crime-thriller, suspense, law-enforcement, mysteries, detective-fiction, procedural, pandemic, archivist, library, tense, murder, murder-investigation*****

Cold case: Scotland/Historic Cases Unit
Law enforcement is hard enough, but the constraints placed upon them by necessary precautions of effective quarantine plus a more than double lack of personnel makes it all darn near impossible as well as totally exhausting. DCI Pirie and her team are called upon to look into a case and find enough evidence to make it valid for trial. Excellent read!
I requested and received a temporary PDF from Grove Atlantic/Atlantic Monthly Press via NetGalley.

A superlative mystery-thriller from the Scottish Queen of Crime Fiction. Karen Pirie and her team investigate a twisted case with links to Scotland's crime-writing community while subject to the restrictions of the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown. I'd enthusiastically recommend Past Lying to any reader who's enjoyed previous series instalments over the past 20 years, and to those new to either D.I. Karen Pirie or Val McDermid's substantial body of much-lauded work.

I loved this story set in Edinburgh during the lockdown in 2020. I loved all the twists and turns that DCI Karen Pirie encounters while trying to solve a cold case. I enjoyed getting to know a bit about Jason and Daisy. I really liked that I could figure out the main characters even though I have not read all the books in this series. I could not put the book down. I received a copy of the book from the publisher for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

She's a great writer, but the twisted plot was set with Covid as the background, which was too political. You have to be able to identify with the characters.