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Discussion Guide

Still Life

When a lobster fisherman discovers a dead body in Scotland’s Firth of Forth, DCI Karen Pirie is called into investigate. She quickly discovers that the case will require untangling a complicated web—involving a long-ago disappearance, art forgery, and secret identities—that seems to surround a painter who can mimic anyone from Holbein to Hockney. Meanwhile, a traffic accident leads to the discovery of a skeleton in a suburban garage. Karen has a full plate, and it only gets more stressful as the man responsible for the death of the love of her life is scheduled for release from prison, reopening old wounds just as she was getting back on her feet.

 

From a Diamond Dagger Award winner and multiple Edgar Award finalist Val McDermid, Still Life is a tightly plotted mystery.

 

This recommended reading and discussion guide is shared and sponsored in partnership with Open Road Media.

Book club questions for Still Life by Val McDermid

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

'Still Life' deals with cold cases. What are a few big ways in which the internet, and the uprise of "web sleuths" have effected the writing of cold case story arcs?
What is the allure of coastal settings when plotting a vivid crime novel such as 'Still Life?’
Should interest in crime, and true crime, still be considered a "guilty pleasure?”
How does ‘Still Life’’s Karen Pirie compare to other female crime sleuths?
How does the author’s Scottish Heritage play into the world written in ‘Still Life?’
How does al McDermid address general and class roles through Karen and Hamish’s relationship?

Still Life Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the Still Life discussion questions

 “There are few other crime writers in the same league.”—Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post

 

A "“superior series” (The New York Times)

 

 An investigator “whose unwavering confidence is tempered by a strong dose of kindness and sense of justice” (Booklist)

 

"It grabs the reader by the throat and never lets go” - The Daily Mail