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Karen Pirie (2022)

2022 · Crime,Drama,Mystery · crime-detective-puzzle, crime-procedural, period-near-history

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Karen Pirie is a Scottish cold-case crime drama adapted from Val McDermid's novels, set in the picturesque university town of St Andrews and structured around a 1996 unsolved murder of a young barmaid reopened twenty-five years later. The show is driven almost entirely by its lead character — a young, sharp DS played with considerable charm and credibility by Lauren Lyle — and distinguishes itself from the standard British Sunday-night procedural by sustaining a single mystery across three feature-length episodes rather than resolving each week. Reviewers praise its tight plotting, atmospheric Scottish setting, and the novelty of a young female detective who is neither burdened by clichéd emotional baggage nor implausibly superhuman. Tonal comparisons cluster around Shetland and Unforgotten — deliberate, dialogue-heavy, location-conscious UK crime in the classic ITV/BBC mold.

From the reviewers

She is a solid leading character; making a refreshing change from the typical older character with some sort of emotional baggage.
The story progresses nicely with the events of the present being intertwined with key events from 1996.
The location is good; making a refreshing change from stories set in a big city while avoiding becoming a Scottish 'Morse' which could have happening in a famous university town.
she was chosen to lead the cold case investigation because she was thought a dead certainty to fail. Of course, someone that young would never be assigned to this sort of case in real life but if you don't understand why she was appointed to this case in this tv series, then you really have missed the point of the story.
It's refreshing to see Detective Pirie in sensible policeman style heavy shoes and a lack of makeup and a short haircut. I am sick and tired of stilettoed, false-eye-lashed, long curly blond haired female coppers teetering around after the bad guys.

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