β Scribed by McDermid, Val
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
*Starred Review.* British author McDermid, whose *The Wire in the Blood* has become the best of actor Robson Greer's omnipresent TV outings, has published most recently a gripping stand-alone, *The Distant Echo* (2003). Now she continues her engrossing series about criminal psychologist Dr. Tony Hill and his police colleague, DCI Carol Jordan (who made their debut in 1996's *The Mermaids Singing*), in a beautifully constructed, impeccably written story about an apparent copycat killer. McDermid takes this not exactly virginal supposition and literally turns it on its head. Two years earlier, strong forensic evidence put serial killer Derek Tyler behind bars in a mental hospital. Now Hill is sure that against all logic Tyler has committed a new murder in the same way as his old ones. The more he and Jordan dig, the more impossible the connection appears. But Hill refuses to swallow the obvious that someone is imitating Tyler's modus operandiand McDermid's swelling legions of enthusiasts will share his bafflement. A finalist for the CWA's 2004 Gold Dagger Award, this fresh, imaginative psychological thriller should help win the author many new fans in the U.S.
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
*Starred Review* In the latest in the series starring forensic psychiatrist and criminal profiler Dr. Tony Hill (which has become the basis of a TV series on BBC America), Hill, finishing out a teaching appointment at St. Andrews, finds himself relieved to leave academia for a real case. The Bradfield Metropolitan Police once again seek his advice, this time regarding two missing children, a murdered seven-year-old kidnapped 15 months earlier, and a newly kidnapped eight-year-old. At the same time, a murder victim is discovered, killed in the same fashion as the victims of a man who has been in a mental institution for two years. McDermid is unusual in her ability to keep the suspense high while constructing social mysteries that are far-ranging in their implications--for example, she touches on the societal forces at work today (such as the lack of true neighborhoods) that make it easier for kids to be victimized. One of the most compelling features of this latest entry is the torment that returning Bradfield DCI Carol Jordan (brutally assaulted in the last mystery) feels as she and her team track down the current murderer while she struggles with the memory shards from the last case. McDermid brings to her mysteries an unusual capacity for compassion, both for victims and for the detectives whose lives are shattered tracking down the killers. *Connie Fletcher*
*Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved*
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
### Review It's perhaps fitting that for McDermid's 25th novel she's revisited her most thrillingly murderous creation, Jacko Vance (*Daily Mirror* ) Val McDermid's 25th novel is stunningly good, but it comes with a health warning. It is truly disturbing (*The Times* ) McDermid never pull
Terrifying psychological chiller featuring clinical psychologist Tony Hill of The Mermaids Singing and The Wire in the Blood. A twisted killer targeting psychologists has left a grisly trail across Europe. Dr Tony Hill, expert at mapping the minds of murderers, is reluctant to get involved. But the
It seems hard to believe now, but there was a day when Val McDermid was just another crime writer. True, her Kate Brannigan novels were highly accomplished and well-honed pieces of work, and if McDermid had written nothing else, they would have assured her a solid place in the history of the genre.
You should have been a detective. If there's one thing the last year has proved, it's how good you are at finding things out. Not simple things. Hard things. Things that nobody is supposed to be able to find out. Things that are buried so deep nobody even thinks twice about them. The sort of things
### Review "Fine, intelligent, griping."--The New York Times "A superb psychological thriller."--Cosmopolitan "Shocking...stunningly exciting, horrifyingly good."--Ruth Rendell ### Product Description Across the country, dozens of teenage girls have vanished. Authorities are convinced they're r