The Karen Pirie series comes to BritBox on Tuesday. Before you delve into the episodes, you’ll want to know if there’s a book to read.
If you think you’ve heard of the storyline of the Karen Pirie series before, that’s likely because you’ve read the book. Yes, this TV show is based on a book. In fact, there’s an entire book series, making it possible to adapt this UK series for longer than just one season.
Lauren Lyle takes on the role of DS Karen Pirie. She’s a modern-day police officer who wants to make a name for herself in a good way. She has the opportunity to do that when she is put on as the lead of an investigation into a cold case—a cold case from 25 years ago.
It seems like everything is against her. Will she be able to collect the evidence to finally solve the murder of a barmaid from 1995?
Read the Karen Pirie book series
The show is based on a book series. This particular season is based on the first book, The Distant Echo by Val McDermid, published in 2008.
There are a few changes made to bring the story into the modern-day. After all, the book starts off with the murder in 1978 and picks up with Karen’s search for the killer 25 years later. In the TV series, we start in 1995 and pick up in today’s world. It’s a podcast that reopens the investigation, and there is the use of DNA websites to help find the killer.
The main part of the story remains the same. A group of boys find barmaid Rosie dead one night. They all become suspects in their deaths, but they’re never formally charged and Rosie’s murder case goes cold. Things pick up 25 years later, and it looks like the boys who found Rosie become the new targets, but why?
There are five more books in the series after this one. We’re sure that Still Life isn’t going to be the last. It’s just the last published in 2020.
The books are certainly going to help you get through some of Droughtlander. So is the TV series, arriving next week.
Karen Pirie drops in full on Tuesday, Oct. 25 on BritBox.