Season two of Karen Pirie, which premieres today on Britbox, sees the detective inspector (Lauren Lyle) handed a challenging high-profile cold case involving the decades-old kidnapping of a wealthy heiress, Catriona Grant (Julia Grant), and her infant son. From the get-go, Pirie faces resistance from the family, eager to keep their secrets buried. As she grows closer to the truth, her and the team will be forced to contend with not just the evidence but also the influence of wealth and the secrets that those who have it go to great lengths to protect.

Recently, star Lyle, as well as writer/executive producer Emer Kenny, who also plays River Wilde in the series, spoke with SciFi Vision about what viewers can expect from season two, how Pirie’s dealing with her promotion, and more.

Read the full transcript below.

SCIFI VISION:   Since I already asked Lauren last time about becoming part of the show, will you tell me Emer, what made you want to adapt this in the first place?

EMER KENNY:   So, I got sent the book and asked if I was interested, and I was really fascinated by the central character of Karen, because she's a similar age to me, a woman, not now, but then, a woman in her 20s who felt very relatable. She was kind of the underdog, underestimated at work, and she had to work really hard to be heard, and I felt like a lot of young women could relate to that. It also just had a really gripping mystery at its heart, and I found Val [McDermid] to be a very impressive, interesting writer. So, just those things came together, and I took it on and here we are, now, together.

SCIFI VISION:   Lauren, obviously, Karen, this season, I mean, she's got a promotion; she's got more power. Talk about where she's at in that sense, and also maybe how that's not always a good thing. Sometimes she sort of gets in own her way a bit this season as well.

LAUREN LYLE:   Yeah, I think we talk about Karen being a bit of a reluctant boss this season, where she has wanted, like many young women, has wanted all the power and control for quite a long time, and has been good at what she does for quite a long time. Then, now that they've all gone, “Okay, yeah, you can have it, have everything you want. You can run the show, you can have the big office, you can have all the team,” she sort of doesn't know what to do with it, and it's all a bit overwhelming for a minute. However, she does manage to step up to the plate because she is so naturally very good at her job.

And that's always what Karen's run off of is that she just has this talent for doing what she does, and yes, it does run her into trouble sometimes in terms of the way that she speaks to people. I think she doesn't have much of a filter. I don't think she cares to have much of a filter, because for her, doing what is right and going for the right thing is all that matters, and if that means upsetting some people, that's fine. And it just happens to be that all of her bosses have been men, and she has to sort of step up to facing them a lot.

So, it's difficult in that respect, I guess, but she somehow manages at all times, even if it means that we fall in love with her, I think, because she has her own methods and breaks their rules for her own, and we follow that and fall in love with that. And I think it makes it quite an unpredictable show, because it means that we don't know what she's going to do next.

SCIFI VISION:   How do you think, though, would she have been able to deal with it if things blew up in her face? Because there's the thing with the witness protection and that kind of thing. It could have went very wrong, and even her boss, he kind of forgave her.

LAUREN LYLE:   That reminds me of a TikTok that I saw where it was like, the point of view when you do the thing for the plot, and then you've got to deal with the plot. That's kind of what I think her method is most of the time. As a young modern woman, she's like, “I'm just going to do it for what I think I need to do, and we'll figure out later.”

And I think with things like the reveal and the leaking of the name via Bel (Rakhee Thakrar), I think she knows that it's a huge risk, but there could be such a good outcome from it and is willing to take that risk. I think that's what I mean about when if things do blow up, I think she's willing to see that happens or kind of isn't thinking that far ahead too hard. She just sort of lives on instinct a little bit.

EMER KENNY:   She's so tunnel vision on solving the case in front of her that she kind of gets blinkered sometimes, and luckily, she has a knack of, if it all kind of working in the end, but there could be a different version of the story.

SCIFI VISION:   She's really lucky her boss sort of forgave her.

EMER KENNY:   It's basically really lucky that she's so clever. Like she basically is really good at her job. And if she wasn't, she should not -

LAUREN LYLE:   I think the boss is looking around going, “Well, I couldn't figure it out. Neither could that guy. Neither could that guy.” Her methods are not normal, and it's frustrating, but she is getting it done in a way that no one else is.

So, we can't lose her. She's almost too much of an asset, and it's really annoying.

EMER KENNY:   And it makes it exciting to watch, because you never quite know whether it's going to work out.

LAUREN LYLE:   Yeah. Yeah. It's like when someone's really talented, and they can be quite difficult and everyone goes, “It's so annoying that they're talented, because we still need them around.” I think that's why lots of actors remain working.

SCIFI VISION:   [laughs] Emer, I wanted to ask, talk about balancing between pulling from the books versus what you add and how you kind of make that decision when you're writing the scripts.

EMER KENNY:   So, I read the books loads and loads of times. I kind of absorb everything. I make tons of notes.

I do loads of research around the period, talk to Val a bit, talk to advisors. Then, I kind of throw it all up in the air and just try and work out what will make the best TV series instinctively. That, to me, is a really like hooky opening. Then, I kind of follow the twists and the hooks from there. I mean, I'm a big plotter. Like, you know, I want to work out every single plot point right to the end. I don't kind of find it as I go, because you can't with this kind of show. I usually use like the core tenets of the book, and then I play fast and loose with the rest with Val's blessing, because she knows that they're different mediums, and it needs to work for a TV audience. So, she's really cool, and she totally gets it.

SCIFI VISION:   Do you find being part of this universe and having to follow certain guidelines in order to make it at least sort of the same story, is that restrictive, or is it in a way freeing, because maybe you don't have to like think of some of the, you know, stuff that's going on?

EMER KENNY:   Kind of both. Yeah, kind of both in that…I'm inheriting the next book. So, like this book was number two in the series. So, it's like not my story that I've gone, “Oh, I really want to delve into this,” but there's a blessing in that, as you say, because there's something quite like deliciously unexpected about getting involved in a story that you wouldn't necessarily have thought up yourself. So, I mean, I didn't know anything about the miners' strike in the 80s in this part of Scotland, and then suddenly I'm, you know, deep into research and discovering how interesting it was and how much it affected this part of the world and these people and how it still to this day has had an effect. So, I think there are kind of limitations and freedoms that come with that way of working.

SCIFI VISION:   That's fair. Lauren, talk about her relationship with Phil (Zach Wyatt) this season and how that progresses.

LAUREN LYLE:   Yeah, the relationship, I love it, because I think it gives us a real insight into - it's like not just a case that we're enjoying about the show. We're falling in love with a character in her life, and [it’s] such a relatable thing to be in love with someone that you work with and how you handle that. And she happens to be this young, late 20s, early 30s woman who's just trying to go to the pub at the end of the day with her boyfriend but also solving the biggest missing persons case in the country's history.

And I think it's just this amazing dichotomy of things and that she - and it's something that I think so many people can relate to, that they've been at work with a colleague and how that's not allowed. It's sneaky, it's a bit sexy, but it's really difficult as well. And they really do love each other, but it's so hard, because his morals kind of get in the way sometimes of what he should and shouldn't be doing for her. Her morals, I guess, can get clouded, because she expects him to be able to do things that he might not otherwise do if he didn't love her. But at the same time, you sort of rally behind her doing that and wanting that from him, because, you know, again, that it might get them some of the right answers. And it's quite fun to watch, but it's hard.

And I think it's a really nice vehicle for people to delve deeper into Karen's life and to sort of follow. It becomes less of just solving a crime and it becomes this quite emotional, big roller coaster for the audience around what we're trying to discover, the pressure of what it means to discover this mystery, as well as what that actually looks like for someone to try and do that.

SCIFI VISION:   Emer, is it different writing a second season now that you have a cast? Because I assume to some extent you're sort of writing for Lauren, because you know what her strengths and weaknesses are, that kind of thing.

EMER KENNY:   Yeah, absolutely, and I'm so lucky, because our cast, they are not only brilliant actors, but they've got really funny bones, and I just know how their senses of humor work. I love writing to that. I love making them laugh. I love writing them lines that I know they're going to love to say. Because as an actor myself, that's just the best thing when you're like, “Oh, I can knock this out the park.” And on the one hand, I know what Lauren likes to do and say, but then also I love it when I write something, and she unexpectedly does it in a way that is better than I could ever imagine.

But it's kind of the same with Chris Jenks. He's magic with character and with The Mint.

One of my favorites to write for is Lees (Steve John Shepherd), Karen’s boss. Like his voice is so specific and idiosyncratic, and I just adore writing dialogue for him. So, it's my favorite part of the of the process.

I find the plot, you know, it's hard work, but the characters and the actors and the casting is just absolute pleasure from start to finish.

LAUREN LYLE:   I think we all in the read through for season two, everyone was so giddy, because we all felt like we had been written for it. And we were going, “Oh, my God, she's got our voices down and has obviously been able to play to our strengths in places or like give us little things that maybe will be challenging but fun. And I think everyone just found it like hilarious and delicious to get to do that, and it felt like the gang was back after we read it all through for the first time again.

EMER KENNY:   I mean, I just love actors, and I love what they do with what I've written. And even characters who weren't in the first cast, after I'd seen their audition tapes, particularly Mark Rowley and Julia Brown, who play [Mick and Cat], like their chemistry is incredible, and it was so central to the show. But once I knew they were playing them, I'd seen how they work and how they sound, [and] they're in my head then, and then I can write to that. So, that is just just a such a like rewarding part of doing this show is the great actors I get to get to use.