid

Splinter the Silence by Val McDermid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Splinter the Silence is a novel centered on the mysterious deaths of several women who were the victims of vicious cyberbullying.

Is it violence if it’s virtual? The outspoken women targeted by the increasingly cruel internet trolls and bullies would probably say so. For some of them, the torrents of bile and vicious threats prove too much. They begin to silence themselves in a series of high-profile suicides.

Or do they? Tony Hill isn’t convinced. But he’s the only one. Former cop Carol Jordan is too busy messing up her life to care. Until she gets an unexpected second chance. Now it’s game on, and the stakes have never been higher.

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It seems that finally Tony and Carol is back as friends after everything that happened with her brother's murder. I quite enjoy having them back to speaking with each other again and it seems that Tony is finally getting to Carol that she has a drinking problem. Of course, it had to go so far for Carol that she has to be arrested for drunk driving before Tony frankly told her that she had to quit. But by then the arrest had already damaged her reputation, which was really bad because the powers that be in the police want her back, but not with a driving drunk sentence. But everything can be fixed. Besides, that is Tony discovering that there is something wrong with the suicides of a couple of women and soon he, Carol and Paula are investigating the suicides.

I found this book story especially good because it finally brought the old team together. I have missed reading about them working together under Carol. The case in itself took some time to get somewhere. And it felt like most of the time the book concentrated on other things than finding a killer. Carol and her drunk driving and the consequences of that took up a lot of the book and I did enjoy reading about Tony finally confronting Carol about her drinking problem and moving into the barn to help her the first couple of days and of course, getting rid of all the alcohol at her her place which didn't make her happy. I do wish that case had taken a bit more priorities it was first towards the very end that books story really started to get intensive. Not that the book was bad, I just got a bit impatient with all the personal stuff. I did enjoy that part when the new team was finally started to put all the pieces together and the manhunt started.

The ending was fitting, I don't want to give it away, but there had to be some consequences to Carols drunk driving and what happened after that. It will be interesting to read the next book to see how it will be dealt with.

Thanks to Witness Impulse and Edelweiss for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!