Val McDermid - Beneath the Bleeding

Praise for Beneath the Bleeding :

‘McDermid’s previous novels have set the bar vertiginously high but the latest outing for criminal profiler Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan has all the craft, panache and pace that we have come to expect from this outstanding writer

… Vintage stuff: unplug the phone, lock the door and prepare to read in a sitting’

Guardian

‘Another intelligent and absorbing offering from one of crime fiction’s most consistent performers’

The Times

‘If Rankin is the king of British crime, Val McDermid is undoubtedly the queen … Hill and Jordan are compelling creations and their encounters fairly crackle. McDermid is a consummate plotter so there are pleasing twists and turns in this first-rate story’

Observer

‘McDermid is at the peak of her murderous craft … on the page, McDermid makes criminal profiler Hill every bit as engaging as [Robson Green]’

Daily Mirror

‘The Queen of serial killers in this country keeps her end up … few can scoop Val on throat-clutching narrative but at the same time she is marvellous on the sub-plot details … I am intrigued by the first appearance of Hill’s monster mother – more of her please’

Daily Mail

‘Peerless … one of the world’s finest crime writers, McDermid is currently at the top of her game’

Glasgow Herald

‘Very good … McDermid is an old hand at making things believable’

Irish Examiner

‘The novel opens explosively … the momentum doesn’t slacken … this is a book which works on more than one level. It fulfils the criteria of a very good contemporary crime novel in terms of excitement, topicality and its sense of authenticity. but it delivers more than this: the complex and unpredictable relationship between Hill and Jordan lies at the heart of the series and is one of its greatest strengths. McDermid’s writing gets better and better’

Spectator

‘McDermid’s usual ingredients of fear, revulsion, ingenuity and heroism … this book is all the more gripping because some holds are barred’

Literary Review

‘McDermid is up there with the best’

Good Reading

VAL McDERMID

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Harper An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

http://www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2007

Copyright © Val McDermid 2008

Lines from Four Quartets : ‘East Coker’ by T.S. Eliot are reproduced by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd

Val McDermid asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780007243280

Ebook edition SEPTEMBER 2008 ISBN: 9780007279401

Version: 2018-07-30

This one is for the members of the wedding , who helped to create the best of memories .

Beneath the bleeding hands we feel The sharp compassion of the healer’s art

From Four Quartets : ‘East Coker’

T S Eliot

Praise Praise for Beneath the Bleeding : ‘McDermid’s previous novels have set the bar vertiginously high but the latest outing for criminal profiler Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan has all the craft, panache and pace that we have come to expect from this outstanding writer … Vintage stuff: unplug the phone, lock the door and prepare to read in a sitting’ Guardian ‘Another intelligent and absorbing offering from one of crime fiction’s most consistent performers’ The Times ‘If Rankin is the king of British crime, Val McDermid is undoubtedly the queen … Hill and Jordan are compelling creations and their encounters fairly crackle. McDermid is a consummate plotter so there are pleasing twists and turns in this first-rate story’ Observer ‘McDermid is at the peak of her murderous craft … on the page, McDermid makes criminal profiler Hill every bit as engaging as [Robson Green]’ Daily Mirror ‘The Queen of serial killers in this country keeps her end up … few can scoop Val on throat-clutching narrative but at the same time she is marvellous on the sub-plot details … I am intrigued by the first appearance of Hill’s monster mother – more of her please’ Daily Mail ‘Peerless … one of the world’s finest crime writers, McDermid is currently at the top of her game’ Glasgow Herald ‘Very good … McDermid is an old hand at making things believable’ Irish Examiner ‘The novel opens explosively … the momentum doesn’t slacken … this is a book which works on more than one level. It fulfils the criteria of a very good contemporary crime novel in terms of excitement, topicality and its sense of authenticity. but it delivers more than this: the complex and unpredictable relationship between Hill and Jordan lies at the heart of the series and is one of its greatest strengths. McDermid’s writing gets better and better’ Spectator ‘McDermid’s usual ingredients of fear, revulsion, ingenuity and heroism … this book is all the more gripping because some holds are barred’ Literary Review ‘McDermid is up there with the best’ Good Reading Title Page VAL McDERMID Copyright Dedication Friday List 2 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Midnight List 1 Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday List 3 Chapter Three Months Later Acknowledgements About the Author Series Title About the Publisher

The phases of the moon have an inexplicable but incontrovertible effect on the mentally ill. Ask any psychiatric nurse. For them, it’s a truth universally acknowledged. None of them volunteers for overtime around the time of the full moon. Not unless they are absolutely desperate. It’s also a truth that makes the behavioural scientists uneasy; it’s not something that can be laid at the door of an abusive childhood or an inability to relate socially. It’s an external rhythm that no amount of treatment can override. It drags the tides and it pulls the deranged out of their hampered orbits.