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zoemaja's review against another edition
4.0
A terrific thriller, a little too much torture for me, but the lack of tired gender tropes made this one of my favorites in a genre I had pretty much given up on.
reikiwren's review against another edition
4.0
A great read although I did have to skim some of the details of the torture!
paulataua's review against another edition
3.0
‘A Mermaids Singing’ certainly has the ingredients of harrowing thriller; Tony Hill, a criminal profiler trying to come to terms with his own sexual problem, Carol Jordan, a female police officer making her way in a traditionally male world, and the murderer, a strange character spurred on by an obsession with torture. So much promise, but it really didn’t work for me. Hill’s profiling was interesting, but didn’t seem to go anywhere, his intimate problem was never really developed beyond plot device, and Jordan’s determination to catch the killer seemed only matched by her determination to find out whether the profiler had a girlfriend. Having said all of that, I was still involved right up to the end, and I do recognize that it must have felt very modern and unusual when it was published in the early 1990s.
molly_roanoke's review against another edition
2.0
Wow you guys this book has a LOT of dated and offensive tropes! Also the torture stuff was pretty gross and unnecessary! I did read the whole book but I don’t feel great about it. Val McDermid is queer so I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt but I REALLY don’t know what she was thinking with this poor man’s silence of the lambs bullshit.
notathome's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
jfictitional's review against another edition
3.0
I watched the TV show this series inspired first, and I must say they did an excellent job of streamlining it. The book certainly has its merits - the plot is well thought-out, the murders sufficiently horrifying (the descriptions are incredibly graphic), and the business of profiling the killer is fascinating. However, I found the pacing awkward (although the back-and-forth structure ultimately works), and the dialogue can be excessively talky, especially at the climax (a point at which the adaptation is far superior). I felt as if too many things were being made explicit, basically hand-holding. This being the first novel in the series, I can forgive most of these flaws; however, after reading the following two novels I find this the only one I would consider all that great. Val McDermid is clearly a talented writer, but I think her style of Tartan Noir is simply not for me.
martyna's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
chartsh's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25