Having consumed The Mermaid's Singing, I oughtn't have been surprised by the darkness and the venom in Ms. McDermid's work. And yet the cruelty expressed in this second installment in her series featuring Tony Hill, clinical psychologist and profiler of violent criminals for the British police, took my breath away.
Having established his profiling unit, Dr. Hill ought to be happy. His professional successes are not only making him famous, they are making Britain safe from psychopathic killers. But Dr. Hill is too busy to be pleased with his success because, having won himself his unit, he now has to fill it with quality people, many of whom lack the requisite training to see the world with his clarity. While Tony is schooling his charges, girls are turning up murdered, young girls, troubled girls, girls the police have thus far dismissed as runaways. But Tony and his unit know better and they set about their first case, attempting to catch a vicious predator who boldly hides in plain sight, a killer who possesses only contempt for human life.
If Ms. McDermid is sometimes too graphic, she has an admirable capacity to apply the everyday realities of life to her characters. Consequently, Carol Jordan doesn't remain Tony's partner forever, as would be the case if this was an American TV show; she is promoted and moved onto her own patch, with her own case, with her own troubles. This B plot, the case of an arsonist, does yeoman's work supporting the A plot, Tony's killer whose identity is revealed to the reader early on. This has its intended effect of frustrating and terrifying the reader as the killer systematically picks off victims right under Tony's nose. The Wire In The Blood is easily 200 pages too long, bogging down in unnecessary digressions, but when it's good, it terrifies, the malevolence of its villain flooding from his cruel deeds.
Decent work. Ms. McDermid isn't afraid to let the guillotine fall on important characters, but this is far too loose and a bit too graphic for my tastes. (3/5 Stars)
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