The Mermaids Singing (A Dr. Tony Hill & Carol Jordan Mystery)

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It's a hit!

The first book in the Tony Hill series. I read a couple others before I realized it was a series. Now, I'm starting at the beginning. Excellent ... (show more)

The first book in the Tony Hill series. I read a couple others before I realized it was a series. Now, I'm starting at the beginning. Excellent story, a little gruesome, but lots of details. (show less)

 

 

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No, it's a flop!

reasonably grimey detective thriller. Enjoyable read but without a clarity of message of direction. A train journey or relaxing holliday book.

 

 

by Keith Dickinson

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  "The Mermaids Singing" is the first in the long running series of "Wire in the Blood" police procedural/ psychological thrillers from Val McDermid featuring Dr Tony Hill, a Criminal Psychologist and Detective Inspector Carol Jordan.
  As it was the first, and I had read it back to back with "The Torment of Others", I could see how the series had improved from the quite good but slightly clunky start from this first novel in the series. The characters are introd... (show more)

  "The Mermaids Singing" is the first in the long running series of "Wire in the Blood" police procedural/ psychological thrillers from Val McDermid featuring Dr Tony Hill, a Criminal Psychologist and Detective Inspector Carol Jordan.
  As it was the first, and I had read it back to back with "The Torment of Others", I could see how the series had improved from the quite good but slightly clunky start from this first novel in the series. The characters are introduced in a slightly heavy handed way that was much more dextrous and lightly skimmed in the later novel, and of course as we were supposed to be reading the series as they had been written, we had not had to rely too much on the back stories of the main characters in the later book; but in the first book, there is an inevitable amount of mental jogging on the spot that has to be endured when we are told the motives and personality types of the key characters. This wasn't too turgid but some of the characters were a bit too old school stereotypical toughnut racist/ sexist police officers that you almost wanted to laugh at their now heavy handed implausibility particularly in the planting of "evidence" and refusal to accept known facts etc. This undoubtedly threw up red herrings in the plot but it also came over as lacking in subtlety in relation to Detective Superintendent Tom Cross; but at least this is something that Val McDermid had ironed out in the later book.
  The other things that I thought was a bit of a shame was the use of an obviously transexual name that gave the plot away relatively early on, to this reader anyway, but saying that in spite of these niggles, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the thriller aspect of it and thought that there were various ingenious touches that showed just how skilled the writing was in what would otherwise have been quite a formulaic take on the Hollywood version of psychologists/ cops and killers. I will be reading more in the series. (show less)

   

   

  by Jodie Crane on Oct 19, 2009 at 01:47PM

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  I had already seen the first episode of the Wire in the Blood TV series quite recently and so probably spoilt this by knowing what was going to happen, and also by having already read a couple of the later books in the series, but it was a pretty good thriller - if rather gruesome.

   

   

  by Joanna Victoria Joseph on Dec 24, 2009 at 07:56AM

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