Kate Brannigan Books In Order

Publication Order of Kate Brannigan Books

Kate Brannigan is the name of the fictional character from the Kate Brannigan mystery series written by the famous Scottish author Val McDermid. The author has described Kate Brannigan as a private investigator based in Manchester, England, United Kingdom. The character of Kate Brannigan is first introduced in the novel Dead Beat, which was published in the year 1992. The consists of a total of six detective fiction novels published between the years 1992 and 1998. In the series, Kate Brannigan works as a junior partner in the private consulting firm named Mortensen & Brannigan in Manchester, England. The firm deals with crimes related to security systems and computer frauds. Before becoming a private investigator, Kate enrolled herself for a law degree. She used to work as a part time private investigator for Bill Mortensen during her college days. The taste for the life as a private investigator forced Kate to give up her studies and become a full time private investigator and a partner of Bill Mortensen. Kate finds her life as a PI to be odd, dangerous, often exciting, depressing and sometimes boring too.

With the experience of working as a PI for a number of years and dealing with the different kinds villains, she has understood the many shades of villainy. Kate is helped by many friends and police officials in her attempts of solving the crimes. One of them is Della Prentice, who is a DCI by profession. Kate has many sources in the city, who inform her about the scams going on in the city. One of them is Dennis, who is an ex-con trying to become a responsible citizen. Kate practices along with Dennis at the Thai Boxing. Another character is Gizmo, who works as a computer systems manager during the daytime and runs an online world of hackers during the night time. He helps Kate with all sorts of information that cannot be found publicly. Kate lives next to Richard Barclay, a rock journalist. The tow share a common conservatory, but Kate does not like the untidy way of living of Richard. Whenever they sit to eat together, he tends to eat the major share as she gets busy in talking. The author has described Kate as an energetic, independent and tenacious. She likes to keep herself busy with work. She makes many friends and contacts with the progress of the series and becomes a fearing name for the criminals of the underworld in Manchester. Throughout the series, Kate Brannigan solves many scams and frauds with the help of her dedication and determination. Della Prentice becomes one of her very good friends in the later part of the series. Besides Kate Brannigan, the author Val McDermid has also given beautiful descriptions of the other characters of the series.

The first novel of the Kate Brannigan series was published in the year 1992 by the Golancz publishing house. The novel was titled ‘Dead Beat’. The plot of the novel introduces Kate Brannigan as a female private investigator. She lives in Manchester, England and owns a private detective firm along with his employer Bill Mortensen. Kate is introduced as a sparky and funny character. The plot of the novel opens up with the first case of Kate Brannigan in which Richard Barclay asks her for a favor. He asks Kate to help him find the missing songwriter named Moira Pollock. Being her first case as a private investigator, Kate Brannigan agrees to help Richard Barclay to find Moira Pollock. As she begins to carry out her investigation in searching Moira Pollock, she is taken into the deep and seediest parts of Bradford and Leeds. Kate Brannigan is also unaware of the fact that the investigation of searching for Moira Pollock is a prelude to a murder. As soon as she realizes that she has indulged herself in not just a missing case, but a murder case, she sets herself to track down the killer. With the initial success in her career as a private investigator, Kate gets loaded with a number of cases. But, she somehow manages to juggle with the cases and find the killer. One of the cases that she she works on along with the missing case of Moira Pollock is that of the scam of counterfeit luxury goods.

The second novel of the Kate Brannigan series was published in the year 1993 under the title ‘Kick Back’. The novel was published by the Golancz publishing house and continues to show the efforts of Kate Brannigan in bringing down crime rates in the city by working as a private investigator. The plot of the second novel opens up with the depiction of Kate, who continues to work as a feisty private investigator in Manchester-based private investigating firm named Martensen & Brannigan. In the opening sequence of the novel, Kate Brannigan is asked to investigate the missing case of conservatories. Along with that, she is indulged into a number of cases, including mortgage scams, crooked land deals, murder and financial chicanery. Kate takes up the case of the missing conservatories when one of her friends asks her for a favor. However, the investigation of the missing conservatories lands her in a great trouble as she fears her own life to be at risk. But, even with such great risk, she does not stop in unraveling the truth and bringing the culprits to justice. When Kate finds her life in danger, she thinks of it as a bizarre thing but does not lose hope. Her dedication and determination helps her to solve the crimes and maintain her legacy as a hard working private investigator. The author Val McDermid has done a great job in writing down the exciting plots of the novels of the Kate Brannigan series. She has also made great efforts in characterizing the villains and the secondary characters of the series apart the main character. Kate Brannigan. The plots of the novels of the series prove to be entertaining and fast moving. Kate has been very well depicted as a heroine of the series and has a big heart, understanding modern youth and a witty tongue.

2 Responses to “Kate Brannigan”

1. Ann Bonner: 6 months ago

   Just starting this series of Kate Branninen but read all previous books and love the writing the plots and especially the Scottish background and words I ask my Glaswegian husband to interpret. I have seen the author on tv and think she is not only Inteligent but very funny in that understated Scottish way.

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2. C I Austin: 2 years ago

   To Val McDermid
   Re the Kate Brannigan series – an excellent read I thoroughly enjoyed.
   I wondered how you saw the layout of the single story home that was part hers (Kate Brannigan) and part Richard Barkley’s with the shared conservatory. A diagram of the layout would be good to receive. It could become a concept for those of us who are happy to have a partner close by without the confines of them sharing a house. The common space being the conservatory in which either could lock the door to ensure privacy.

   Kind regards

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