HarperCollins 1995
Val McDermid
The Vanishing Point
My Granny is a Pirate
The Retribution
Trick of the Dark
Fever of the Bone
A Darker Domain
Beneath the Bleeding
The Grave Tattoo
Stranded
The Torment of Others
Hostage to Murder
The Distant Echo
The Last Temptation
Killing The Shadows
A Place of Excecution
Star Struck
The Writing on the Wall
Wire in the Blood
Booked For Murder
Blue Genes
The Mermaids Singing
Clean Break
A Suitable Job For A Woman
Crack Down
Kick Back
Union Jack
Dead Beat
Final Edition
Common Murder
Report for Murder
The Mermaids Singing
The Mermaids Singing
Published by: Harper Collins
Publishing date UK: 1995
Series: Tony Hill & Carol Jordan Series
For information about rights & sales worldwide visit:
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Winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Macallan Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year – 1995
Synopsis:
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 skill and personal nerve to survive.
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Reviews:
Minette Walters
“Compelling and shocking”
Mail on Sunday, Frances Fyfield
“Terrifying but stylish, cruel and compassionate. Truly, horribly good.”
The Times, Marcel Berlins
“Gripping, intelligent stuff.”
Cosmopolitan
“A superb psychological thriller.”
Company
“Think of psychological profiling and TV’s Cracker springs to mind, but McDermid’s latest thriller goes one better — a must for all crime fiction lovers.”
New York Times
“A deliciously gruesome serial killer thriller. Ms McDermid finds new ways to shock and revolt us.”
San Francisco Chronicle
“Turns the serial killer subgenre upside down with compelling but gruesome results. McDermid has many startling surprises in store and brilliantly pulls the rug out from under our feet, exploding the psychological cliches commonly found in more one-dimensional portraits of the twisted criminal mind.”
Books Magazine
“This is without doubt the best book by McDermid that I have read: exciting, well-written, fast-moving and well-deserving of the [Gold Dagger] award… you’ll not find a better book this year.”
Yorkshire Post
“[McDermid] excels because she explores the mind of a murderer, gradually teasing out details; then switches effortlessly to the police investigation… MERMAIDS is… well-written, tense and exciting. It is a book which pulls the reader, and which lingers in the imagination long after the last page has been turned.”
