- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; (Reissue) edition (3 Feb 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006493580
- ISBN-13: 978-0006493587
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 11.1 x 2.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 397,922 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Mermaids Singing
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘Truly, horribly good’
Mail on Sunday
‘Gripping, intelligent stuff’
The Times
‘A superb psychological thriller’
Cosmopolitan
Product Description
Gold Dagger Award winning psychological suspense exploring the twisted world of a serial killer from ‘Manchester’s answer to Thomas Harris’ Guardian
You always remember the first time. Isn’t that what they say about sex? How much more true it is of murder…
Up till now, the only serial killers Tony Hill had encountered were safely 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 nerve to survive.
A tense, brilliantly written psychological thriller, The Mermaids Singing explores the tormented mind of a serial killer unlike any the world of fiction has ever seen.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More human than Cornwell and more thought than Patterson,
By
This review is from: The Mermaids Singing (Paperback)
Val McDermid is one of the few writers which successfully merge the reality of a UK setting with the thrill of the chase.Her background as a newspaper reporter seems to enable her to write developing stories in a style that makes you feel you are there. Her characters are more human than those found in Patricia Cornwell's police thrillers, and the characters have more depth than the typical James Patterson. She avoids the new realism which seems to demand more explicit torture scenes in short chapters, relying instead on a more thoughtful exposition of the motives involved and a true sense of time in the plotting. Her development of the personality of Tony Hill is well-paced, and manages to blend the abstract analytical facet of his work with his human frailties and self-blindness. This book encouraged me to read her back-catalogue works; the schoolgirl mystery stories of Lindsay Duncan and the Warshawski-like Brannigan series which although lighter in tone show the love of detail on which this more mature work depends for its success. I unreservedly recommend it as a more human approach than Cornwell and created with rather more thought and insight than Patterson.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A psychological thriller,
By
This review is from: The Mermaids Singing (Paperback)
This is the first in the series of clinical psychologist Tony Hill, and it kicks off to a good start.
Tony Hill explores the mind of a serial killer, which in turn puts the reader inside the mind of the killer also. This is a well written psychological thriller which keeps you guessing right till the very end on who is brutally torturing and mutilating men to death.
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Grippingly Superb!,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Mermaids Singing (Paperback)
What a great book! I was hooked from the minute I began to read. The characters became so real and the plot so nerve-tinglingly tense, that I could not put this book down! By the time I got to the last few chapters, I found myself reading faster and faster just so that I could find out what would happen next - would Batman arrive in time?!!! Seriously though, the detailed descriptions of the killer's methods (to me) were necessary for the heightening of the tension. Without such detail, the killer would not have seemed half as scary or crazy. If you love a good read and have a very strong stomach, read and enjoy!
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