The Distant Echo
- Published
- 1 January 2003
- Pages
- 482
- ISBN-13
- 9780006393054
- Type
- novel
About this book
The Distant Echo, written by Val McDermid, opens the Karen Pirie series in 2003 as the longest book in the series at 482 pages. It introduces Karen as a detective constable in Scotland's Historic Cases Unit, reopening a decades-old student murder in St Andrews that no one expects to be solved.
Key facts about The Distant Echo
The Distant Echo is a novel by Val McDermid. Readers have had it since 2003. It runs to 482 pages.
Our list holds 3 editions of The Distant Echo. Since each edition has its own ISBN, search for 9780006393054 to find the main one.
The Distant Echo is book 1 of 8 in the Karen Pirie series. The series has 8 published books. As a result, this is the book to start the series with. 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
The Distant Echo is book 1 in the Karen Pirie series. It is followed by A Darker Domain. 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 9780006393054
- edition · unknown publisher · — · ISBN 9780006393061
- edition · unknown publisher · — · ISBN 9780007142828