Out of Bounds by Val McDermid

Out of Bounds is the fourth DCI Karen Pirie novel by Val McDermid. I’ve previously read the first, second, sixth and seventh (most recent) novels in the series. I’ve been trying to get hold of the third novel – The Skeleton Road – for a while, but it has been out of stock at both Waterstones and Amazon. So I gave up waiting and decided to read Out of Bounds instead! Hopefully I will get hold of The Skeleton Road at some point, because it contains a really key event which casts a shadow over all the later novels in the series.

DCI Karen Pirie heads up Police Scotland’s Historic Cases Unit. When a teenage joyrider crashes a car, a sample of his blood shows a close family link to an unsolved rape and murder. It should be an easy case for Karen to crack – find the boy’s dad and she’s found the murderer. But it isn’t as straightforward as that…

Meanwhile, Karen is intrigued by another case, which isn’t her responsibility. A young man was found shot dead on a bench. Was it murder or suicide? The investigating officer is too quick to make assumptions, but Karen thinks links to a murder in the past must be more than a coincidence. Her unofficial investigations unearth some dangerous family secrets.

Can Karen just forget the case or will she keep on digging, getting herself in trouble and putting herself in danger?

Out of Bounds is another fantastic page turner from Val McDermid. It was published in 2016, but it feels really current.

If you enjoy a detective novel, I would definitely recommend Val McDermid and the Karen Pirie series. You can read any of them as a standalone novel, but if you enjoy them, it is worth reading the series. The Karen Pirie novels are very clever and easy to read, but slightly less gruesome than her Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series.