Out of Bounds by Val McDermid was first published in 2016 and it’s the fourth book in the Karen Pirie series. I can’t say too much about the book as I know that some blogpals have begun to read the series and I don’t want to spoil anything for them.
Briefly, Karen Pirie is of course head of the Cold Cases at Police Scotland. When a young joy rider crashes a car and ends up in a coma his DNA is routinely taken and tested, with the result that a close family connection of his had commited a murder 22 years earlier, but had never been tracked down.
In theory it should be an easy job to find the murderer – but of course nothing is as simple as Karen hopes.
The setting is mainly Edinburgh, but it does move to London for a short time. I’ll continue with this series although I enjoyed the first two books of the series most, that might be because the settings were so close to what is now home for me, that’s very parochial of me I know but it’s always a plus if you can literally see the streets that you’re reading about.
The Women by Kristin Hannah was first published in the UK in 2024.
The Resurrectionist by A. Rae Dunlap was published in 2025 and it’s the author’s debut novel. I borrowed it from the library. The setting is Edinburgh 1828 where the professors at Edinburgh University, and various others were busy conducting experiments and research on cadavers – dead human bodies. The demonstrations were open to the public and so halls were packed with onlookers, many of whom were men just wanting to view the spectacle, amongst the medical students who had a legitimate reason for being there. It was theatre for some really and they were willing to pay handsomely for the experience.
They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple was first published in 1943, but my copy dates from 1946 and was published by John Murray. In recent years it has been reprinted by Persephone Books, their blurb is very succinct: Three sisters marry very different men and the choices they make determine whether they will flourish, be tamed or be repressed.
The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2019.
Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson was published in 2024 by Penguin Randow House. I borrowed it from the library. It’s the latest in the Jackson Brodie series.
The Keelie Hawk, Poems in Scots by 
The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman was first published in Sweden in 2016 by Helsingborgs Dagblad. It was translated into English by Alice Menzies and published by Michael Joseph. This is a beautifully produced little book with just 65 pages including the illustrations. It’s a short story, but it begins with the explanation by the author of how he came to write it. The setting is mainly a hospital in Helsingborg where the narrator is being treated for some form of cancer. He is very wealthy, but has spent all of his time gathering more money than he needs, and has neglected his own son.