The Last Temptation - Hardcover

McDermid, Val

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312290896 ISBN 13: 9780312290894

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2002

Synopsis

Burned-out forensic profiler Dr. Tony Hill is called in to track a vicious killer across northern Europe, a case that he reluctantly takes on when the next victim is an old friend and that is soon complicated by his emperiled former partner, Detective Carol Jordan, in Germany to work undercover to expose a conspiracy whose roots lie deep in the tormented past of Nazi atrocities and Stasi abuses. 50,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Val McDermid just gets better and better. The Last Temptation is intelligent about undercover police work and psychological profiling as well as moving on the human cost to the people who have to do society's dirty work.

We are back with profiler Tony Hills and super-competent cop Carol, who we met in The Mermaids Singing and The Wire in the Blood. The couple's past experiences have created a bond between them as well as a certain inability to bear the sight of each other. They are brought back into co-operation by the needs of the job in its European dimension. Tony is persuaded to help track a European killer who drowns and mutilates psychologists, while Carol is working undercover to trap a drug trafficker whose dead lover spookily resembles her.

As always, McDermid writes brilliant criminals. She adds that deadening of sympathy which makes horror possible. Both aristocratic gangster Tadeusz and vengeful psychotic Mann have their reasons for being who they are, doing what they do. McDermid makes us care that her detectives succeed and survive just that little bit more than we care for her villains to escape. She writes excellent thrillers simply because she has a journalist's eye for both sides of each case. --Roz Kaveney

Review:

'Val McDermid is one of the few crime authors who can be convincing when it comes to 'writing tough' yet retain a powerful emotional insight... McDermid is doing something quite extraordinary with the crime fiction suspense thriller' Scotland on Sunday

'This is a hugely ambitious novel, involving three police forces, of which the British seem to be the most Machiavellian' Express

Praise for Val McDermid:

'Val McDermid is a roaring Ferrari amid the crowded traffic on the crime-writing road' Independent

'McDermid has become our leading pathologist of everyday evil... The subtle orchestration of terror is masterful' Guardian

About this edition

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0312290896
• ISBN 13: 9780312290894
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 480