“There is no one in contemporary crime fiction who has managed to combine the visceral and the humane as well as Val McDermid. . . . She's the best.”—The New York Times Book Review

“McDermid has a sharp ear for the dialogue and intrinsic humor of the Manchester dialect. . . . She manages, as always, to combine her wit and exuberant writing with a careful and clever plot and oodles of perceptive social observation.”—The Times (London)

Bodyguarding had never made it to Manchester PI Kate Brannigan's wish list. But somebody's got to pay the bills at Brannigan & Co., and if the only earner on offer is playing nursemaid to a paranoid soap star, the fast-talking, computer-loving, white-collar-crime expert has to swallow her pride and slip into something more glam than her Thai-boxing kit.

Soon, however, offstage dramas overshadow the fictional storylines, culminating in the unscripted murder of the self-styled “Seer to the Stars,” and Kate finds herself with more questions than answers. What's more, her tame hacker has found virtual love, her process server keeps getting arrested, and the ever-reliable Dennis has had the temerity to get himself charged with murder.

Nobody told her there'd be days like these . . .

“Kate Brannigan is a breath of fresh air.”—Publishers Weekly

Dead Beat introduces Kate Brannigan, who does for Manchester what VI Warshawski has done for Chicago.
When Kate Brannigan agrees to track down a missing songwriter, a search that takes her into the seediest parts of Leeds, little does she realize that finding her is a prelude to murder.

“Plot, characterization, pace are all first-rate, and the bouncy Brannigan is one of the most likeable of all today’s PIs.”—The Sunday Telegraph (London)

Kate Brannigan finds herself dragged into a world of drug traffickers, child pornographers, and violent gangland enforcers, bringing her face to face with death in the most terrifying investigation of her career.