Rating: 
Summary: The Worst of Times for Mystery/Suspense Readers
Review: The marketplace of good mystery/thriller/suspense books must be going to pieces. We have suffered through recent very bad books by James Patterson and Patrica Cornwell. Now we have Val McDermid, who gave us the wonderful "Place of Execution" offering a novel that is so dull and predictable, when it makes sense, that the reader can barely make it through to the end.First, we are taken to Toledo, Spain to investigate a killer. Then that tack is dropped, never to be properly renewed. You are not glad MdDermid has taken you to Spain. She gives you nothing interesting and new. We already know from the back cover and all the ads that a serial killer in England is killing off mystery writers using the story line from recent books. So when we leave Spain, we figger outr within a few pages just who is going to be killed next. But we are now stuck in Great Britain where nothing of interest is presented. We wish we were somewhere else dealing with anything else. The detectives are incompetent of course. They have no personality. We don't want anybody to solve these cases. There are too many suspects that don't fit. The book becomes more and more cumberson as it takes McDermid to long to get to what we already know. The real problem with this novel is the stilted, boring, plodding writing which makes the predictable story line even more of a struggle to page through. You will finish this book quickly because you will be so tempted to read ahead, looking at just the last few words of each chapter.
Rating: 
Summary: What Has Happened to Val McDermid?
Review: This book was going along pretty well (although I wasn't particularly taken with any of the characters) but it sort of fell apart in the middle. I know why her character went to Spain (but I can't say because it would be a spoiler) but this section quickly grew very uninteresting and the book never recovered its momentum.
Also, this is another one of those books where there is not much suspense about whodunnit. This can be well done, but it wasn't well done here. The book is a journeymanlike work without the spark that keeps one reading late into the night.
The story of Fiona Cameron's emotional problems surrounding her sister's death is also unsatisfactory and rather wimpy and the climax of the main story is-- well, anti-climax. I don't know if she has just lost interest or what, but I wish she would go back to doing what she used to do so well, throat gripping suspense. I wonder if this series has been optioned to a television production company yet?
Rating: 
Summary: Have Spare Light Bulbs At Hand
Review: This is only the second novel I have read by Ms. Val McDermid, the first was, "A Place Of Execution", and it left me as uneasy as I imagine the writer wished. "Killing The Shadows", is again a wonderful book that should be read under highly lit conditions, with standby lights and perhaps a generator. This lady's work does not just get under the skin; her words burrow into the marrow of your bones, and when appropriate the geometric center of the brain. The picture of her on the jacket has her taking the measure of a potential reader, as if deciding whether they can handle her invasive writing. This particular book contains events that many will find gruesome and seriously deviant to say the least. What is interesting is these passages are from the imagined work of other writers, so the initial impulse is not to credit her with the grisly scenes, rather a third party. The passages she uses are not gratuitous. They are integral to introducing the behavior of a serial killer, and a possible source for his demented inspiration. What drives the killer is more complicated than that, or this book would not have Ms. McDermid's name upon it. These portions of the book are also a small part of the reading, and should not discourage anyone from enjoying this writer's craft. The characters she creates are little short of brilliant. One of them is a PHD Candidate named Terry. If this character were based on a real female, she would be on many men's list of women to meet, and also a woman who would be more than a match for most. The author presents very bright, attractive, strong women without their needing to mimic the undesirable characteristics of their male counterparts. Terry is one of the best female characters I have read in some time. A certain genre of writers are the targets of this book's killer, or are they? The best part of that query is that you will not know until the last pages of the book why everything took place as it did. One of the keys to a great thriller/mystery is how well the author sustains uncertainty and suspense. No author does this better that Ms. McDermid. She sets blind alleys, manipulates misdirection, and false conclusions brilliantly. No matter how many books you have read that required an answer to, "Who...", you will find this lady's work on par with anyone's. Unconditionally recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A High Level Of Literary Suspense
Review: This is the third novel I've read by Val McDermid and I continue to be satisfied and grateful for the high quality of her work.As in PLACE OF EXECUTION and MERMAIDS SINGING, the plot of KILLING THE SHADOWS is intriguing, the pacing excellent, the setting vivid and realistic, and the characterization and dialogue captivating. Fiona Cameron, an educator and forensic psychologist, is at odds with the police for being ignored and minimized during a past investigation. Although she has reservations about ever helping them again, she becomes deeply involved in the hunt for a serial killer when it becomes apparant that thriller writers like her lover are being targeted. Some have said elements of the story are predictable. I agree in the same sense that riding on a river that flows into roaring rapids and a climactic waterfall is predictable. The reader is taken on an inevitable journey but it doesn't take away from the thrills along the way. McDermid captures the different moods in the story with dialogue that is so descriptive and appropriate for the different situations that it paints a picture putting the reader there as an unobtrusive observer. Val McDermid writes at a high level of literary suspense and KILLING THE SHADOWS continues her excellent work. It is highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Midday Shadows
Review: This mystery has merits, but the author would have done better to have set most of it at midday, when the shadows and the book would have been shorter.
As I read I had the sense that for its merit (modest) and its purpose (to turn my mind off at a busy time of life,) I was spending far too much time getting to the end. I skipped from about page two hundred to about page four hundred (!!!) with no ill effects. I must have missed something, but it all seemed fairly complete. Verbum sapientis.
Rating: 
Summary: Val McDermid - please write more like this!
Review: This was a brilliant book that had me gripped right from beginning to end, the characters Kit, Fiona and Steve were really convincing - my only complaint being that the profiler Fiona was ALWAYS right. I'd like to read more books with this characters in - here's hoping.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliance sustained and enhanced
Review: Val McD has surpassed the excellent Place of Execution with this superbly written work.Psychologist Dr Fiona Cameron goes to investigate a serial killer in Toledo, Spain and feels she has left behind the bitter taste from her last case for London`s Metropolitan Police in which they went against her advice and the murder of a young London woman remains unsolved.On return to England ,another serial killer starts his rampage of gruesome murder,targeting crime novelists and re-enacting their deaths in the same way of a victim from each of their books .
Dr Cameron has more than a vested interest as her lover ,Kit Martin is a crime writer and may be on the hitman`s list.With the case in London still open,the Toledo case unsolved and a serial killer targeting mystery writers ,on the rampage,Dr Cameron has a personal and professional crisis which could crossroads at any time.
Intricate,fast paced,intelligent and with more twists than a mountain stream,this is a great bet for another Edgar nomination and a must read for all true fans of modern crime thrillers.
Rating:
Summary: A Serial Killer-Fest
Review: Val McDermid has produced a compelling thriller that is simply packed with shocking murders and mounting tension. Someone is murdering thriller writers around the British Isles. But the disturbing thing is that the way in which the murders are being carried out closely resembles the murders described in each author's book. Fiona Campbell, a geographical profiler who occasionally works with the police, happens to be involved with a thriller-writer. Together they alternately believe and then discount the possibility that he may be on the list of future victims. To add interest for the reader, and realism to the story, Fiona is inundated with work. We, the readers benefit from this by being kept bust keeping up with developments in, not one but three cases. This was a great device for maintaining the pace while allowing the story to unfold on a natural timeframe. While a little predictable towards the end, Killing the Shadows still provides many heart stopping moments, a few nose-wrinkling descriptions and plenty of entertainment that kept me engrossed from the opening scene. If you like chillers about serial killers and the profiling undertaken to track them down, then you're going to love this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Solid McDermid Read
Review: Val McDermid is my favorite author, and I have read everything by her. Obviously, I like some things more than others. Killing the Shadows is one of her better novels, but is not an all time favorite of mine. I did not guess "whodunit", but the killer did seem rather farfetched. Still, the novel is very well constructed...the characters are excellent...and I really liked Kit and Fiona's relationship. I do feel Ms. McDermid is trying to construct a romance between them that isn't as strong as the romance between say, Carol and Tony in her other books...at least not until towards the end, when I got that little tugging in my chest that I get whenever I read scenes where two people truly care about each other...
Killing The Shadows contains characteristic McDermid humor and character development. It's just entertaining, but well written. You'd be well advised to check it out.
Rating:
Summary: Val McDermid is fantastic
Review: Val McDermid is one of Britain's most popular crime writers. I loved the premise of this book - famous novelists are being murdered in the manner of their books. Very cool idea. Fiona is an interesting character in that she is not a cop, she is a scientist. By the end of the novel, she is such a fully fleshed person that you are excited and scared for her in a way, for example, that you can no longer be for characters like Kay Scarpetta or Tempe Brennan who have escaped death's clutches one too many times to make any future novels suspenseful. The fact that the ending is formulaic - what else could it be? - does not detract from the genuine enjoyment of the story. If you are getting bored of Minette Walters and Ruth Rendell, try Val McDermid.
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