Rating: 
Summary: Competent but Gruesome
Review: Val McDermid is a well-practiced author of British police procedural mysteries. This book is one of a series centered on the profiler Tony Hill, whose methods are mistrusted by more conventional police officers. In this case, the serial killer is a high-profile public personality described as the third most trusted person in England. McDermid's descriptions of the hunt for this murderer, including the tangents and false leads, are well done. On the down side, the reader may have trouble keeping track of the many characters with common English names. McDermid's graphic portrayals of the killer's brutality may churn some stomachs.
Rating:
Summary: Competent but Gruesome
Review: Val McDermid is a well-practiced author of British police procedural mysteries. This book is one of a series centered on the profiler Tony Hill, whose methods are mistrusted by more conventional police officers. In this case, the serial killer is a high-profile public personality described as the third most trusted person in England. McDermid's descriptions of the hunt for this murderer, including the tangents and false leads, are well done. On the down side, the reader may have trouble keeping track of the many characters with common English names. McDermid's graphic portrayals of the killer's brutality may churn some stomachs.
Rating: 
Summary: Complex and imperfect, but still worth reading
Review: Val McDermid is one of the most adventurous current crime writers, a welcome change from those whose every new book is a gradually less profitable clone of their previous one. This story, a sequel to the excellent 'The Mermaids Singing', is actually not much like it at all. The main characters return, but that's where the similarity ends. The Mermaids Singing focused in on several ghastly serial murders and the efforts of criminal profiler Tony Hill to get a grasp of the killer's mind, while battling the personal demons that seem to afflict every fictional police psychologist.In 'The Wire in the Blood', girls are disappearing and dying and we guess quite early on who's responsible - the book details the efforts of the police to link the killings and determine the killer's identity. There are many stories in this book, and in the hands of a less skilled writer it could easily have fallen apart. Even with this writer's talent, there's a lot going on to keep track of, we're introduced in detail to a huge crowd of individuals in the first few chapters and there are lots of threads to follow. The centerpiece of the plot is the return of Tony Hill, this time teaching a class of baby profilers, who all bond together and function as a forensic profiling collegiate ensemble when one of their own number disappears after getting too close to the truth. As well as heaps of information about profiling itself, the book offers insight into how territorial turf wars and the resentment by old-time beat police of the 'mumbo jumbo' of psychological tools can impact effective crime fighting - unlike his fictional FBI counterparts, Tony Hill does not ride in on a white horse as much as bang on the door and beg to be heard. Like many of Ms McDermid's books it's populated with strong females, with a nod of approval to gay women. This isn't a perfect book - there are patches of coarse writing, some things are a bit hackneyed (hidden basement full of custom torture equipment...), the symbolism of the victim's injuries is over the top, and Dr Hill is only able to feel fully understood once his beloved, a Police Officer, also has 'blood on her hands'... hmmm. But it's interesting, touching on things most crime books don't, and is far better than many much better known best-sellers.
Rating:
Summary: One can smile and smile and be a villain.
Review: Val McDermid's "The Wire in the Blood" is not a whodunit. It features a psychopath whose identity is never in doubt. He is so devoid of compassion that one wonders if he is human at all. Jacko Vance is, to his adoring public, a saint on earth. After losing his lower right arm while attempting to save several victims at the scene of a terrible car accident, Jacko becomes a famous television personality and a tireless charity worker. What no one knows is that this seemingly kind and selfless man is hiding a monstrous secret. Jacko's adversaries are Dr. Tony Hill, a skilled psychological profiler, and DCI Carol Jordan, Hill's former lover and someone whose judgment and skills he still values. What begins as an exercise in profiling turns deadly serious when one of Hill's young students is found brutally murdered and mutilated. Hill and Jordan pull out all the stops to find the serial killer whom they believe is responsible for the disappearance of a number of teenaged girls as well as the murder of the young police officer whom Dr. Hill was training. Val McDermid's writing is not for the squeamish. She depicts Jacko's sadism in great detail and she doesn't shrink from killing off likeable characters. I think that McDermid went a little overboard in making Jacko Vance almost too expert in his manipulation of the public and the police. The author unfairly paints the police as naive bumblers, needing Hill and Jordan to do their sleuthing for them. I doubt that real police officers would be as vulnerable to Vance's charm. At approximately five hundred pages, the book is a bit too long. It could have been more concise with no loss of plot or character development. A secondary plot about a serial arsonist adds little to the novel. However, McDermid keeps the suspense at a high level throughout the book and her writing is always skillful and hard-hitting. All in all, "The Wire in the Blood" is a reasonably good, but not extraordinary, psychological thriller.
Rating: 
Summary: Not my cup of tea...
Review: Well, it appears I'm one of the only ones to dislike this book, and it's by my favorite author, too!
The only good part about it was that it starred my two favorite people *ahem* characters, Tony Hill and Carol Jordon. There is no real mystery, as the killer is revealed immediately. Despite the opinions' of others I didn't find the book particularly scary, either.
The best part of this novel was when it was over, so that I could start The Last Temptation, the third, and, in my opinion, most amazing, Tony Hill/Carol Jordon novel.
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