KILLING THE SHADOWS
KILLING THE SHADOWS
Val McDermid
Though McDermid skillfully alternates point of view and creates memorable scenes and complex characters, her latest falls short of the high standard set by her previous novel,
Continue reading » THE LAST TEMPTATION
THE LAST TEMPTATION
Val McDermid
British author McDermid brings back DCI Carol Jordan and psychological profiler Dr. Tony Hill from The Mermaids Singing (1995) and The Continue reading »
THE DISTANT ECHO
THE DISTANT ECHO
Val McDermid
This absorbing psychological novel of revenge shows British author McDermid (A Place of Execution) at the top of her form. In part one, set in 1978 in St. Continue reading »
The Torment of Others
The Torment of Others
Val McDermid
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 Continue reading »
The Torment of Others
The Torment of Others
Val McDermid
The latest addition to McDermid's dark and gritty police procedurals, which have become even more popular thanks to the BBC America TV program The Wire in the Continue reading »
The Grave Tattoo
The Grave Tattoo
Val McDermid
An intriguing, 200-year-old mystery propels this multilayered stand-alone from British author McDermid set in England's Lake District. Scholar Jane Gresham pursues her theory that HMS Continue reading »
A Darker Domain
A Darker Domain
Val McDermid
When Michelle Gibson reports her father, Mick Prentice, missing at the start of McDermid's intricate but underwhelming stand-alone psychological thriller, Det. Insp. Karen Pirie, head of the Continue reading »
Beneath the Bleeding
Beneath the Bleeding
Val McDermid
McDermid's exhilarating fifth novel to feature Det. Chief Insp. Carol Jordan and Dr. Tony Hill (after The Torment of Others) finds Tony in the hospital Continue reading »
Fever of the Bone
Fever of the Bone
Val McDermid
A new chief constable, James Blake, arrives at Bradfield CID in McDermid's excellent sixth Tony Hill novel (after Beneath the Bleeding). Since Blake takes a skeptical view of both Tony's Continue reading »
Lugar de Ejecucion = A Place of Execution
Lugar de Ejecucion = A Place of Execution
Val McDermid
It's December 1963 and teenage girls all over Britain are swooning to the Beatles' ""I Want to Hold Your Hand."" In the tiny, remote village of Scardale, Derbyshire, 13-year-old Alison Carter is Continue reading »
Crack Down: A Kate Brannigan Mystery
Crack Down: A Kate Brannigan Mystery
Val McDermid
British PI Kate Brannigan persuades her lover, Richard, to help out in an investigation of auto-financing fraud. He agrees and ends up in jail, busted for possessing two kilos of crack he didn't know Continue reading »
Clean Break: A Kate Brannigan Mystery
Clean Break: A Kate Brannigan Mystery
Val McDermid
Fast-talking, kick-boxing Kate Brannigan, a PI in Manchester, England, returns (after Crack Down) in a cleanly written, fast-paced escapade. Cut from the same cloth as Kinsey Milhone, though somewhat Continue reading »
Blue Genes: A Kate Brannigan Mystery
Blue Genes: A Kate Brannigan Mystery
Val McDermid
After The Mermaids Singing (see Forecasts, Oct. 28), her harrowing Gold Dagger winner, McDermid returns to her Manchester PI Kate Brannigan (last seen in Clean Break) for a fast-paced joyride that Continue reading »
Report for Murder
Report for Murder
Val McDermid
This promising debut from a British writer introduces Lindsay Gordon, who mockingly describes herself as ``a cynical socialist lesbian feminist journalist.'' Commissioned to write a story on Continue reading »
Open and Shut
Open and Shut
Val McDermid
This intriguing second novel by the author of Report for Murder again casts lesbian Scottish journalist Lindsay Gordon. Lindsay is living temporarily in Italy when fellow writer Alison Maxwell is Continue reading »
Dead Beat
Dead Beat
Val McDermid
Set in Manchester, England, which its natives claim as the home of rock 'n' roll, the forthright and unpretentious sleuth introduced in this fast-paced story is sure to win readers' hearts. Kate Continue reading »
Kickback
Kickback
Val McDermid
``The Case of the Missing Conservatories'' is what lively and likeable Kate Brannigan, the English detective from Manchester introduced in Dead Beat , calls this, her second adventure, which founders Continue reading »
The Mermaids Singing
The Mermaids Singing
Val McDermid
McDermid (A Clean Break) enters new ground with a dark tale that is more complex, more carefully crafted and far more disturbing than her Kate Brannigan mysteries. By the time the police admit that Continue reading »
Deadline for Murder: The Third Lindsay Gordon Mystery
Deadline for Murder: The Third Lindsay Gordon Mystery
Val McDermid
Returning to Glasgow from a self-imposed exile to avoid the political flap set off by events in Common Murder (1995), freelance journalist Lindsay Gordon discovers her world melodramatically upended. Continue reading »
Conferences Are Murder
Conferences Are Murder
Val McDermid, Val McDemud
In 1984, after the traumatizing death of her closest friend, amateur sleuth and former reporter Lindsay Gordon left England for California. Nine years later, she finds herself back in her homeland, Continue reading »
Trick of the Dark
Trick of the Dark
Val McDermid
In McDermid's crafty stand-alone thriller, psychiatrist Charlotte "Charlie" Flint gives expert testimony at the Leicester murder trial of Bill Hopton that contributes to his acquittal. When Hopton Continue reading »
The Retribution
The Retribution
Val McDermid
The return of serial killer Jacko Vance drives McDermid’s superb seventh novel featuring Dr. Tony Hill and Det. Chief Insp. Carol Jordan of the Bradfield police (after 2010’s Fever of the Bone). Continue reading »
The Vanishing Point
The Vanishing Point
Val McDermid
Putting her series characters Tony Hill and Carol Jordan on the back burner temporarily, McDermid (The Retribution) delivers a solid stand-alone combining the high-stakes hunt for a missing child Continue reading »
Cross and Burn
Cross and Burn
Val McDermid
McDermid’s fiendishly clever eighth novel featuring forensic psychologist Tony Hill and detective Carol Jordan (after The Retribution) finds the two partners on the outs. Jordan has resigned from the Continue reading »
Northanger Abbey
Northanger Abbey
Val McDermid
Scottish crime writer McDermid (Cross and Burn) adeptly reworks Jane Austen's Gothic satire for the modern audiences. A homeschooled minister's daughter bored by the "narrow confines" of the Dorset Continue reading »
The Skeleton Road
The Skeleton Road
Val McDermid
The discovery of a man’s skeleton atop an Edinburgh building slated for demolition kick-starts Diamond Dagger Award–winner McDermid’s hit-or-miss follow-up to 2008’s A Darker Domain. Det. Continue reading »
Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime
Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime
Val McDermid
In this gruesomely fascinating book, former journalist and renowned suspense novelist McDermid (The Skeleton Road) explains the science behind solving crimes. Based on interviews with crime Continue reading »
Splinter the Silence
Splinter the Silence
Val McDermid
Dr. Tony Hill and Carol Jordan, a former detective chief constable, still aren’t on speaking terms in their solid ninth outing (after 2013’s Cross and Burn), despite the closeness they once Continue reading »
Out of Bounds
Out of Bounds
Val McDermid
At the outset of Scottish author McDermid’s engaging if at times overstuffed third Karen Pirie novel (after 2014’s The Skeleton Road), 17-year-old Ross Garvie and three mates steal a Land Continue reading »
Matchup
Matchup
Gayle Lynds (et al.)
Each of the 11 collaborative tales in this stellar sequel to the International Thriller Writers’ anthology FaceOff (2014) pairs a top-rank female thriller writer with a male counterpart. Continue reading »
Insidious Intent
Insidious Intent
Val McDermid
At the start of Diamond Dagger Award–winner McDermid’s stirring 10th novel featuring Det. Chief Insp. Carol Jordan and profiler Tony Hill (after 2015’s Splinter the Silence), office manager Continue reading »
