Opening with the thoughts of a serial killer and then continuing with short chapters, this quickly draws the reader into the lives of the profiler Tony Hill, the victims, relatives of the victims and the other police officers (interestingly mainly female). Val McDermid certainly knows how to keep the suspense going. The reader becomes caught up with the disturbed thoughts of the psychopathic killer, with the horror and pain of the victims and with the grief of the friends and relatives of the missing persons. She also deals with the difficult relationship between Hill and his ex-partner Carol Jordan. Although the book has many dark and horrific moments, it is also about relationships all of which are believable and some are rewarding. It is a very compulsive read indeed.
Psychologist Tony Hill and ex-DCI Carol Jordanthe UK crime fighting partners from the TV series Wire in the Bloodface down a serial killer. International bestselling crime writer Val McDermid's work speaks for itself: her books have sold millions of copies worldwide, won numerous accolades, and attracted a devoted following of readers around the globe. Cross and Burn picks up where The Retribution left off: following the best crime-fighting team in the UKclinical psychologist Tony Hill and police detective Carol Jordanwho when we last saw them were barely speaking, and whose relationship will now be challenged even further. But just because they're not talking doesn't mean the killing stops. Women are being murderedones who bear an unsettling resemblance to Carol Jordan. And when the evidence begins to point in a disturbing direction, thinking the unthinkable seems the only possible answer. Cornered by events, Tony and Carol are forced to fight for themselves and each other as never before. ';McDermid is as smooth a practitioner of crime fiction as anyone out there... She's the best we've got.' The New York Times Book Review
Val McDermid is a number one bestselling author whose novels have been translated into more than forty languages and have sold over nineteen million copies. She has won many awards, including the CWA Gold Dagger, the LA Times Book of the Year Award and the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding achievement. Val writes full-time and divides her time between Edinburgh and East Neuk of Fife.
