Crack Down and Clean Break - (Kate Brannigan Mysteries) by Val McDermid (Paperback)

About the Book

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

Book Synopsis

"Crime writing of the very highest order ... Kate Brannigan has turned into the most interesting sleuthess around" --The Times (U.K.)

There was only one reason Manchester-based private eye Kate Brannigan was prepared to let her boyfriend help out with the investigation into a car sales fraud nothing bad could happen. In Crack Down, Kate learns that once again with Richard you have to expect the unexpected.

With the unexpected being Richard behind bars, Kate seems to be the obvious choice to look after his eight-year-old son who proves even more troublesome than his father. She soon finds herself dragged into a world of drug traffickers, child pornographers, fraudsters and violent gangland enforcers, bringing her face to face with death in the most terrifying investigation of her career.

And in Clean Break, Manchester-based private eye Kate Brannigan is not amused when thieves have the audacity to steal a Monet from a stately home where she's arranged security. She's even less thrilled when the hunt for the thieves drags her on a treacherous foray across Europe as she goes head to head with organized crime. And as if that isn't enough, a routine industrial case starts leaving a trail of bodies across the Northwest, giving Kate more problems than she can deal with.

Cleaning up the mess in Clean Break forces Kate to confront harsh truths in her own life as she battles with a testing array of villains in a case that stretches love and loyalty to the limits.

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.