Modern Great: Val McDermid

In today’s episode, Brook and Sarah discuss modern great Val McDermid.

Discussed and mentioned

The Mermaids Singing (1995) Val McDermid

Clean Break: A Kate Brannigan Mystery (2011 Radio play) Val McDermid

Village SOS (2012 Radio Play) Val McDermid

“Second Murder At The Vicarage” in Marple, 12 New Mysteries (2022) Val McDermid

Forensics, The Anatomy of Crime (2014) Val McDermid

Queen Macbeth (2024) Val McDermid

Wire in the Blood (2002-2008) – adaptation of Carol Jordan/Tony Hill series

Karen Pirie (2022-present) – adaptation of the Karen Pirie series

Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers

Books In The Life Of | Val McDermid

For more information

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Transcript

This transcript is generated by a computer and there may be some mis-spellings and strange punctuation. We try to catch these before posting, but some things slip through.

Sarah	Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I’m Sarah.
Brook	And I’m Brook, and we both love mystery.
Sarah	Hi, Brook.
Brook	Hi, Sarah. Today we’re going to be talking about another modern great.
Sarah	Yeah, I’m really excited to get into some of the life and work of Val McDermid.
Brook	I am too.
Sarah	An only child, Val McDermid spent her early years in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. After finishing her studies at Oxford, where she was accepted as one of the youngest undergraduates at the age of 17 and the first from a Scottish state school, McDermid started her career in journalism.
Sarah	Around the same time, she started writing her first novel, though it was rejected everywhere she submitted it. However, a friend suggested that she adopt it for stage, and it ended up being performed by the Plymouth Theatre Company.
Sarah	She went on to adopt it again for BBC Radio, and from there was commissioned to write another play. She turned her hand to writing mystery in the 1980s, and her first book was published in 1987.
Sarah	She has since gone on to sell over 19 million copies across multiple series and standalone novels. Although she gave up her journalism job in 1991, she continues to review books in UK newspapers and occasionally writes for the BBC.
Sarah	She also writes for TV and radio and has had her series adapted for screen.
Sarah	Her contributions to the mystery space are impressive. In addition to her writing, she co-founded the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, which is now the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, which is regarded as one of the best crime writing events in the world.
Sarah	They recently added an award for new writers in her name. She published her most recent book in December 2025. And her writing and contributions to the genre have been extensively recognized. She’s been a member of the Detection Club since 2000 and was awarded the Crime Writers Association Diamond Dagger in 2010.
Brook	Thanks, Sarah. um Yes, Val McDermid is maybe one of those authors that not everyone has heard of, especially maybe in North America, but you don’t ever want to miss her books because she is a fantastic writer and brings something really different, I think, to the mystery space. So I look forward to talking to you more about her.
Sarah	Yeah, I, I would agree, Brook. So, I mean, I knew her name, but I didn’t realize the extent of her contributions to mystery and the genre. And ah I hadn’t actually read any of her books until we decided that we were going to do her as a modern great. But goodness, am I ever glad that we did because I have so much enjoyed her writing.
Brook	Yes, I’m the same. I had thought that I had read her books in the past, but it was one of those people that I must have had her mistaken for something someone else when I started looking at her titles.
Brook	But actually the only thing that I had read of hers was her contribution to the 2022 anthology Marple, 12 New Mysteries. And her story title was “The Second Murder at the Vicarage”. And this was really interesting because I listened to a um interview with Val McDermid this week, and she referenced that she reread and reread Murder at the Vicarage lots of times because it was one of only two books that were at her at her grandparents’ house. They had the Bible and they had the Murder at the Vicarage. And so then I thought that was really special that when she got a chance to contribute to an Agatha Christie anthology, she chose to kind of pay homage to that.
Sarah	Yeah, that’s so interesting. I think that was her first real exposure to mystery was, was that book. I’ve read some of her short stories in other anthologies.
Sarah	So I read one of her short stories and it was actually something that she coauthored with Peter James, part of an anthology um that Lee Child was the editor for. And, and in this anthology, male and female authors were paired and their characters. And so they wrote a story featuring their characters. And so in this um story, it was Tony Hill, who is one of the characters in one of Val McDermid’s series, paired up with um Roy Grace, who’s a ah character written by Peter James. And it was interesting.
Sarah	It was i really enjoyed this story. It had me chuckling in quite a few places, which you don’t always get with mystery.
Brook	Mm-mm.
Sarah	ah So it was it was very good. And I would highly recommend if someone is just looking for a taste of Val McDermid, because I will say that some of her stuff is pretty dark.
Brook	Right, right. That’s a great point. um So your comment about this experiment to put two different authors in male and female together, it reminds me very much of some of the games that The Detection Club would play back in the golden age where they would either take each take a chapter or you know work on these collaborations together. So it’s really great to know that these type of games are still going on. um And another note about the fact that there were just these two books at her grandparents’ house.
Brook	I think that says a lot, like we mentioned earlier, that she’s a little different than some of the other authors that have turned out to be these huge successes and names in in mystery because she she wasn’t surrounded by, you know, a literary family or um even very well-educated family, right?
Brook	And And yet she knew that this is what was for her. And so she went after it.
Sarah	Yeah, I I seem to recall reading or listening to an interview with her where she talks about um having spent a lot of time at the library, which, you know, I think is is typical of other authors who come from similar backgrounds, right? um And really seeking out that opportunity to read. um But yeah, she has definitely taken hold of that love. And and really, i think, you know, she um -founded this um mystery festival that is offered as part of a series of festivals in Harrogate. This event takes place at the hotel where, if listeners will recall, Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days. And this is where she was found is in this same hotel that the that the um writing festival happens at.
Brook	I would want to go to the writing festival anyway. And then when you add in that very important detail, ah yeah, that would be fantastic.
Sarah	So I mentioned, Brook, that some of her writing is a little bit dark. And that’s certainly true for her series featuring Carol Jordan and Tony Hill. So, Carol is the police detective and Tony Hill is a forensic profiler. And so they’re investigating serial killings, which may not be every reader’s cup of tea. ah But then her other series featuring Karen Perie is less dark.
Sarah	Karen is another police detective. This is set in Scotland. Um, she’s a cold case detective. I enjoy both series. I would say five of the last seven books that I’ve read have been Val McDermid’s and, um, you know, I’ve read from both of those series and I, I enjoy them equally.
Brook	I think that’s a great point. Um, you know, I took up one of the books I read this week was A Place of Execution, which quite honestly, especially at the beginning, this is a standalone that doesn’t feature any of her repeating characters, but at the beginning of the book, I was like, wow, this is just a traditional village mystery, right? It’s quaint. It’s a very closed circle because it, um, is set in a Scottish village.
Brook	But it soon turns quite grim and ah the crime is against a child and that makes it very difficult. But the writing is excellent and the mystery is so good. And i I am still in the middle of this one and I can’t wait to get back to my book to find out ah the solution. But even something that I feel like is probably on the traditional end of the spectrum can still deal with some really grim ah topics. um But that being said, I think that she’s very interesting because you mentioned her serial killer um series. She’s got the ah cold case, which I suppose you could kind of consider a historical crime stories. um And then some of her earliest books were more from the PI side of things. She has a journalist sleuth um named Lindsay Gordon and then another PI named Kate Brannigan. And I was just struck by how many major subgenres she writes in. And I’m not sure that we’ve ever discussed anyone who does that. um I mean, certainly they all have a common Val McDermid feel, but these are some pretty big categories that she crosses.
Sarah	I listened to a radio production of a Kate Brannigan story and I really enjoyed that. um And I think maybe I also listened to one featuring.
Sarah	No, I agree. She she has quite a ah broad range. um And she’s also written things that are not mystery. So she has a historical novel that um features Lady Macbeth and kind of tells the story of Macbeth from her point of view. I started reading that, but I haven’t finished it.
Sarah	She’s also written some speculative fiction radio plays for BBC, an adaptation of a John Wyndham novel. um So she she does have a lot of um a lot of range. So, you know, I think there probably is something that would appeal to most readers if you’re fans of of mystery, I think.
Sarah	um And, you know, I think… this is maybe worth us talking about in a, in a different episode, Brook. Um, cause there are those authors who just write one character or one series. And then there are some authors who have explored a lot of different things.
Sarah	And I, you know, I would include Agatha Christie in that, right.
Brook	Mm-hmm.
Sarah	She’s, we’ve talked about all of the different types of, um, books that, that she wrote. Uh, and so, you know, i wonder if that’s, a bit of an influence for for Val McDermid or maybe she just like really has a a lot of different ideas that she wants to explore.
Brook	Yeah. That’s funny. You mentioned Christie, because when I made this note to myself, the comment that we have made time and time again about Christie, which is she’s, she did it all, um, came to me and it’s, it’s kind of that same, that same feeling there.
Sarah	Well, she actually had a bit of a run-in with the Christie estate because ah she was being referred to as the Scottish Queen of Crime. And the the Christie estate asked her through legal means to cease doing that because, as we know, Agatha Christie is the queen of crime, along with um three other authors, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, and Dorothy L. Sayers.
Brook	Mm-hmm. Yeah, I remember when that was happening and I honestly feel like it was a bit unfair because it was she was labeled as the Scottish Queen of Crime, not, you know, the overarching. And so I thought she probably deserved that that accolade, to be honest.
Sarah	It’s interesting because the story that she contributed to the Miss Marple um anthology the story that she contributed to the Marple anthology came out that same year.
Brook	Mm-hmm.
Sarah	This is probably my favorite piece of information about any author that we have um researched. She is the lead singer of a rock band called the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers.
Sarah	And it is Val McDermid and several other authors. um And they you know perform cover songs. I don’t know if they do any of their original songs, but um you can see um footage of their performances on YouTube. They have performed at Glastonbury, which is a very big deal.
Brook	Oh my goodness. I did not come across this, Sarah. Ah I did learn that when she was in school that she, I can’t recall the instrument that she played, but that her orchestra teacher basically kicked her out because he discovered that she would take her sheet music home and write in the, she wasn’t technically reading music. She was going home to do this. And so she was distraught over this because she’d been kicked out of the orchestra and took up playing the guitar and like kind of got in with the folk music kids. So that must have been the seed of this, but I am 100% looking that up as soon as we, as soon as we get done recording today, because that just sounds amazing.
Sarah	Yeah, I just think it’s so wonderful. And I think they’ve actually performed a couple of times at Glastonbury. And I think it’s at like one of the side stages. It’s ah a huge festival. And there’s, you know, the main stage where they have very big music acts, and then there’s the um some smaller stages. And so I think that’s where they’ve performed. But how fun is that?
Brook	I love it.
Brook	Well, I didn’t learn that bit about her rock band, but I did find it really fun that she was an advanced and successful school hockey player. As a teenager, she was on some very competitive teams and said that she that was like what she loved the most to do as a teenager. And um now she’s not directly related anymore to hockey, but she does support a women’s sports team called the McDermid Ladies. And this is a women’s football team because she’s also very much into football, named in her honor, and she sponsors it. So she sponsors this women’s team.
Brook	You know, financially, Val McDermid has been incredibly successful. She ah went from a very humble beginning, but really has become financially successful. And I love to see that she’s using that to to help others, to bring them up and, you know, support their interests.
Brook	Sarah, did you learn anything about how she writes? This is something I’m always anxious to learn about the authors we discuss.
Sarah	Yeah, so i I did. And I found it really interesting that um she spends part of the year writing and spends the rest of the year either promoting her books or maybe doing some of this festival work, performing as part of her band. ah So ah she writes from January to April.
Sarah	And she says that she writes from about 11 in the morning until seven in the evening. She starts with revising what she wrote the day before and then and and writes in 20 minute blocks, um taking breaks where she goes for a walk or does some chores, um you know, does some email. um And ah that’s how she shapes her her writing days.
Brook	Oh, how interesting. I believe that having that journalism background would really help in being able to make it a job. And it’s not just, you know, ah something that you wait for inspiration to strike. I could see how that would make her, you know, be able to keep that more structured schedule.
Sarah	Well, and I just really like the idea. which she’s obviously been very successful. And so she is able to take time away from writing. But, you know, that must during that time, she must be thinking about plot so that when she has her concentrated writing period, it’s a really productive time.
Brook	Definitely. The experiences she has the rest of the year, the the mystery festival, concert going, I’m sure many speaking engagements, these are things that would be such great fodder for stories and watching people. And so that’s great.
Sarah	Another thing that I learned about her writing is she really focuses on the science in her stories. And and and you definitely see this in her um in her books, right? Like she talks about the um the way that her characters come upon information it sounds to me very technically accurate.
Sarah	And I saw an interview where she talked about having spoken to a researcher who told her this you know piece of information that she put into a book and the researcher said, i but I haven’t published this yet.
Brook	ah She was going to scoop him.
Sarah	She did. She scooped the the researcher. But that’s how seriously she takes the, you know, understanding the the scientific elements of um of crime and crime detection.
Brook	Yeah, and that was one of the other books that she wrote. As you mentioned, she’s done other writing. In 2014, she wrote the nonfiction book, Forensics, The Anatomy of Crime. And I have a feeling that would be an excellent book for every mystery author to have on their bookshelf.
Sarah	Yeah, I agree. Thank you for bringing that up, Brook. I um didn’t get a chance to take a look at that.
Sarah	She seems really deserving of the recognition that she’s received for her contributions to mystery. I do think sometimes authors are recognized because they’ve been very successful. They’ve sold a lot of books, but, Val McDermid really seems to have done a lot to um focus on new authors or emerging authors to create spaces for people to really enjoy mystery, not just her mysteries.
Brook	So Sarah, I know that she has television adaptations, but unfortunately i don’t have any streaming services in the U.S. that ah provide them to me. Have you seen any of them or know more about the different stories that have been adapted?
Sarah	Yeah. So um her two main series have both been adapted. So the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series in kind of the ah late, I think it was 2006, 2007, maybe that was adapted. And more recently the Karen Pirie series was adapted. And I think they’re both available on BritBox, if I remember correctly. And I’ve seen episodes of each. And like their ah written counterparts, you know, the Tony Hill, Carol Jordan series is is darker. and both follow books from the series. So if you’re familiar with the books, you can see um you can see them on on screen. And ah they’re they’re worth a watch for sure.
Sarah	Well, thank you, Brook. I’m so glad that we decided to do an episode about Val McDermid because I think she has become one of my favorite um police crime writers that that i’ve I’ve ever read. And and like I said, I’vem I’ve read several of her books in the last little bit.
Brook	I agree, Sarah. This has been so great. I just think that she’s a wonderful representation of an author in the mystery space.
Brook	And we hope that you enjoyed learning about Val McDermid too, listeners. Until next time, I’m Brook.
Sarah	And I’m Sarah. And we both love mystery.