The Last Temptation - Softcover

McDermid, Val

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312986319 ISBN 13: 9780312986315

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 2003

Synopsis

Mapping the minds of murderers is what Dr. Tony Hill does better than anyone. So when a twisted killer starts targeting psychologists across Northern Europe, Hill is the obvious choice to track the executioner's mental and physical journey.

Except that Tony, still bearing the scars of past cases, doesn't want to do this anymore.

But the killer is about to strike uncomfortably close to home. The next victim is a friend and colleague. And Tony's former partner, Detective Carol Jordan, is directly in the murderer's path, working undercover in a world where human life means less than the smallest drug deal. She needs Tony's help as much as the beleaguered European police officials do.

Now the danger is closing in. Confronting the worst of modern crime and struggling to unravel roots that lie deep in the tormented past of Nazi atrocities and Stasi abuses, Tony and Carol are forced to battle for survival against overwhelming odds. In this morass of double-cross and double-dealing, they have no one to trust but each other. Deftly merging the dark terrain of forensic psychology with the brooding, crime-streaked world of post-Cold War Europe, McDermid's The Last Temptation is an unrivaled tour de force that takes Tony Hill further into the mind of a killer than he's ever dared to go before.

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:

"Relentless, electric and absorbing, this is a thriller not to miss." -"Los Angeles Times Book Review," "A Best Book of 2002"
"[McDermid is] the best we've got." -"The New York Times Book Review"
"A tense thriller...a chain of events that brings a frenetic conclusion followed by a smart-well-concealed twist." -"Boston Globe"
"A psychologically chilling and multifaceted thriller...With consummate skill and pacing, [McDermid] braids together the complex story lines through surprising revelations, heart-stopping suspense and cruel double-crosses...creating even more tension. McDermid's writing and her understanding of the criminal mind get better with each novel. With its European locales, depiction of Nazi-mind experiments and hints at another Jordan/Hill novel, this may well be her breakout book. She certainly deserves it."-"Publishers Weekly"
"McDermid's Dr. Tony Hill is so tortured he makes Thomas Harris's troubled heroes seem like lighthearted game-show hosts. McDermid has become a whiz at generating breathless, crosscutting suspense."--"GQ"
"This well-executed novel has it all: a complex, suspenseful plot, a full cast of interesting characters, and two budding romances."-"Library Journal"
"Exciting and compassionate." -Salon.com
"White-knuckle suspense, hot action, and graphic chills. Sure to be a hit with thriller fans."
-"Booklist"
"Irresistible...McDermid skillfully controls her cast...This is a hugely ambitious novel, involving three police forces, [and] the settings in Berlin are vividly evoked."-"The Daily Express" (UK)
"More than just a serial killer novel, ["The Last Temptation" is] a masterful examination of evil and the relics of Nazi and Stasi years in Germany."-"The Guardian" (UK)
"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."-"Scotland on Sunday" (UK)
"A scary, disturbing, excit

Relentless, electric and absorbing, this is a thriller not to miss." -"Los Angeles Times Book Review," "A Best Book of 2002

"[McDermid is] the best we've got." -"The New York Times Book Review"

"A tense thriller...a chain of events that brings a frenetic conclusion followed by a smart-well-concealed twist." -"Boston Globe"

"A psychologically chilling and multifaceted thriller...With consummate skill and pacing, [McDermid] braids together the complex story lines through surprising revelations, heart-stopping suspense and cruel double-crosses...creating even more tension. McDermid's writing and her understanding of the criminal mind get better with each novel. With its European locales, depiction of Nazi-mind experiments and hints at another Jordan/Hill novel, this may well be her breakout book. She certainly deserves it."-"Publishers Weekly"

"This well-executed novel has it all: a complex, suspenseful plot, a full cast of interesting characters, and two budding romances."-"Library Journal"

"Exciting and compassionate." -Salon.com

White-knuckle suspense, hot action, and graphic chills. Sure to be a hit with thriller fans.

-"Booklist"

"Irresistible...McDermid skillfully controls her cast...This is a hugely ambitious novel, involving three police forces, [and] the settings in Berlin are vividly evoked."-"The Daily Express" (UK)

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0312986319
• ISBN 13: 9780312986315
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback