Two novels from “one of crime fiction’s most eminent writers”: A female PI in Manchester, England pokes around in some dangerous business (Entertainment Weekly). In Blue Genes, Kate Brannigan’s not just having a bad day, she’s having a bad week. The worst week of her life, if you really want to know. Her boyfriend’s death notice is in the paper, her plan to catch a team of fraudsters is in disarray and a neo-punk band want her to find out who’s sabotaging their publicity. And her business partner wants her to buy him out. If only she had the cash. Kate can’t even cry on her best friend’s shoulder, for Alexis has worries of her own. Her girlfriend’s pregnant, and when the doctor responsible for the fertility treatment is murdered, Alexis needs Kate like never before. So what’s a girl to do? Delving into the alien world of medical experimentation and the underbelly of the rock-music business, Kate confronts betrayal and cold-blooded greed as she fights to save not only her livelihood, but her life as well... Bodyguarding never made it to Manchester PI Kate Brannigan’s wish list. But in Star Struck, Kate’s still broke, and the only earner on offer is playing nursemaid to a paranoid soap star. So this time Kate has to swallow her pride and slip into something more glam than her Thai boxing kit. But when offstage dramas threaten to overshadow the fictional storylines, and the unscripted murder of the self-styled “Seer to the Stars” stops the show, it leaves Kate with more questions than answers...

Kate Brannigan, Manchester's answer to Kinsey Millhone, returns with a new case.

The internationally bestselling crime writer “offers a canny new twist on Jane Austen’s early novel . . . a reimagined delight for Austen fans” (Booklist). A homeschooled minister’s daughter in the quaint, sheltered Piddle Valley in Dorset, Cat Morland loses herself in novels and is sure there is a glamorous adventure awaiting her beyond the valley’s narrow horizon. So, imagine her delight when the Allens, neighbors and friends of her parents, invite her to attend the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh as their guest. With a sunny personality, tickets every night, and a few key wardrobe additions courtesy of Susie Allen, Cat quickly begins to take Edinburgh by storm and is taken into the bosom of the Thorpe family, particularly by eldest daughter Bella. And then there’s the handsome Henry Tilney, an up-and-coming lawyer whose family home is the beautiful and forbidding Northanger Abbey. Cat is entranced by Henry and his charming sister, Eleanor, but she can’t help wondering if everything about them is as perfect as it seems. Or has she just been reading too many novels? A delectable, note-perfect modern update of the Jane Austen classic, Northanger Abbey tells a timeless story of innocence amid cynicism, the exquisite angst of young love, and the value of friendship. “McDermid’s success lies in her ability to allow her version of Northanger Abbey to dovetail tidily and enjoyably with Austen’s original while infusing it with her own humor, wit, and style.” —The Boston Globe “Rife with conflicts of love, gossip, misunderstandings, and updates on social media, it is an accessible and enjoyable read, especially rewarding for young readers as a gateway into appreciating the classics.” —Publishers Weekly

Two mysteries in one volume featuring the investigating journalist, from the Diamond Dagger Award-winning author. Final Edition When Alison Maxwell, a well-known Glaswegian journalist with an irresistible sexual attraction to both sexes, is found murdered, the police look no further than the owner of the scarf used to strangle her. Reporter Lindsay Gordon, however, suspects there’s more to the story. Maxwell was a serial seductress who kept a secret record of her encounters, including one with Lindsay herself. Recalling the threats that followed the end of the relationship, Lindsay knows all too well the feelings of rage, fear, and passion that Alison Maxwell could invoke—and she will be stepping into a sordid world of lies to solve the case. “Compelling characters [and] a mystery that is profoundly twisted.”—Bay Area Reporter Union Jack When unethical union leader Tom Jack falls to his death from the window of Lindsay Gordon’s tenth-floor hotel room after a spectacularly public row between the two of them, it seems the only way to prove her innocence is to find the real culprit. But that will requireuncovering a seething cauldron of blackmail, corruption and abuse of power, all brought to the boil by her investigation. “A wonderful read?thrilling, scary and funny.”?Evening Standard (UK)

Bestselling author of Broken Ground “offers fascinating glimpses” into the real world of criminal forensics from its beginnings to the modern day (The Boston Globe). The dead can tell us all about themselves: where they came from, how they lived, how they died, and, of course, who killed them. Using the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene, or the faintest of human traces, forensic scientists unlock the mysteries of the past and serve justice. In Forensics, international bestselling crime author Val McDermid guides readers through this field, drawing on interviews with top-level professionals, ground-breaking research, and her own experiences on the scene. Along the way, McDermid discovers how maggots collected from a corpse can help determine one’s time of death; how a DNA trace a millionth the size of a grain of salt can be used to convict a killer; and how a team of young Argentine scientists led by a maverick American anthropologist were able to uncover the victims of a genocide. Prepare to travel to war zones, fire scenes, and autopsy suites as McDermid comes into contact with both extraordinary bravery and wickedness, tracing the history of forensics from its earliest beginnings to the cutting-edge science of the modern day.

A Scottish police inspector deals with forgeries and false identities in a new murder mystery in the “superior series” (The New York Times). When a lobster fisherman discovers a dead body in Scotland’s Firth of Forth, DCI Karen Pirie is called into investigate. She quickly discovers that the case will require untangling a complicated web—involving a long-ago disappearance, art forgery, and secret identities—that seems to surround a painter who can mimic anyone from Holbein to Hockney. Meanwhile, a traffic accident leads to the discovery of a skeleton in a suburban garage. Karen has a full plate, and it only gets more stressful as the man responsible for the death of the love of her life is scheduled for release from prison, reopening old wounds just as she was getting back on her feet. From a Diamond Dagger Award winner and multiple Edgar Award finalist, Still Life is a tightly plotted mystery featuring an investigator “whose unwavering confidence is tempered by a strong dose of kindness and sense of justice” (Booklist). “There are few other crime writers in the same league.”—Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post

The bestselling “Queen of Crime reigns again” when a profiler and an ex-cop investigate the suspicious deaths of women targeted by Internet trolls (Independent, UK). From the international bestselling author of The Mermaids Singing and The Wire in the Blood comes the ninth installment of her beloved series featuring psychologist Tony Hill and former DCI Carol Jordan . . . Vicious online attacks seem to be driving outspoken women to silence themselves through suicide. Yet for profiler Tony Hill, who knows a thing or two about patterns in human behavior, something doesn’t add up. Carol Jordan, meanwhile, is too busy tackling her own demons to think about a potential serial killer. But when she gets an opportunity for a second chance, it’s game on. This time around, though, the stakes have never been higher. One of the Boston Globe’s Best Books of 2015