The Mermaids Singing: Amazon.co.uk: Val McDermid, Alan Cumming: Books

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Review
'This reading, by Alan Cumming, lives up to the novel's reputation, by capturing in this taut, psychological thriller the smell and taste of fear - a thoroughly unpleasant experience - but one I would recommend to anyone who enjoys (if that is the right word) a thriller in the serial-killer, savage torture and sexual brutality mode ... three hours listening to a good adaptation (which this is) is a lot quciker than reading the book, and probably a good deal more thrilling.' Crime Time January 1997

Product Description
The Bradfield police are desperately hunting a serial-killer. Sexually crazed, coldly methodical, he puts his victims to barbaric torture, but leaves no clues to his identity. Four men have already died. When will he strike again?

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Customer Reviews

35 Reviews

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
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4.1 out of 5 stars (35 customer reviews)

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33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More human than Cornwell and more thought than Patterson, 24 Jun 2000

By	Mr. D. J. Carr "David Carr" (London, England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grippingly Superb!, 4 Sep 2002

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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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sickening, revolting, sadistic, stomach-churning and clearly the work of a devilish and twisted mind. I LOVED IT., 24 Oct 2006

By	OEJ (England) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Mermaids Singing (Paperback)

This may be a review of a book published in 1995, but eleven years later it still stands tall, together with its creator, among more contemporary peers. The first in what has turned out to be a highly successful series involving criminal psychologist Dr Tony Hill, it is gripping from cover to cover and has that rare bonus of a climax that in every way complements the build-up, even if that climax could be criticised for a slight lack of credibility. Many thrillers or works of crime fiction have complex and exciting story-lines, only for the reader to be let down by the conclusion. Not so with The Mermaids Singing - it has few weaknesses at any point. Not only that, but for anyone who is lucky enough to have no advance knowledge of the outcome, a real surprise is in store! And perhaps the real treat, for want of a better word, is a generally convincing examination of the mind of a murderous psychopath - the motives, the planning, the execution.

It's a serial killer novel, the bodies of the male victims having been deposited in selected locations popular with the gay community in the northern English town of Bradfield (possibly a fictitious amalgamation of Bradford and Sheffield), and having earlier been subjected to a variety of forms of torture using instruments based on historical fact or folklore dating back many centuries. Throughout the course of the story, not only are the police completely stumped as to who the killer might be - they have no suspects at all - the reader is likely to form a similar view, seeing as how the planning of the murders is so comprehensive, with every effort made to leave not a trace of forensic evidence. The killer comes over as highly intelligent, so if I had to level a criticism, I would suggest that this intelligence takes something of a day off in the hour of reckoning, which seems somewhat out of sorts with the character that had been built up in our minds so thoroughly throughout the bulk of the book. It's nit-picking, but another reviewer here is right to point this out - although somewhat more severely than I have done.

This is the novel that introduces us not only to Tony Hill and DI Carol Jordan, but to the earliest seeds of their romance that is to be re-kindled in The Wire in the Blood, The Last Temptation, The Torment of Others, and a fifth novel due out in 2007 provisionally titled Beneath the Bleeding.

Val McDermid's standards are high across her portfolio of some 23 titles over a 20 year span, but Mermaids is probably regarded as one of her very best, and as the owner of 12 of those titles I would immediately place it in the top three alongside A Place of Execution and The Torment of Others. She has that rare talent for writing in a `gender neutral' style, by which I mean that her own gender never seems to display itself and potentially alienate one sector or another of her target audience. We should be proud that she is British (if not English!) because few of the crime fiction superstars of the current era are from this side of the pond. Be in no doubt, just in case you haven't read one of Val's books yet - she's right up at the top with the best.

Incidentally, the title The Mermaids Singing is a small extract from a poem written in 1917 by T S Eliot, called "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Disturbingly good
If you're a fan of crime novels and you've never read anything by Val McDermid before, this is a great place to start. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Miss

3.0 out of 5 stars The Mermaids Singing
This introduces an excellent team of Tony Hill and Carol Jordan. The author establishes a good rapport between them. The book is well plotted and paced. Read more

Published 11 months ago by Rich

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a killer!
Highly recommended! The plot is clever and well thought out and the writing is very pacy. I was gripped from the very start of the book and I loved watching the skewed... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Dixie Chick

5.0 out of 5 stars Graphic but gripping
As with all books by this author the descriptions of the killing methods are graphically detailed and only for those with a strong constitution. Read more

Published 14 months ago by barneysky

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading even if you've seen the TV series
The Mermaids Singing introduces us to Dr Tony Hill and DI Carol Jordan, as they attempt to find a killer who appears to be targeting young men and then dumping them in areas known... Read more

Published 16 months ago by Snapdragon

3.0 out of 5 stars average at best
I read this book as part of a book group.

No one was particularly impressed I am afraid.

It is a well written and an easy to read book. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Saied

5.0 out of 5 stars Singing her Praises
I enjoy those serial killer type books. Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwell, Richard Montanari are masters of the genre and authors I'd been compelled to read as soon as I discovered... Read more

Published 18 months ago by imla

4.0 out of 5 stars A psychological thriller
This is the first in the series of clinical psychologist Tony Hill, and it kicks off to a good start. Read more

Published 22 months ago by F. Luchetti

4.0 out of 5 stars Creepy, gruesome and tense
I can see why this book won the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Fiction. It's tightly plotted, the tension is well maintained and the central characters of Carol Jordan and Tony Hill... Read more

Published on 21 Jun 2007 by tybalt-quin

4.0 out of 5 stars gripping read
a well written novel with twists and turns expected in this calibre of thriller. The torture scenes whilst graphic were well written but not sensationalist. Read more

Published on 30 April 2007 by Fiona Smith

› See all 35 customer reviews...

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All of VAL McDERMID's novels : IN ORDER: A list by OEJ
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	77% buy the item featured on this page: The Mermaids Singing 4.1 out of 5 stars (35)
	9% buy A Place of Execution 4.8 out of 5 stars (13) �4.37
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	5% buy The Torment of Others 4.4 out of 5 stars (20) �4.99


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