Today we publish some of the world's foremost authors, from Nobel prize-winners to worldwide bestsellers recent successes including the Booker-winning Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel, and George RR Martin's blockbusting A Song of Ice and Fire series. The worldwide group was formed following News Corp's 1990 acquisition of William Collins & Sons. In 1987, Harper & Row, as it had then become, was acquired by News Corporation. She lives in Manchester, England and owns a private detective firm along with his employer Bill Mortensen. The stunning first novel in the Kate Brannigan series, from No.1 Sunday Times bestseller. The stunning first novel in the Kate Brannigan series, from No.1 Sunday Times bestseller Val. The plot of the novel introduces Kate Brannigan as a female private investigator. Author: Val McDermid Narrator: Chloe Massey Audiobook. The original Harper Brothers Company was established in New York City in 1817 and over the years published the works of Mark Twain, the Bronte Sisters, Thackeray, Dickens, John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Buy Dead Beat by Val McDermid for 32.00 at Mighty Ape NZ. PI Kate Brannigan Series Books 1-3: Dead Beat, Kick Back, Crack Down Val McDermid. Tony Hill from The Mermaids Singing (1995) and The Wire in the Blood (1997) and thrusts them into a. She is also a multiple finalist for the Edgar Award, including for Edgar Nominee for Fact Crime Forensics, which won the Anthony Award for non-fiction. British author McDermid brings back DCI Carol Jordan and psychological profiler Dr. In the UK, the Glasgow-based William Collins & Sons was founded in 1819 and published a range of bibles, atlases and dictionaries, later including classic authors HG Wells, Agatha Christie, JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. Val McDermid’s best-selling novels have won the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year and the CWA Gold Dagger and Cartier Diamond Dagger Awards. With a heritage stretching back nearly 200 years, HarperCollins is one of the world's foremost English-language publishers, offering the best quality content right across the spectrum, from cutting-edge contemporary fiction to digital hymnbooks and pretty much everything in between.