Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • Past Lying

  • Karen Pirie Novels, Book 7
  • By: Val McDermid
  • Narrated by: Lauren Lyle
  • Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
  • 3.7 out of 5 stars (334 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Past Lying

By: Val McDermid
Narrated by: Lauren Lyle
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £17.99

Buy Now for £17.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

THE HEART-POUNDING NEW NOVEL IN THE KAREN PIRIE SERIES, NOW A MAJOR ITV SERIES STARRING LAUREN LYLE

Edinburgh, haunted by the ghosts of its many writers, is also the cold case beat of DCI Karen Pirie. So she shouldn't be surprised when an author's manuscript appears to be a blueprint for an actual crime.

Karen can't ignore the plot's chilling similarities to the unsolved case of an Edinburgh University student who vanished from her own doorstep. The manuscript seems to be the key to unlocking what happened to Lara Hardie, but there's a problem: the author died before he finished it.

As Karen digs deeper, she uncovers a spiraling game of betrayal and revenge, where lies are indistinguishable from the truth and with more than one unexpected twist . . .

The Queen of Crime Val McDermid is at the top of her game in her most gripping and fiendishly clever case yet.

©2023 Val McDermid (P)2023 W. F. Howes Ltd
activate_samplebutton_t1

Listeners also enjoyed...

A Long Time Dead cover art
Skinner's Rules cover art
1979 cover art
The Rise cover art
A Litter of Bones: A Scottish Crime Thriller cover art
The Turning of Our Bones cover art
Detective Sebastian Clifford, Books 1-3 cover art
The Fallen cover art
The Bonnie Dead cover art
The Lincoln Lawyer: Booktrack Edition cover art
First Blood cover art
No Man's Land cover art
The Hope That Kills cover art
Death by Dark Waters cover art
Secrets in Blood cover art
Dead North cover art

What listeners say about Past Lying

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    132
  • 4 Stars
    71
  • 3 Stars
    71
  • 2 Stars
    35
  • 1 Stars
    25
Performance
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    92
  • 4 Stars
    44
  • 3 Stars
    30
  • 2 Stars
    48
  • 1 Stars
    108
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    179
  • 4 Stars
    64
  • 3 Stars
    50
  • 2 Stars
    13
  • 1 Stars
    15

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved the story, but poorly read

Great story, carefully built up, well paced, loved meeting known and new characters, but poorly read, all characters sounded similar, and a bit monotone.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Even better

I always enjoy Val Mcdiermid books and unlike a lot of the reviewers I actually thought Past Lying was one of the best of the Karen Perie books. I agree the narration wasn’t the best and at times it almost seemed that it was read monotonously. However because the story was so strong after a while I forgot that. I do hope Karen considering going overseas is not going to be the last we read of her.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Learn to read aloud!

The reader completely spoilt this great story. She splits sentences, uses no intonation and should NEVER be asked to read another audio book!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story -get the book

Great story as always but felt thee narrator to be flat, so hard to move to a new narrator. Mid way through a series

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Story very good telling of it not so!

The narrator sounded more like she was reading a book to herself then tell me a story, very flat in places & boring

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good story but …. Horrendous narration

After having listened to all the other titles in the series I was looking forward to this one.

The story is good but oh my word it’s SOOOOO difficult to listen to. The narrator and those who directed the narration should know better. You can hear the struggle in the speech, you can hear ALL of the edits where they have gone back and changed things. It’s SO difficult to follow because of it too.

Honestly if you haven’t listened to the rest of this series don’t even bother with this - it will put you off the author for good. Read the physical book instead.

This is a great series but this book is utterly ruined by the change of narrator.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Twisty!

As always Val McDermid had me guessing who, why and where. Many twists and turns add to the superb storytelling and excellent insight into police work not to mention the well loved characters KP nuts and the mint. The author’s portrayal of the early days of the first lockdown in 2020 brought back many memories of empty streets and scary encounters on our dog walks. Well done Val McDermid for another page turner (on audible this time).

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A very original plot

I really enjoyed this book.

I don’t agree with the numerous and over the top comments about the narrator. I thought she was fine.

As usual with Val McDermid, there was a great main plot and multiple sub plots. It took me right back to lockdown and all the nonsense and rumours at the time.
I did guess the twist earlier than Karen Pirie did but this didn’t spoil my enjoyment.
The only slight disappointment was the ending. It ended as a bit of a damp squib: with the PF just deciding to prosecute… I won’t go further for spoiler reasons

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very enjoyable

I’ve listened to all the Karen Pirie books and this was as compelling as the others. Lauren does a great job of narrating. Already looking forward to the next one.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

excellent story

the narrator's voice was too fast, I did slow it down. Her voice didn't have the right level of clarity for Alexa or my phone on loudspeaker

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!