A Darker Domain by Val McDermid

A Darker Domain is the second Karen Pirie novel by Val McDermid. Published in 2008, the story is set three years after the events of the first novel – The Distant Echo. In The Distant Echo, Karen Pirie was quite a peripheral character, but she definitely takes the lead in A Darker Domain. In the three years which have elapsed between the two novels she has been promoted twice and is now DI Karen Pirie and heading up the Cold Cases Unit.

In 2007, a woman reports her father missing. He’s actually been missing for 22 years, but nobody had thought to report him before. A miner, he disappeared at the height of the miners’ strike, unable to put food on the table for his wife and daughter. It was always thought he’d gone ‘scabbing’ to Nottinghamshire – bringing great shame on his wife.

Meanwhile, one of Scotland’s richest men calls on Karen to help track down his missing grandson. His daughter and baby grandson were kidnapped and held to ransom in 1984. His daughter ended up dead and the baby disappeared. Now a new piece of evidence has come to light in Italy, which could solve the mystery. And could there be any link to the case of the missing miner?

Karen is under pressure to deliver on the kidnapping case, while quietly working on the missing miner case. We meet DC Jason ‘the Mint’ Murray for the first time, who is considered to be fairly inept. He goes on to become a key character in later books. I’ve also read the last two books in the series – Still Life and Past Lying.

This is another brilliant read from Val McDermid and I will be reading the remaining three Karen Pirie thrillers in the next few months. If you enjoy a detective novel, I would recommend the Karen Pirie series. (This is probably the least gruesome Val McDermid I’ve read so far. She does like to write a gruesome murder!)