Psychiatrist Tony Hill and ex-DCI Carol Jordan make another appearance in this 11th book of the series. Though Val says she never had the kind of close relationship with her mother that she’d have liked, her mother did understand the value of education and used to take tiny Val to the library and read her stories from picture books. As for Val’s father, Jim? He was a talent scout and turnstile manager for a football team called Raith Rovers. When Val was a tiny girl, he’d take her to watch matches with him. Hence, the nonfiction book Val wrote later in life – Unthinkable: Raith Rovers’ Improbable Journey from the Bottom to the Top of Scottish football. In later years, Val would make a significant… Valarie McDermid, FRSE , FRSL (born 4 June 1955) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for a series of novels featuring clinical psychologist Dr. Tony Hill, in a grim sub-genre known as Tartan Noir. Carol Jordan is brought into the case in a roundabout way. She needs help in identifying a serial arsonist and visits the group while Shaz is making her presentation. However, the author came to adore the characters of Hill and Jordan, and she also found that she couldn’t stop speculating about their possible future. So she decided to write a couple more books in the series.

In “How the Dead Speak,” Val McDermid continues her outstanding Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series. Following the events in the previous book, “Insidious Intent,” Tony Hill is now in prison for manslaughter and Carol Jordan is at loose ends without him and her career. Jordan’s former team is investigating the discovery of two different sets of skeletons found on the grounds of a former convent. Meanwhile, Tony is forced to help his evil, vindictive mother, and Carol becomes involved with a group trying to free innocent prisoners. While I am very familiar with Val McDermid’s Carol Jordan & Tony Hill series from having watched the Wire in the Blood show some years ago, How the Dead Speak is the first book of the series I’ve actually read. And it was well worth the reading. There have been many changes in the formerly close ReMIT police team that Carol led in the past, the group that Tony Hill consulted to before the horrible end to the last case. Now Carol and Tony have gone on their own separate paths and the ReMIT group is being reformed with a new leader and new members.Vance, the serial killer was chilling, but I was confused at the end when a question mark was left as to whether Tony could get a cut and dried conviction against him. I was under the impression Vance had sexually abused his victim – if not, he had spat at her. This would have left DNA traces on her body. As the story was first published in 1997, I believe DNA science could have brought a conviction.

In How the Dead Speak, McDermid has opened up new avenues for Tony and Carol to pursue. Whether she will take them further down that path, I don’t know, but I am happy that she has, at least, left her characters in a better place for now. The best recent thrillers – review roundup". the Guardian. 7 September 2021 . Retrieved 16 April 2022. A writer of suspense and mystery novels, Val is most commonly known for Doctor Tony Hill, a character that first appeared in The Mermaids Singing, the first novel in the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series, released in 1995.

I found some of the descriptions in this book rather too graphic for my taste though I was totally gripped by the story and thought it was very well written. The characters of Hill and Jordan are well drawn and definitely three dimensional. I would recognise them if I met them. I think the author captures the infighting which goes on in any big organisation extremely well and I was forcibly reminded of my own experiences when involved in new projects within a totally different large organisation. I adapted it for radio and it was produced for BBC Radio Scotland by Stewart Conn, reaturing Maev Alexander, Fidelis Morgan, Amanda Hillwood, Vivienne Dixon and Vari Sylvester. 90mins. The first episode of the television series Wire in the Blood, The Mermaids Singing, was broadcast on 14 November 2002 and co-starred Hermione Norris as Carol Jordan. Norris remained until series 4. Thereafter, the lead detective working with Hill was D.I. Alex Fielding, an ambitious single mother played by Simone Lahbib.