Broken Ground
- Published
- 1 January 2018
- Pages
- 427
- ISBN-13
- 9780751568257
- Type
- novel
About this book
Broken Ground is the fifth book in the Karen Pirie series, dated 2018 at 427 pages, written by Val McDermid and continuing Karen's run of cold cases reopened for Scotland's Historic Cases Unit.
Key facts about Broken Ground
Val McDermid wrote Broken Ground, a novel on our list. It has been out since 2018. The book has 427 pages.
We list 3 editions of this novel. Since each edition has its own ISBN, search for 9780751568257 to find the main one.
Broken Ground is book 5 of 8 in the Karen Pirie series. The series has 8 published books. However, the series starts with The Distant Echo (2003). Silent Bones is the latest book in the series with a full release date, out on 23 October 2025.
Additionally, Val McDermid writes Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan and Tony Hill and Carol Jordan, plus 1 more series. Those series sit on our crime fiction shelf. Meanwhile, This Door of the Seas is the latest published Val McDermid book on file, from 6 August 2026.
About Val McDermid
Val McDermid is a Scottish crime writer whose career spans nearly four decades and five distinct series, making her one of the most prolific and structurally ambitious authors working in British crime fiction. See every Val McDermid book in order.
Its place in Karen Pirie
Broken Ground is book 5 in the Karen Pirie series. It follows Out of Bounds. It is followed by Still Life. See the full Karen Pirie reading order.
Karen Pirie starts the series as a detective constable assigned to Scotland's Historic Cases Unit -- a backwater posting for cold cases nobody expects to be solved -- and grows across eight books into one of British crime fiction's most durable working-class investigators, promoted, sidelined, reinstated, and repeatedly proven right by colleagues who underestimate her. The opening novel, The Distant Echo (2003), reopens a decades-old student murder in St Andrews; from there the series keeps returning to the same…
Editions
- edition · unknown publisher · — · ISBN 9780751568257
- edition · unknown publisher · — · ISBN 9780751575453
- edition · unknown publisher · — · ISBN 9780802129123