©KT Bruce
Books by Val McDermid
Val McDermid has sold over 16 million books to date across the globe and has been translated into 40 languages. She is perhaps best known for her Wire in the Blood series, featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan, which was adapted for television starring Robson Green.
How The Dead Speak, the 11th book in the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan
series is published in paperback in February 2020. Val was chair of the Wellcome Book Prize in 2017 and has served as a judge for both the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the 2018 Man Booker Prize. She holds six honorary doctorates and is an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda’s College, Oxford. Val is also lead vocalist with The Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers.
“It takes you into the past, the 1960s, which I really enjoyed, especially since this is a period when McDermid was around (though very young). In an interview I heard her say that the inspiration for A Place of Execution came when she moved to Derbyshire in 1979—a place of limestone peaks and narrow, twisting vales. It felt to her like a place with secrets, where anything could happen. Again, I don’t want to say much about the plot but yes, the worst does happen.” Read more...
Sophie Roell, Journalist
Interviews with Val McDermid
The Best Crime Fiction of 2019, recommended by Val McDermid
It’s been a great year for crime fiction – with soaring sales and global bestsellers emerging from writers all over the world. Crime writing is rightly in the ascendancy, says the celebrated Scottish novelist Val McDermid as she selects the best crime fiction of 2019: five books that stand as great novels in their own right.
Interviews where books by Val McDermid were recommended
Best Crime Fiction of 2020, recommended by Sophie Roell
If you’re looking for escapism, crime novels can be a good way to go. Which is strange, given that nearly all of them revolve around murder. Sophie Roell, editor of Five Books and an avid consumer of the genre, picks her personal favourites published in 2020.
