quippe | Entries tagged with val mcdermid

The Blurb On The Back:

A 200-year-old secret is now a matter of life and death. And it could be worth a fortune ...

It's summer in the Lake District and heavy rain over the fells has uncovered a bizarrely tattooed body. Could it be linked to the old rumour that Fletcher Christian, mutinous First Mate on the Bounty has secretly returned to England?

Scholar Jane Gresham wants to find out. She believes that the Lakeland poet William Wordsworth, a friend of Christian's, may have sheltered the fugitive and turned his tale into an epic poem - which has since disappeared. But as she follows each lead, death is hard on her heels. The centuries-old mystery is putting lives at risk. And it isn't just the truth that is waiting to be discovered, but a bounty worth millions ...

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

For me, the central premise was just too preposterous for me to buy into the story and I don't think it helped that McDermid tells it in a surprisingly trite (allbeit, fast-paced) way. I definitely wanted to know more about the motivation of the killer than what we get given and I think it really needs more depth to it to be interesting. Whilst I think that McDermid is a good thriller writer, this is definitely not one of her best.

The Blurb On The Back:

Young girls are disappearing around the country, and there is nothing to connect them to one another, let alone the killer whose charming manner hides a warped and sick mind.

Nobody gets inside the messy heads of serial killers like Dr Tony Hill. Now heading up a National Profiling Task Force, he sets his team an exercise: they are given the details of missing teenagers and asked to discover whether there is a sinister link between any of the cases. Only one officer comes up with a concrete theory - a theory that is ridiculed by the group ... until one of their number is murdered and mutiliated.

For Tony HIll, the murder becomes a matter of personal revenge, and, joined by colleague Carol Jordan, he embarks on a campaign of psychological terrorism - a game where hunter and hunted can be all too easily reversed.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Whilst not without ambition, this is a disappointing book because McDermid stretches credibility a little too thinly, the will-they-won't-they thing between Hill and Jordan lacks the spark to be interesting and there's just too much sign-posting going on for the tension to kick in. Not one that I'd particularly recommend, unless you really want to see where The Wire In The Blood Series is going.

The Blurb On The Back:

A dead girl lies on a blood-soaked mattress, her limbs spread in a parody of ecstasy. The scene matches a series of murders which ended when irrefutable forensic evidence secured the conviction of one Derek Tyler. But Tyler's been locked up in a mental institution for two years, barely speaking a word - except to say that 'the Voice' told him to do it.

Top criminal psychologist Dr Tony Hill is prepared to think the unthinkable - this is not a copycat murder but something much stranger. While DCI Carol Jordan and her team mount a desperate and dangerous undercover police operation to trap the murderer, Hill heads towards a terrifying face-off with one of the most perverse killers he has ever encountered ...

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Whilst I still have a lot of respect for McDermid's ability to pace a novel and write tension, I thought that the plotting of this left a great deal to be desired and can't help but feel that the Jordan/Hill dynamic has reached the end of its course. In fact, given that there has been no further book in this series since this was published in 2004, I'm hoping that McDermid will only need one to wrap it up completely.

The Blurb On The Back:

You always remember the first time. Isn't that what they say about sex? How much more true it is of murder ...

Up until now, the only serial killers Tony Hill had encountered were behind bars. This one's different - this one's on the loose.

In the northern town of Bradfield four men have been found mutilated and tortured. Fear grips the city; no man feels safe. Clinical psychologist Tony HIll is brought in to profile the killer. A man with more than enough sexual problems of his own, Tony himself becomes the unsuspecting target in a battle of wits and wills where he has to use every ounce of his professional skill and personal nerve to survive.

A tense, beautifully written psychological thriller, The Mermaids Singing explores the tormented mind of a serial killer unlike any the world of fiction has ever seen.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Creepy, gruesome and tense - definitely worth a read if you'e into twisted psychological crime thrillers.