The Wire in the Blood

The ferociously readable, #1 bestselling crime thriller that led to the much-loved ITV show…

‘Wholly satisfying’ Ian Rankin

Young girls are disappearing nationwide

Dr Tony Hill sets his team a task: find a link between the cases.

Only one officer comes up with a theory, but it’s too wild… that is, until one of their number is murdered and mutilated.

Tony has started a game – one where hunter and hunted can all too easily be reversed. He has baited an aggressor whose charming manner hides a warped and sick mind…

When a killer is hiding in plain sight

Who can stop them?

‘Truly frightening’ The Times

‘Sly and sophisticated, weaving the mundane with the stomach-churningly depraved’ Express

Reviews

'The book [has] a sense of gravitas and intelligence utterly beyond lesser writers in the field … This is a wholly satisfying read which cleverly subverts tradition and expectation’ Ian Rankin, Scotland on Sunday

'This is a shocking book, stunningly exciting, horrifyingly good. It is so convincing that one fears reality may be like this and these events the awful truth' Ruth Rendell

'The Wire in the Blood is truly frightening, McDermid's capacity to enter the warped mind of a deviant criminal is shiveringly convincing … Tony Hill, driven and disturbed, is an appealing and original character. This is a writer who just gets better and better' The Times

'Terrific chiller from Manchester's answer to Thomas Harris … Thank God for Tony Hill and psychological profiling' Guardian

'Val McDermid is an accomplished storyteller, and this scary, fast-moving tale is engrossing' Daily Telegraph

About the author

Val McDermid grew up in a Scottish mining community then read English at Oxford. She was a journalist for sixteen years, spending the last three years as Northern Bureau Chief of a national Sunday tabloid. Now a full-time writer, she divides her time between Cheshire and Northumberland. Her novels have won international acclaim and a number of prestigious awards, including the Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year, the Anthony Award for best novel, and the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year Award. Her thriller series featuring criminal profiler Tony Hill has been adapted into the much-loved TV series Wire in the Blood.