Product Description

The terrifying new psychological thriller featuring Tony Hill, criminal profiler and hero of TV's Wire in the Blood. The race is on to uncover the identity of a murderer with nothing to lose -- and everything to kill for. When Robbie Bishop, star midfielder for the Bradfield Vics, is poisoned by a rare and deadly toxin, profiler Dr Tony Hill and trusted colleague DCI Carol Jordan have their work cut out for them. Robbie was adored, so the public want answers -- but the answers aren't coming, and trails are running cold. Then a bomb explodes in the football stadium, causing massive casualties -- and another man dies from poisoning. Is there a link between the cases? And what are the motives for these crimes? The clock is ticking for Tony and Carol -- and the death toll keeps rising!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3211 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

Amazon.co.uk
It seems hard to believe now, but there was a day when Val McDermid was just another crime writer. True, her Kate Brannigan novels were highly accomplished and well-honed pieces of work, and if McDermid had written nothing else, they would have assured her a solid place in the history of the genre. But Beneath the Bleeding (as with most of the other work the author has done more recently) is a much more ambitious and considerable novel, written on a grander scale, tackling pertinent social issues and (most importantly) developing two highly memorable characters: forensic profiler Tony Hill and his police ally DCI Carol Jordan.

The new book, as disturbing as it is compulsively readable, continues to add new levels to the psychological thriller -- something that McDermid seems able to do in every new book. A star footballer has been murdered in the city of Bradfield. Shortly after, an explosion rocks the town's football stadium, wreaking mass carnage. In the current climate of fear regarding home-grown terrorism, it is inevitable that suspicion falls in this direction – but is money -- or something else -- involved here? Such as a bloody working out of some kind of revenge scenario against the football team? Needless to say, this is quite a different case from those that Tony Hill and Carol Jordan have previously been involved with, and the customary relationship (swinging between confrontation and admiration) is worked out with all the rigour that we expect from McDermid. Of course, this is an author who always has more fish to fry than the simple exigencies of the crime novel, and astringent commentaries on many aspects of British society are provocatively incorporated here (always, though, inter alia -- never at the expense of a forward-moving narrative). If you're a fan of the Wire in the Blood TV series, you should do yourself a favour and investigate the original novels – such as Beneath the Bleeding. They offer a considerably more involving experience. --Barry Forshaw

Review
Praise for Beneath the Bleeding: 'All the craft, panache and pace that we have come to expect from this outstanding writer! Vintage stuff: unplug the phone, lock the door and prepare to read in a sitting' Guardian 'Another intelligent and absorbing offering from one of crime fiction's most consistent performers' The Times 'The queen of British crime! Hill and Jordan are compelling creations and their encounters fairly crackle. McDermid is a consummate plotter so there are pleasing twists and turns in this first-rate story' Observer 'A great, topical read' Metro 'McDermid is at the peak of her murderous craft! on the page, McDermid makes criminal profiler Hill every bit as engaging as [Robson Green]' Daily Mirror 'Peerless!one of the world's finest crime writers, McDermid is currently at the top of her game' Glasgow Herald 'The Queen of serial killers in this country keeps her end up!. few can scoop Val on throat-clutching narrative! marvellous' Daily Mail 'A very good contemporary crime novel in terms of excitement, topicality and its sense of authenticity. but it delivers more than this: the complex and unpredictable relationship between Hill and Jordan lies at the heart of the series and is one of its greatest strengths. McDermid's writing gets better and better' Spectator 'McDermid's usual ingredients of fear, revulsion, ingenuity and heroism! this book is all the more gripping because some holds are barred' Literary Review 'McDermid is up there with the best' Good Reading 'Nail-biting' Woman & Home 'Skilfully plotted! highly recommended' Diva Praise for the Tony Hill thrillers: 'No one compares to McDermid' Guardian 'One of McDermid's finest, which is saying a lot' The Times 'This is McDermid on top form -- pass the Valium' Daily Mail 'Gripping, intelligent stuff' Mail on Sunday 'Val McDermid is an intelligent, supremely talented novelist and with this latest tale, she is writing at the height of her power. Utterly compelling' Glasgow Herald 'Serial killers, though meat and drink to crime writers, are thankfully rare. It is a tribute to the power of Val McDermid's imagination that she made this one seem so believable' Daily Telegraph 'Complex, combative and nuanced' Express 'Val McDermid, as ever, is adept at engendering irresistible suspense, as the fearsome attractiveness of the ever more benighted and bloody predicament works its effect on readers' Times Literary Supplement 'Stunningly exciting, horrifyingly good' Ruth Rendell 'Compelling and shocking' Minette Walters

The Times
`Another intelligent and absorbing offering from one of crime fiction's most consistent performers'

Customer Reviews

Above the Average
Val McDermid has written some wonderful crime fiction tales in her time but she is probably best known for the series involving psychological profiler Dr Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan, based in the fictional Yorkshire city of Bradfield. Expectations are bound to be high for this, the fifth in the 'Hill-Jordan' collection of novels so far, following hot on the heels of the fifth in the associated Wire in the Blood TV dramatisations. In effect there are two stories running in parallel with each other, one the hunt for a serial killer and the other the search for a mass murderer, each person displaying very different methods but sharing an obsession for careful planning and forward thinking.

Knowing that the author herself recently went through considerable pain and discomfort as a result of major knee surgery, I cannot help but regard her decision to place Tony Hill in a hospital bed recovering from - guess what - major knee surgery for very nearly the entirety of this story's time span as something of an indulgence on her part, possibly a gesture of thanks to those who treated and cared for her, I don't know, but I got the impression that this strand of the plot was slightly at odds with everything else that was going on. It did however enable the author to introduce Tony Hill's mother in a thread that promised interesting developments but ultimately faded into insignificance. On the other hand it did offer an insight into the complicated personality of Dr Hill, and in that respect the mission was successful. Of course, anyone who has seen the Wire in the Blood series on TV will visualise actor Robson Green as Tony Hill in this book, personally I did not find this a distraction at all as the actor plays the part very convincingly.

The modus operandi of the serial killer is compared to a hypothetical character in an Agatha Christie novel, something of a cop-out in my opinion, so as to confess to such an analogy before the reader can make such an accusation. But the thoughts, emotions and objectives of the bomber are by comparison absolutely contemporary, relevant and described with chilling effect. It is almost uncomfortable to read at times as it feels like a peep into the mind-set of individuals responsible for suicide bombings (successful or otherwise) which is of course very much a happening-right-now issue in the world we live in.

Beneath the Bleeding is described on the back cover as `The new Tony Hill thriller' but I consider that almost unfair, as in this, just as in the previous four in the series, Carol Jordan plays an equally important and leading role. At the end we are hardly any the wiser as to the status of their personal relationship, one which was rather strangely tested to the limit in this latest outing. I felt that Carol's animosity towards Tony for the majority of this story, in response to his efforts to solve the two murder hunts, lacked any real foundation. Carol and her team, despite their best efforts, continually made no progress at all while Tony was putting forward suggestions that Carol should have taken more seriously, based on their long-running professional respect for one another.

Hand on heart this is not quite up to the brilliant standard of THE MERMAIDS SINGING (the first in the Tony - Carol series, published in 1995) but no fan of Val's will be disappointed, she continues to demonstrate a highly professional approach to story-telling and she will surely gain many new admirers for her writing skills, especially in the crucial area of characterisation.

newest tony hill book
The latest book in the Tony Hill/Carol Jordan season. Leading on from the Torment of others, Tony and Carol share a house and a complex relationship of co-dependency and intellectual intimacy.
The beginning of the book sees Tony injured by one of the patients in his pyschiatric hospital, and hospitalized for most of the book. This leads to a change in the dynamic of their relationship, with Carol doubting his conclusions due to lack of trust in his ability to reason whilst recuperating. It also leads to Tony utilising Carol's team to assist his lines of enquiry, leading to further antagonism between them.

The new character introduced, Tony's unforgettable mother, Vanessa, tells us more about his troubled background.

The book was excellent with well realised characters and excellent dialogue as Val's readers have come to expect. The hospital storyline did lead to some frustration as much of the flow of the book seemed to be halted by this.

Also, there would be a query over how long such an intimate, but non consumated relationship can remain that way without it escalating into a very difficult position.

It has been left open for the next installment, bring it on, Val!

Good but missing something.
I looked forward to reading this book having read all four previous books in the Carol/Tony series. It is an excellent top quality crime thriller yet it somehow felt that it was missing something compared to the previous books.

The story centres around an unexplained murder. Another serious crime takes place midway through the book, however the suspense is somewhat spoiled because the blurb on the cover tells you what this crime is and therefore you know it is going to happen and not be foiled. The story is paced well but is not quite as suspenseful as some of McDermid's previous books, perhaps because it doesn't have quite the same sense of immediate danger that 'The Last Temptation' and 'The Torment Of Others' had.

Throughout most of the book Tony is in hospital following an assualt at work. It was interesting to see how Tony coped with this but I was expecting something more to come out of the events at the very beginning of the book and the storyline featuring Tony's mother. As it stands it felt like the very first part of the book was simply a plot device to get Tony into hospital since there is very little reflection/repercussions from this event.

Carol's team from 'The Torment of Others' are back and it's great to see their characters being developed and the occasional reference to events from previous books. Carol has a slightly worrying habit which I thought would come to be important but again nothing happened about it.

Overall it was a good book with a satisfying ending. With any other author I would have given it five stars, however it's just not quite on a par with McDermid's superb earlier novels.