He is psychologist and criminal profiler Dr. Tony Hillβs worst nightmareβa killer driven by the most perverted hungers and unmoved by youth and innocence, a killer with a long shopping list of victims who leaves no trail. The murder-mutilation of teenager Jennifer Maidment is horrific enough on its own, but Hill quickly realizes that itβs just the beginning of a chilling campaign targeting an apparently unconnected group of young peopleβvictims that the monster has been grooming through a social networking site.
It is a case that is reawakening ghosts of Tony Hillβs past. And the longer it takes to uncover a motive and a maniac, the more innocent youth will die.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. A new chief constable, James Blake, arrives at Bradfield CID in McDermid's excellent sixth Tony Hill novel (after Beneath the Bleeding). Since Blake takes a skeptical view of both Tony's contributions as a medical consultant and the team's commitment to cold cases, Det. Chief Insp. Carol Jordan has to tread carefully. Soon deemed too expensive by Blake, Tony turns to nearby Worcester for work, where a grisly case involves the brutal murder and sexual mutilation of teenagers lured to their deaths by a killer who befriends them on a social networking Web site. Connections soon arise between Tony's case and Carol's new murder inquiry in Bradfield, which McDermid develops with her usual systematic ease until all the pieces of the disturbing puzzle fall into place. The increasingly complex and indefinable relationship between Tony and Carol provides a strong emotional undercurrent. McDermid demonstrates once again that she's as adept with matters of the heart as she is with murder.
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From Booklist
The Internet as a means of targeting and tormenting victims forms the backdrop of McDermidβs twenty-fourth mystery. First published in the UK in 2009, this thriller features RigMarole (the British equivalent of Facebook) as an effective social networking site for serial killers. Criminal profiler and clinical psychologist Tony Hill and Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan join forces once again (this is the fifth in the Tony Hill series) when a young teenage girl is found brutally murdered. This wasnβt a teen likely to become a victim in the usual way, from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This was a girl whose only excitement came from RigMarole. Another teen death follows, the victim another RigMarole user, pointing Hill and Jordan to a serial killer who knows how to seduce and disappear. McDermid is both a fiendish plot strategist and a highly skilled writer, deftly delivering shocks, sometimes with no more than an out-of-place word. --Connie Fletcher