The Mermaids Singing
Crime, Female Detectives, Mystery, Thriller
Val McDermid
Tony Hill & Carol Jordan, Book # 1
HarperCollins Publishers
1995
ebook
464
English
August 24, 2017 August 28, 2017
This was the summer he discovered what he wanted at a gruesome museum of criminology far off the beaten track of more timid tourists. Visions of torture inspired his fantasies like a muse. It would prove so terribly fulfilling.
The bodies of four men have been discovered in the town of Bradfield. Enlisted to investigate is criminal psychologist Tony Hill. Even for a seasoned professional, the series of mutilation sex murders is unlike anything he's encountered before. But profiling the psychopath is not beyond him. Hill's own past has made him the perfect man to comprehend the killer's motives. It's also made him the perfect victim.
A game has begun for the hunter and the hunted. But as Hill confronts his own hidden demons, he must also come face-to-face with an evil so profound he may not have the courageor the power to stop it...
About the Book
Apparently a TV show was made from this series, but I didn’t know… that’s quite strange for a TV addict like me.
The book starts in Italy, my country (quite surprised because I didn’t know about it or didn’t remember, I do buy books like they are water and leave them in my e-Reader while I finish others) and I didn’t know it was so old (likewise, I don’t look at the publishing date when I buy books), it still had Lira as currency! Moreover it still had floppy disks and some of you may even not know what they are…
Anyway, there are two narrators, one in third person who narrates about the police work, and the other is the killer. I loved the killer point of view! Almost all book is divided in one chapter about the killer and one about the police work except for two occasion and I couldn’t wait to finish the police’s POV to read the killer’s.
I loved the pace of the story even if it stops a bit too much about Tony’s problems but when I got it why (after the second phone call), I knew it was something concerning the plot.
At first I though it was the same old story found in old detective books, female detective bullied by male superior, so I was so happy when Tom Cross was out of the story even if I wanted a confrontation with him and how he got it so wrong.
The lacking of technology is outstanding, Carol who asks her officer to take her to a phone box is hilarious nowadays but this made me realize how much we ask from technology now.
And as much as this is disturbing, it was refreshing to see men being the victims here.
I find the police language against gays a little too much, I know it is dated and probably this was written in a different era but it is quite offensive used by people who should protect all of us. I’m not personally offended by this but maybe some people may be.
Overall I loved this book, I loved the author style and I will probably read the next in the series (I surely do, since I’ve already bought three of them…)
This sounds deliciously creepy! And the dual narrative sounds interesting. I’ve not heard of the TV series either.
Yes it is! It’s gruesome and fantastic at the same time (I know I am creepy myself to like this ahahaha)