A Darker Domain: Val McDermid

This book is the second book in the Karen Pirie series. Detective Inspector Karen Pirie is in charge of the Cold Case department in Fife, Scotland; she works primarily with Detective Sergeant Phil Parhatka. A woman reports that her father has been missing for over 20 years, from the time of the Miner’s Strike of 1984.  At the time they thought he had deserted the family and gone to Nottingham to work the mines there; as a result the family was shunned by the community. But now the daughter needs to find her father because her son is dying and in need of a bone marrow transplant. This investigation doesn't really fit into the Cold Case criteria for Karen's department, but she takes it on anyway. Shortly after that, new information shows up in Italy related to a kidnapping that also took place in 1984 in Fife, and that case is added to Karen's workload.

My Thoughts...

• I liked that the story went back and forth between 1984 and 2007. For some readers, this would be a negative and it can be confusing. There are no chapter breaks, but it is clear when the story transitions to a new location or time, so I was OK with that.
• I was especially interested in the strike and what it did to the mining community. I have read a Reginald Hill novel, Under World, from 1988, that is about the aftermath of the strike. Another book about the strike is GB84 by David Peace, which I have not read.
• There are many interesting secondary characters. The kidnapped woman was the daughter of a very important man in Scotland, Sir Broderick Maclennan Grant. His daughter was killed and her infant son was never seen again after a botched ransom exchange. He wants to find his grandson, but he also is very controlling and manipulative and expects the police to bow to his will. Investigative journalist Bel Richmond is the one who finds the clue in modern-day Tuscany, and she is the one who does the sleuthing in Italy.  And then there is Sergeant Phil Parhatka, a very likable character and the perfect working partner for Karen.
• After all the investigative work comes together, the ending is kind of abrupt. Some reviewers complained about this, but it worked perfectly for me. The book was already long enough, I did not need any further results spelled out for me.
• I was very impressed with this book. The subject is serious, and Karen takes her responsibilities seriously, but there is plenty of humor in the story. At this point I think A Darker Domain will be one of my top books of 2024.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Harper Perennial, 2010 (Orig. pub. 2008)
Length:       368 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Series:        Karen Pirie, #2
Setting:      Scotland and Italy
Genre:       Police Procedural
Source:      On my TBR pile since 2017.