Is Karen Pirie season two based on a true story as ITV detective drama returns

Karen Pirie has returned for a thrilling second season, with Outlander actress Lauren Lyle opening up a new cold case to solve. The beloved ITV detective drama first aired in 2022, bringing Val McDermid’s Inspector Karen Pirie novels to screens.

Season one saw young, fearless Scottish investigator Karen take on a 25-year-old case and uncover the murder of a barmaid amid a web of dark secrets, lies, and possible motives.

The second season, based on McDermid’s novel A Darker Domain, reveals the 1984 kidnap of a charming heiress to a vast oil fortune, Catriona Grant, and her two-year-old son Adam.

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They were kidnapped at gunpoint outside a fish and chip shop in Fife, and were never seen again, despite an uncontrollable press storm.

The case returns to the spotlight when a man’s body is uncovered, with links to the original kidnap.

The synopsis teases: “After her bittersweet success in series one, Karen has been promoted to Detective Inspector and seemingly given the authority she has long been fighting for.

“Just as she’s getting into the swing of her powerful new role, she is assigned an infamous unsolved case that will put her under intense scrutiny; from her boss, from the media, and ultimately, from sinister forces that would rather the past stayed in the past.”

Is Karen Pirie season two based on a true story?

Though the case does sound like something that could have really happened, A Darker Domain is fictional.

The novel takes inspiration from the UK Miners’ Strike of 1984-1985 in Fife, when the fictional crime of Catriona’s kidnap took place, and where McDermid was raised.

But although the case at the centre of the series is fictional, actress Lauren did find some truth to her character.

“It was really interesting when we were filming, we started at St Andrews Cathedral and one night we had police escorts with us,” she said ahead of the first series airing.

“One of them was a 20-something blonde woman, and it turns out she was a detective from Methil, the same tiny town Karen is from! To me, she was the real Karen Pirie.

“So we exchanged numbers and we stayed in touch, it was like looking into a mirror for Karen.”

Writer Emer Kenny also recently revealed the importance of having the series stay true to when the book was set, despite season one being set in the 1990s while the first book, The Distant Echo, was set in the 1970s.

She told Radio Times: "This time it felt really important for it to be 1984, which is what it is in the book, because the background is the miners' strike, which, in the east of Scotland, was a massive thing in that area.

"And quite a few of our characters are living in those areas, and some of the miners, so it felt really important that we keep it there. Also, I really love that era. I think it's interesting politically, and I like the music and the style."

She added: “Also, it’s quite important to Val because she's from that area, she lived through that."

Reflecting on filming, Lauren revealed to the publication that where they were located, they “often would go to where Val is from”.

She said: “We'd put up some of our sets, you would see the old mounts, the pit heads, and we would use all that. And they've never been taken away, because they can't, they were just sort of abandoned. It's quite haunting and intense to be around that. It really puts into perspective how real some of that was."

Karen Pirie is available to watch on ITVX.