Val McDermid Libros

The mermaids singing: "A serial killer is on the loose in the northern city of Bradfield. Four men have been brutally killed by savage knife wounds. In each case, the men have been mutilated and tortured, though the mutilations are not identical and nothing obvious appears to connect the victims. Fear grips the city; no man feels safe. Clinical psychologist Tony Hill is brought in to profile the killer, to work alongside Detective Inspector Carol Jordan."

Forensics draws on interviews with top-level professionals, ground-breaking research, and McDermid's own original interviews and firsthand experience on scene with top forensic scientists.

In the course of researching her best-selling books, McDermid has become familiar with many branches of forensics, and now she uncovers the history of this science and the people who make sure that for murderers, there is no hiding place. Forensic scientists can unlock the mysteries of the past and help serve justice using the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene, or the faintest of human traces. Now available in paperback, "Forensics" goes behind the scenes with some of these top-level professionals and their groundbreaking research, drawing on original interviews and firsthand experience on scene with top forensic scientists. Along the way, we discover how maggots collected from a corpse can help determine time of death; how a DNA trace a millionth the size of a grain of salt can be used to convict a killer; and how a team of young Argentine scientists led by a maverick American anthropologist were able to uncover the victims of a genocide. The journey takes us to war zones, fire scenes, and autopsy suites, reveals both extraordinary bravery and true wickedness, as we trace the history of forensics from its earliest beginnings to the cutting-edge science of the modern day.

You should have been a detective. If there's one thing the last year has proved, it's how good you are at finding things out. Not simple things. Hard things. Things that nobody is supposed to be able to find out. Things that are buried so deep nobody even thinks twice about them. The sort of things that turn people's lives inside out once they're exposed.' Meet Tony Hill's most twisted adversary - a killer with a shopping list of victims, a killer unmoved by youth and innocence, a killer driven by the most perverted of desires. The murder and mutilation of teenager Jennifer Maidment is horrific enough on its own. But it's not long before Tony realises it's just the start of a brutal and ruthless campaign that's targeting an apparently unconnected group of young people. Struggling with the newly-awakened ghosts of his own past and desperate for distraction in his work, Tony battles to find the answers that will give him personal and professional satisfaction in his most testing investigation yet.

Young girls are disapppearing around the country. They vanish without trace - society's disposable children. There is nothing to connect them to each other, let alone the killer whose charming manner hides a warped and sick mind.

Troubled criminal profiler Dr Tony Hill may have problems of his own but when Bradfield CID need him, he's the best they've got. While the police sometimes view him with the same suspicion as some of their suspects, DCI Carol Jordan is one of the few who appreciates his unique talents. For Tony, the feeling is more than mutual. Both have survived horrifying ordeals of their own. In BENEATH THE BLEEDING they must risk them again. As the two return to duty, it's Val McDermid at her terrifying best.

Don't miss Past Lying, the twisty new Karen Pirie thriller 'No one can tell a story like she can' Daily Express 'The queen of psychological thrillers' Irish Independent ____________ 'The bodies never stay buried forever . . .' On a freezing winter morning, fishermen pull a body from the sea. It is quickly discovered that the dead man was the prime suspect in a decade-old investigation, when a prominent civil servant disappeared without trace. DCI Karen Pirie was the last detective to review the file and is drawn into a sinister world of betrayal and dark secrets. But Karen is already grappling with another case, one with even more questions and fewer answers. A skeleton has been discovered in an abandoned campervan and all clues point to a killer who never faced justice - a killer who is still out there. In her search for the truth, Karen uncovers a network of lies that has gone unchallenged for years. But lies and secrets can turn deadly when someone is determined to keep them hidden for good . . . ____________ Praise for Val McDermid: 'Brilliant . . . Sensational . . . Unforgettable' Guardian 'Compulsively readable' Irish Times 'As good a psychological thriller as it is possible to get' Sunday Express 'It grabs the reader by the throat and never lets go' Daily Mail 'One of today's most accomplished crime writers' Literary Review