Past Lying by Val McDermid

Edinburgh, haunted by the ghosts of its
many writers, is also the cold case beat of DCI Karen Pirie. So she shouldn’t
be surprised when an author’s manuscript appears to be a blueprint for an
actual crime.

Karen can’t ignore the plot’s chilling similarities to the unsolved case of
an Edinburgh University student who vanished from her own doorstep. The
manuscript seems to be the key to unlocking what happened to Lara Hardie, but
there’s a problem: the author died before he finished it.

As Karen digs deeper, she uncovers a spiralling game of betrayal and
revenge, where lies are indistinguishable from the truth and with more than
one unexpected twist . . .