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Silent Bones

Karen Pirie, Book 8

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Silent Bones

By: Val McDermid
Narrated by: Cathleen McCarron
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THE POWERFUL NEW THRILLER IN THE KAREN PIRIE SERIES, NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES

The truth is buried just beneath the surface....

When torrential rain causes a landslide on a motorway in Scotland, it reveals a crime scene: someone hid a body in the tarmac eleven years before. Journalist Sam Nimmo had been the prime suspect in the murder of his fiancée when he disappeared, and now DCI Karen Pirie and her Historic Cases Unit must find out who buried him, and why.

Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, new evidence reopens a closed case and the accidental death of a hotel manager starts to look like murder. But what did Tom Jamieson's book club have to do with his demise - and what will they do to keep their secrets?

Karen and her team begin to untangle a web of lies, one that connects their murder cases with Scotland's rich and powerful. They will be tested to their limits—and possibly beyond....

©2025 Val McDermid (P)2025 W. F. Howes Ltd Crime International Mystery & Crime Mystery Thriller & Suspense Women Sleuths Scotland Murder
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Usual excellent Mystery from Val! Love all the Scot’s idioms plus Karen is a brilliant character.

The narrator is absolutely excellent! Please do not change that.

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There were several plots twisted together, which kept me interested. Lots of different characters and good dialogue. I think there was a lot more humour than I have noticed in previous books and I thought it worked well. Overall a highly enjoyable listen. The only downside was that the ending a bit quick and disappointing. The motive of the murder in the main sub plot seemed quite unbelievable, and I was expecting a few more twists and turns or least a confession.

Enjoyable listening with plenty of humour

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Silent Bones – Karen Pirrie

Easy enough to follow — nothing moves fast enough to lose you.
I kept waiting for the big twist or a bit of tension.
Still waiting.

The story has potential, but the excitement never quite turns up.
Maybe it took a wrong turn.
And the ending just drifts away as if it suddenly remembered it had somewhere else to be.

Not a bad listen.
Not a great one.
Just comfortably average crime fiction.

If you want something gripping, you may need to bring your own adrenaline.

Slow but steady

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I have loved Karen Pirrie books from the start, but this one just didn't quite get me. maybe it was just too overreaching, little tension and lacked the personal... I don't know.

the narrator is lovely but a breath between paragraphs when she is changing the narrative would really help sometimes.x

I don't know why, but I just couldn't get into this storyline.

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As ever a well written and plotted book. The voice acting was good My on;y complait is Val McDermid can't write them fast enough

McDermid never lets you down

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