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Subject: The Torment of Others
Well, this is what Val's agent's website has to say about the next book... The Torment of Others Val McDermid Tony Hill Series
Clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill and Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan face the toughest challenge of their careers when they are confronted with an 'impossible' series of murders. Back in Bradfield after her traumatic experiences in Berlin, DCI Carol Jordan is surprised to find Tony Hill has followed her there to take up a post in the local secure mental hospital. When a prostitute is murdered in a particularly grotesque and stomach-churning way, she turns to him for help. Bizarrely, this killing matches in every detail a series of murders that took place a couple of years previously. A series of murders for which Derek Tyler was tried, convicted and sentenced. There has never been a shred of doubt about this guilt. But now the ghost of his crimes has risen again. Kevin Matthews, now a sergeant on Carol's team, takes it very personally. He was on the team that put Derek Tyler away and he knows they were right. He's convinced it's a copycat. But Tony thinks differently. You don't get copycats in sexual homicides because no two offenders have the same hot button. A second prostitute murder soon follows. The team are struggling. All the usual techniques are proving unproductive. And there's no point in asking Derek Tyler. He hasn't spoken a word since his trial and all he would say then was that he did what 'the Voice' told him. While Tony tries to crack Tyler, the police decide to mount an undercover operation which goes horribly wrong. The decoy is taken, presumably by the killer. Under pressure from all sides, Carol's team try to make headway. But it's Tony who thinks the unthinkable and starts to evolve a theory of the crimes. 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.
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