Best selling Scottish crime writer Val McDermid has sold more than 15 million copies of her work worldwide. She's arrived in New Zealand to take up a role as a visiting Professor of Scottish Studies and Crime Fiction at the University of Otago. Over the next three years she will teach courses, mentor postgraduates and do a series of public lectures and readings.
She's recently released two books How the Dead Speak, the latest in her Tony Hill series and My Scotland, which explores the landscapes that have inspired her work Val will be making appearances in Christchurch at The Great Ngaio Marsh Game Show & Awards tonight, Celtic Noir in Dunedin in October and the Verb festival in Wellington in November.