Customer Reviews
Good but let down on a couple of points - By: George O'reilly, 18 Jul 2008 
It was a really good read & kept me interested but you felt the ending was too quickly wrapped up. The serial killer who thought of everything didn't have a paasword on the home computer that contained incriminating evidence.
Also the fact that the hookers seem to know who the creeper was but wouldn't say anything. That part of the story didn't ring through very well. Other than that it was well worth a read & I will track down her other novels.
Different type of crime thriller - By: Janie U, 13 Dec 2007 
Her characters are very harsh but you know that underneath their brave fronts they are usually vulnerable & that seems to draw them more sympathy from the reader.
What makes the Tony Hill books different from other crime thrillers is that having a psychologist involvedin the story but not working directly as a cop gives the author the freedom to theorise about the murders, so providing a good contrast between this & the usual police procedural progress.
I was a bit disapppointed that there were two cases which were given prominence but turned out not to be linked & I felt that the child killer case was given a fairly swift windup at the end of the book.
Other than that a very good book. I've read several Val McDermid books & will read more.
A high tensioned thriller - By: F. Luchetti, 19 Oct 2007 This is the fourth bookin the series featuring Dr Tony Hill & DCI Carol Jordan.
Two crimes to solve..... a past case involving two missing children & a murderer who is brutally killing womenin a fashion which is identical to previous murders but with the killer already convicted & locked up.
This is one of the best booksin the series, a high tensioned thriller with twists & turns along the way.
Very Good - By: J.Flood, 17 Sep 2007 A murderer is killing prostitutes,in a very gruesome manner. The method of the murders, is identical to a series of murders committed a few years earlier. However, that killer, Derek Tyler, has been put away, & could not have been involved, with the new cases.
I found this book a rivetting read. I felt the characters, DCI Carol Jordan & Tony Hill, along with the rest of the crime investigating team, seemed quite believable, & that the dialogue between them was realistic, as well.
The storyline never got dull, & there are a few twistsin it, too. It kept me interested throughout.
Poorly plotted - By: tybalt-quin, 22 Jun 2007 This book begins with Carol having moved to London, having been betrayedin some kind of police operation, which resultedin her being raped. The wayin which Jordan tries to deal with the rape & it's effect on her relationship with Hill is one of the main themesin the book, & I feel a little guilty for my lack of patience with it. Having a strong female character having to deal with a rape is,in my opinion, becoming something of a clichein crime fiction. It's to McDermid's credit that she doesn't drag it out or wrap itin sentimentality (in fact, Jordan is remarkably resilient about the whole thing which is refreshing), but it did feel too much blah blah blah to me & as it kept recurring as a theme, my eyes began to glaze over. Jordan is persuaded back to Bradfield by Brandon (her former Chief Constable, making a welcome return from The Mermaids Singing) to front an elite investigation squad looking at serial killers & re-opening cold cases when times are quiet. Hill, who moved to St Andrews to teach, hears that she's coming back & gets a part-time jobin Bradfield's local high-security hospital (where it just so happens that Derek Tyler from the Blurb on the Back is a patient) so he can support her - including by buying a house & converting the ground floor into a flat for her, which struck me as a bit weird.
Jordan's first two cases are a cold case concerning the disappearance of two boys (an investigation headed up by Merrick, also making a welcome return from The Mermaids Singing) who was clearly personally investedin the investigation, which makes things awkward given that he's serving as her Inspectorin the new unit. Her second case concerns the gruesome murder of prostitutesin a way echoing a previously solved case. One of my big problems with the book is that the cold case is very much the poor relationin terms of investigation (it's solved much too easily) & emotional impact (there's no look at the effect on the parents or indeed, any relationship with the people really suffering) & I think that structurally, it would have been more effective to just focus on the serial killer, which is clearly what she's more interested in. The reason why the cold case is there is to provide a Big Shocking Twist at the end (which was over too quickly to be effective & whilst I will miss the character concerned, they'd had such a poor ride throughout the story that it was really a relief) & to give Jordan a Potential Love Interest to help her get over her rape & force her & Hill to acknowledge their feelings for each other. Yawn.
Like I said, the serial killer story is more effective - McDermid is never better than when she's drawing on the gruesome & chilling & she gives just enough detail about the killings & the killer's motivation to make you keep your legs tightly crossed as you're reading the scenes. However, I was very disappointed by the wayin which she rushed the ending. For starters, there is v. little explanation for how The Voice was controlling the killers - McDermid says it's to do with hypnosis or psychological suggestion, but there's no real explanation for how this was accomplished & it felt uncharacteristically ham-fisted. Then the denouement itself was incredibly unsatisfying - we literally go from having a face-off between Hill & the killer to the end of the book to a twist that the killer had killed Tyler to a further twist that Tyler had made a confession implicating The Voice & providing handy evidence to bring a convictionin the space of 4 pages. From someone like McDermid, I really expected better.
I'd also like to comment on how McDermid seemed to lose control of her character POVs towards the end -in order to bring the book to a conclusion we started getting inundated with perspectives - from The Voice, to her tools, to Hill & Jordan, to random policemen, to prostitutes with key pieces of evidence - it's a mess. Also a mess is the fact that the Big Reveal is dependent on the prostitutes being afraid of one of the members of Jordan's team - so afraid that when they can potentially reveal the killer to Jordan, they don't. Unfortunately, this fact comes at the end of the book &in going back through the scenes where you see the prostitutes interact with this character, there's nothing at all to indicate that they're any more afraid of them than they are the 'good' policemen. That's sloppy & unconvincing & again, I really expected better from McDermid.
