Val McDermid

She has said in many interviews that she received a great motivation from the great writing works of the famous authors at the time when she started her writing career. These famous authors include Ian Rankin, James Lee Burke, Reginald Hill and Ruth Rendell. The novels written by McDermid have been translated into more than 30 foreign languages all over the world.

The best place to start is the Lindsay Gordon series, the earliest of Val McDermid's multi-book series: it opens with Report For Murder (1987) and runs to 7 books across 1987–2003, ending with Hostage To Murder (2003). Val McDermid's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Val McDermid has 106 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1987 and 2027. 66 of them belong to 9 named series — the largest being the Tony Hill/Carol Jordan series with 12 books — and 40 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Val McDermid's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Lindsay Gordon (1987–2003, 7 books), Kate Brannigan (1992–1998, 6 books) and Tony Hill/Carol Jordan (1995–2019, 12 books), plus 4 more.

This guide splits Val McDermid's 106 books into 9 named series and 40 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Tony Hill/Carol Jordan (12 books, 1995–2019); Inspector Karen Pirie (8 books, 2003–2025); Darkland Tales (8 books, 2021–2026); Lindsay Gordon (7 books, 1987–2003); Kate Brannigan (6 books, 1992–1998), plus 4 further series.