Blue Genes and Star Struck - (Kate Brannigan Mysteries) by Val McDermid (Paperback)

About the Book

The fifth and sixth novels in Val McDermid's iconic Kate Brannigan series, starring a Thai boxing, hard-rocking female private detective

Book Synopsis

Private eye Kate Brannigan confronts betrayal and cold-blooded greed as she investigates the alien world of medical experimentation and the underbelly of the rock music business.

In Blue Genes, Kate Brannigan's not just having a bad day, she's having a bad week. The worst week of her life, if you really want to know. Her boyfriend's death notice is in the paper, her plan to catch a team of fraudsters is in disarray and a neo-punk band want her to find out who's sabotaging their publicity. And her business partner wants her to buy him out. If only she had the cash.

Kate can't even cry on her best friend's shoulder, for Alexis has worries of her own. Her girlfriend's pregnant, and when the doctor responsible for the fertility treatment is murdered, Alexis needs Kate like she's never done before.

So what's a girl to do? Delving into the alien world of medical experimentation and the underbelly of the rock-music business, Kate confronts betrayal and cold-blooded greed as she fights to save not only her livelihood, but her life as well...

Bodyguarding never made it to Manchester PI Kate Brannigan's wish list. But in Star Struck she's still broke, and the only earner on offer is playing nursemaid to a paranoid soap star, so this time Kate has to swallow her pride and slip into something more glam than her Thai boxing kit.

But when offstage dramas threaten to overshadow the fictional storylines, and the unscripted murder of the self-styled 'Seer to the Stars' stops the show, it leaves Kate with more questions than answers.

Review Quotes

Praise for Val McDermid's Kate Brannigan Series:

"The story and characters are convincing and Kate is an attractively persistent sleuth whom I hope to see again."-- Sunday Telegraph on Dead Beat

"You'd have to go far to meet a tougher girl gumshoe."--Mike Ripley, Daily Telegraph on Dead Beat

"Fresh and funny, with a spanking sense of time and place."-- Literary Review on Dead Beat

"Kate Brannigan is a sparky, funny and much to be welcomed entrant into the still tiny profession of the female private eye."-- The Times Saturday Review on Dead Beat

" McDermid's snappy, often comic prose keeps the story humming as Kate is drawn deeper and deeper into the twisted plot of her first murder investigation."-- Publishers Weekly on Dead Beat

"Kate Brannigan deserves promotion to the top rank, alongside Kinsey Millhone and V.I. Warshawski. Plot, characterisation, pace are all first-rate, and the bouncy Brannigan is one of the most likeable of all todays PIs." -- Sunday Telegraph on Kick Back

"Wry, spry, resourceful, resilient and fitted out with a quip for every contretemps"-- TLS on Crack Down

"The action, as always, is non-stop, and Kate is a worthy protagonist. Long may she thrive."-- Books Magazine on Crack Down

"McDermid combines her wit and exuberant writing with a careful and clever plot and oodles of perceptive social observation." -- Marcel Berlins, The Times on Star Struck

"Val McDermid's Kate Brannigan should remain firmly at the top of the private investigator's league."-- Sunday Telegraph on Blue Genes

About the Author

Val McDermid's best-selling novels have won the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year and the CWA Gold Dagger and Cartier Diamond Dagger Awards. She is also a multiple finalist for the Edgar Award, including for Edgar Nominee for Fact Crime Forensics, which won the Anthony Award for non-fiction. She lives in Scotland.