Killing The Shadows by
Val McDermid
hbk out June 00
Published by HarperCollins
at £16.99
Manchester's finest is back - and she's on top form. Val McDermid's new
novel features Professor Fiona Cameron, an academic psychologist and expert
in geographic profiling and crime linkage who uses computer technology to
help police forces track serial offenders. She used to help the Metropolitan
police but when they went against her advice and completely messed up an
investigation she vowed never to work for them again.
She is working for police in Toledo who have a suspected serial killer on
the loose when her lover, thriller writer, Kit Martin tells her that a
fellow crime novelist has been murdered. Before long a second author is
killed and there is a disturbing link between the two deaths; for both
writers are killed in a way that they have described in their books. Fiona
fears for Kit's life, she realises he is at risk even when others insist
there is no threat. A race against time begins. Fiona has to draw on all
her resources, professional and personal, to try and outwit the killer and
rescue her lover and in so doing to achieve redemption from the guilt and
grief of past loss.
Killing the Shadows makes for compulsive reading. Great writing, evocative
landscapes ranging from the medieval city of Toledo and the Peak District to
the Scottish Highlands, well-drawn characters and an excellent and gripping
finale which is played out in the Highland wilderness and builds to a
satisfying climax and resolution. A winner.
Manchester Evening News 9/6/2000
(
Cath Staincliffe
- Author of the highly acclaimed Sal Kilkenny Mysteries set on the Mean Streets of Manchester)
Killing The Shadows by
Val McDermid