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The Wire in the Blood
 
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The Wire in the Blood (Paperback)

by Val McDermid (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
RRP: £6.99
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The Wire in the Blood + The Mermaids Singing + The Last Temptation
Price For All Three: £13.97

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Product details

  • Paperback: 544 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; New edition edition (6 Feb 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007217129
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007217120
  • Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 11 x 4.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 5,719 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #7 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Authors, A-Z > M > McDermid, Val

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Product Description

Review
Praise for The Wire in the Blood 'Terrific chiller from Manchester's answer to Thomas Harris' Guardian 'Truly frightening. McDermid's capacity to enter the warped mind of a deviant criminal is shiveringly convincing' The Times 'Stunningly exciting, horrifyingly good' Ruth Rendell 'Tension-filled sequel to The Mermaids Singing... The story, handled with verve, wit and style, never flags' Frances Fyfield, Mail on Sunday 'The plot is a cracker... You will shiver in your socks longer than usual after reaching the last page' Daily Mail

Product Description
Taut, suspenseful and ferociously readable thriller featuring psychological profiler Dr Tony Hill, hero of the hugely successful television series "The Wire in the Blood". Young girls are disappearing around the country, and there is nothing to connect them to one another, let alone the killer whose charming manner hides a warped and sick mind. Nobody gets inside the messy heads of serial killers like Dr Tony Hill. Now heading up a National Profiling Task Force, he sets his team an exercise: they are given the details of thirty missing teenagers and asked to use their new techniques to discover whether there is a sinister link between any of the cases. Only one officer comes up with a concrete theory - a theory that is ridiculed by the group...until one of their number is murdered and mutilated. For Tony Hill, the murder becomes a matter of personal revenge, and joined by colleague Carol Jordan, he embarks on a campaign of psychological terrorism - a game where hunter and hunted can be all too easily reversed.

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Wire in the Blood
72% buy the item featured on this page:
The Wire in the Blood 4.3 out of 5 stars (26)
£4.99
The Mermaids Singing
10% buy
The Mermaids Singing 4.1 out of 5 stars (35)
£4.99
A Place of Execution
9% buy
A Place of Execution 4.8 out of 5 stars (13)
£4.53
The Torment of Others
5% buy
The Torment of Others 4.4 out of 5 stars (20)
£4.99
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Customer Reviews

26 Reviews
5 star:
 (15)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars OUTSTANDING, 4 Nov 2006
By OEJ (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)      
Val McDermid is one of the very best thriller writers of our time, and although I have only recently finished reading this 1997 novel, it must rank as representative of VM at the peak of her abilities. Wire in the Blood is really hard to fault, and it's one of the very few books that I have read that isn't something to do just to pass the time - no, it's worthy of top choice on any list of means of entertainment. Cancel all appointments and read this first, it's amazing value!

Val is confident enough to name the killer on the first page yet develop and sustain tension for the reader until the very last one. Furthermore she has the ability to create and develop several characters that the reader can truly believe in, and build up a sense of strong like or dislike for more than one. The bad guy is one Jacko Vance, our feelings of hatred for him perhaps cleverly manipulated by the author by way of his iconic status as an adored public hero within the context of the story. The question is how will he be stopped? Fortunately his adversaries are the Hill-Jordan team, which might sound a little Formula One for anybody new to this series but in fact Home Office profiler/psychologist Dr Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan are in every sense a well-matched pairing, each with their own wardrobe skeletons and worthy of keen reader attention be they working alone or together. It's perhaps worth mentioning that Tony Hill is possibly the only male character in this story who comes out with any sense of respect or integrity, outnumbered as he is by several shining female roles. Even then, his potential status as Leading Man is undermined by his apparent impotence and subsequent inability to consummate the relationship that exists between he and Carol Jordan, who we assume has no such incapacities. There are more than a few lesbian references or characters which does call to question the accordant leanings of the writer, which I occasionally found distracting, but that's nitpicking in truth - this is a taut, well-paced thriller that makes for a great introduction to anyone new to Val McDermid.

I own all four of the Hill-Jordan novels but unfortunately I have read them in the wrong chronological order...just my luck to begin with the most recent (The Torment of Others), with its references to events in Berlin that I was yet to discover in the third in the series (The Last Temptation). That's what I'm reading right now immediately after finishing Wire in the Blood, and it's every bit as good as the others. Val McDermid is without doubt one of my favourite writers of crime thrillers and I recommend her work unreservedly.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, 28 Jan 2006
By OEJ (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)      
This review is from: The Wire in the Blood (Mass Market Paperback)
Val McDermid is one of the very best thriller writers of our time, and although I have only just finished reading this 1997 novel, it must rank as representative of VM at the peak of her abilities. Wire in the Blood is really hard to fault, and it’s one of the very few books that I have read that isn’t something to do just to pass the time - no, it’s worthy of top choice on any list of means of entertainment. Cancel all appointments and read this first, it’s amazing value!

Val is confident enough to name the killer on the first page yet develop and sustain tension for the reader until the very last one. Furthermore she has the ability to create and develop several characters that the reader can truly believe in, and build up a sense of strong like or dislike for more than one. The bad guy is one Jacko Vance, our feelings of hatred for him perhaps cleverly manipulated by the author by way of his iconic status as an adored public hero within the context of the story. The question is how will he be stopped? Fortunately his adversaries are the Hill-Jordan team, which might sound a little Formula One for anybody new to this series but in fact Home Office profiler/psychologist Dr Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan are in every sense a well-matched pairing, each with their own wardrobe skeletons and worthy of keen reader attention be they working alone or together. It’s perhaps worth mentioning that Tony Hill is possibly the only male character in this story who comes out with any sense of respect or integrity, outnumbered as he is by several shining female roles. Even then, his potential status as Leading Man is undermined by his apparent impotence and subsequent inability to consummate the relationship that exists between he and Carol Jordan, who we assume has no such incapacities. There are more than a few lesbian references or characters which does call to question the accordant leanings of the writer, which I occasionally found distracting, but that’s nitpicking in truth – this is a taut, well-paced thriller that makes for a great introduction to anyone new to Val McDermid.

I own all four of the Hill-Jordan novels but unfortunately I have read them in the wrong chronological order….just my luck to begin with the most recent (The Torment of Others), with its references to events in Berlin that I was yet to discover in the third in the series (The Last Temptation). That’s what I’m reading right now immediately after finishing Wire in the Blood, and it’s every bit as good as the others. Val McDermid is without doubt one of my favourite writers of crime thrillers and I recommend her work unreservedly.

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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book that's impossible to put down., 12 Jun 2001
By Fiona Angela Clark "Fiona" (Essex) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Wire in the Blood (Paperback)
After reading The Mermaids Singing by the same author I was extremely hesitant about this one, the second in the series and hopefully not the last, could she do it again? The answer is an emphatic YES, another brilliant piece of fiction! The style of this book, which involves the same characters (Tony Hill and Carol Jordan) as the last one, is completely different in that the killer is unusually revealed before the story begins. Even so the tension Val McDermid creates as the team close in on their man is incredible. The refusal of the Police to believe that someone as famous and 'nice' as Jacko Vance could be involved in murder, despite the building evidence, is as frustrating for the reader as for Tony Hill. Will they save the latest victim despite having to work without the help of the Police?

While I still think that The Mermaids Singing has the edge this is another great book.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping
I never liked the Series which was made of this book. I think it had a lot to do with the casting. So I approached the book with some apprehension. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Donald Thompson

4.0 out of 5 stars Even if you've watched the TV series this is worth a read
This is the second of Val McDermid's Tony Hill novels. Hill has been asked to head up a Profiling Task Force, where young and talented officers will be taught profiling skills... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Snapdragon

4.0 out of 5 stars Great read
I picked up this book at my local bookshop more for its synopsis that a knowledge of Val's previous writing and I have to say that I wasn't disappointed. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Ms. S. Takyar

5.0 out of 5 stars Happy reader
I prefer to read than write, so simply put ,an excellent work.
Val McDermid does it YET again!
All in my household who have read this have been impressed. Read more
Published 18 months ago by G. Dymond

3.0 out of 5 stars Great but slightly disappointing
This is the second in the series of Psychologist,Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan.
Tony and Carol are joined together on the hunt of a serial killer who also murders one of... Read more
Published 21 months ago by F. Luchetti

3.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious but lacking
Whilst not without ambition, this is a disappointing book because McDermid stretches credibility a little too thinly, the will-they-won't-they thing between Hill and Jordan lacks... Read more
Published on 26 Jun 2007 by tybalt-quin

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, exciting read.
Totally agree with previous reviewer. Couldn't put this book down, can't wait to buy another one.
Published on 6 April 2007 by A. Dawson

5.0 out of 5 stars the wire in the blood
dont let the rubbish tv series put you off,this book is fabulous! i got one of vals books free in a magazine and enjoyed it so much i now own everything she has written. Read more
Published on 28 Nov 2006 by Mrs. M. Macdonald

5.0 out of 5 stars dark and seductive, thrilling read
This book was what got me into this type of genre.It was so dark and scary that i had nightmares about it - thats what you want! Read more
Published on 20 Mar 2006 by nadine grant

3.0 out of 5 stars The Wire in the Blood
Following on from The Mermaids Singing, this is the gruesome next chapter in the life and work of Tony Hill the Home Office criminal profiler and DCI Carol Jordan. Read more
Published on 13 Nov 2004 by Rich Milligan

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