A screenshot of a page from The Distant Echo novel: 'DC Karen Pirie yanked an unfashionable but functional sheepskin coat off the back of her chair and shrugged into it'. Her first words are: 'There's nothing else for it. I'm going to have to talk to the original witnesses'.
I discovered @valmcdermid.bsky.social's #KarenPirie thanks to the TV adaptation of The Distant Echo, and immediately jumped into the second book of the series. Having read and hugely enjoyed novels 2 to 8, it was time to go back to the beginning, and here it is: her very first appearance!