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 courage--or the power--to stop it...
The Mermaids Singingis a chilling and taut psychological mystery from Val McDermid.
Compelling and shocking Minette Walters
Complex...powerful...psychologically terrifying...impossible to out down. Publishers Weekly
Exciting, rapid-fire...a satisfying descent into the territory of a twisted mind. Booklist
Val McDermidwas a journalist for sixteen years and is now a full-time writer living in South Manchester. In 1995, she won the Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year for
The Mermaids Singing. Her novel
A Place of Executionwon a
Los Angeles TimesBook Prize, was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel, and named a
New York TimesNotable Book of the Year.