A Darker Domain (2008)

Karen Pirie investigates disappearances from the era of the miners’ strike, where a family’s explanation of absence has hardened into a community verdict about betrayal. A separate kidnapping case brings wealth and very different expectations of attention into the same period. McDermid makes political loyalties and economic pressure part of what the surviving accounts conceal. This second Karen Pirie novel is a strong choice for readers interested in whose disappearance was considered worth investigating, with earlier-series context available in The Distant Echo.