The Torment of Others

Review
"One of McDermid's finest." - The Times

"Our leading Pathologist of everyday evil... the subtle orchestration of terror is masterful." - Guardian

"It is hard to know what to praise first here: the impeccable plotting or the sharp social relevance of the narrative (a McDermid specialty). Most of all, though, it's the relationship between her two central characters that makes THE TORMENT OF OTHERS work so well." - Daily Express


Book Description
Dr. Tony Hill and Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan return in the award-winning series that is the basis for the hit show on BBC America.

In a small grim room, the body of a woman is discovered, panic and pain etched in her face. The scene matches in every detail a series of murders two years ago-murders that ended when irrefutable forensic evidence secured the conviction of a deeply disturbed young man named Derek Tyler.

But there's no way Tyler could have killed the latest victim. He's been locked up in a mental institution since his trial, barely speaking a word. So is there a copycat?

All his years of experience tell top criminal psychologist Dr. Tony Hill that there isn't-but that would make the murders literally impossible. While Hill tries to crack Tyler, DCI Carol Jordan and her team must mount a desperate undercover operation to trap the murderer-a decision that will have terrible consequences.

As the tension mounts, a mixture of psychological insight and dogged detective work leads inexorably to a terrifying climax where Tony faces one of the most perverse killers he has ever encountered.


About the Author
VAL MCDERMID grew up in a Scottish mining community and read English at Oxford. She was a journalist for sixteen years and is now a full-time writer and lives in South Manchester.In 1995, she won the Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year. Her novel, A Place of Execution, won a Los Angeles Times Book Prize,was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel, and named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. She lives in England.



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A serial killer and a pedophile overtax the Bradfield Metropolitan Police. Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan, returning to work after her rape seven months ago, heads a Major Incident Team that includes one closeted and one declared lesbian, one man promoted beyond his abilities, another so competitive he snoops through co-workers' garbage, one by-the-book copper and the obligatory computer whiz. Profiler Dr. Tony Hill, who loves the sexually frozen Jones, helps the team track down (1) two missing boys presumed dead at the hands of a pedophile and (2) the copycat killer of two prostitutes whose signature matches that of Derek Tyler, a nutter sequestered in Bradfield Moor Secure Hospital. While they canvass the working girls' neighborhood and roam Internet child-porn sites for glimpses of the vanished boys, Hill grapples with the voice that apparently instructed Tyler to kill. Several unconvincing red herrings, including hospital director Aidan Hart, fall under suspicion. To entice the serial killer, Det. Paula McIntyre goes undercover as a prostitute, almost ending her life and Jones's career. The team and Hill effect a last-minute rescue, but Det. Insp. Don Merrick is less fortunate in his confrontation with the child molester in the wilds of Scotland. Hypnotic mind-control, sexual trauma overcome by a roll in bed with a good-looking hunk, and dead ends jump-started by fortuitous computer photos make McDermid's latest exercise in serial murder (The Distant Echo, 2003, etc.) less than compelling.


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