Reviews

Val McDermid is one of my favorite authors. Besides the urban fantasy genre that i gotten to like a lot, thrillers are my favorite to read. I was hooked at first by the authors by BBC America, when they made her books into a series. I started to read her books and immediately hooked on to her writing style, her descriptions, her complex but flawed characters. I have been awaiting this book ever since i heard about it . This author hooks you from the get go. Dr. Tony Hill is a clinical psychologist turned profiler due to his nack of being able to get into serial killers head. DCI Carol Jordan, I don't know how else you can refer to her, a cop who has a close and complicated relationship with herself and Dr. Hill. And then there is Paula McIntyre, also a cop, who used to be on DCI Jordans team. Since the team was disbanded in the last book, she started to work for DCI Alex Fielding. DCI Fielding was character out of the series on TV. She replaced Carol Jordan after the actress left the series. Val MCDermid states in her intro that she borrowed DCI Fielding from the TV series and she was very successful with incorporating her character into the books without losing any of the nuances. I am looking forward to many more Tony Hill novels. I can only recommend this novel. However, to fully understand the complexity of the characters it is very helpful to have read all other novels in the series.

caty_murray's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

4.0

felinity's review against another edition

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4.0

It's been a while since I read this series, so it was a refreshing change to revisit Paula's and blunt honesty, Tony's social ineptness despite his incredible insights, and Carol's honest emotion. Obviously this is a book about terrible crime, a serial killer, but the real story is about grief and the rawness of grieving, the struggle of resolution and how people deal - or not - with the aftermath of crime and loss. In short, the bits fiction rarely cover. And McDermid does it well.

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

raeella's review

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

andrew61's review against another edition

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3.0

After the disappointment of The retribution and the return of Jacko Vance this was for me a return to form for Tony Hill and Carol Jordan although the real strength of the book was DS Paula McIntyre. As ever there is a serial killer on the streets of Bradfield which plays out against the devastating after effects of the previous book. The MIT team has been disbanded and Carol has withdrawn to the wilds of the Yorkshire Moors and a life outside the police force, whilst Tony has to come to terms with his mistakes. The book did what I wanted it to which was keep me turning the page and looking forward to reading the latest in the saga.

sooz_767's review against another edition

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4.0

And we're back! This book was back to the quality I expect from a Carol & Tony novel, after being slightly disappointed at the previous book. There's not a great deal I can say about the plot as it will spoil other books, but some changes took a bit of getting used to and I'm glad other issues were at least partially resolved.

I listened to this one on audio too and really enjoyed the narration by Saul Reichlin.

notasilkycat's review

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2.0

I had a strong feeling that I should stop reading this series and I was probably was right about that. There are too many boring details of Carol and Tony's relationship. I got seriously tired of all these bloody sufferings.

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