|
| Beneath the Bleeding | 
 enlarge | Author: Val Mcdermid
Publisher: Harper Collins Publ. UK
Category: Book
Buy Used: $15.00
Used (5) from $15.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 69220
Format: Import
Media: Paperback
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0007243278
EAN: 9780007243273
ASIN: 0007243278
Publication Date: August 31, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews:
 The ultimate affair April 2, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
When Dr.Tony Hill is attacked by an axe wielding madman at the mental hospital where he works, he is forced to recover from the ensuing operation in hospital, grumpy at being unable to walk and unable to help DCI Carol Jordan in several cases in which she is involved. A local football hero has died from poison and shortly afterwards, a bomb is exploded at the football stadium, killing over 30 people. The bomber is identified as a member of a local Muslim family and both the police and the press are convinced that this is a terrorist act. Tony isn't so sure about this and continues to try to convince Carol that the profile of this man doesn't fit the role of a terrorist. Carol is in one of her dark moods and resists Tony's theories, which places another barrier between them. It's a very good read with an ending which doesn't become obvious until the end.
A timely and cautionary tale from the Scottish Master May 25, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book may appear on the U.S. market under a different title, and I'm never sure why Val McDermid's books are available in the U.K. nearly a year before they show up in the States. Under any title, McDermid's works are worth seeking out by the fans of Scottish/British crime procedurals, and this book is a worthy entry on her bibliography. Some of her most satisfying work has involved the teamwork of psychologist Tony Hill and Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan. In Beneath the Bleeding, Tony is crippled for most of the book from an attack by an ax-wielding patient at the mental hospital where he consults. Thus, he is the literary equivalent of so many great detectives who must ponder crimes from within their minds instead of being able to beat the streets (think Tey's "Daughter of Time" and Dexter's "The Wench is Dead"). Lucky for Tony, we do live in a world where incapacity does not necessarily mean isolation.
Carol has her own handicap: after an apparent terrorist explosion, her team is shoved to the side by the national intelligence services, who jump on the local Muslim connection with a ferocious lust. But Tony, with his careful insight, thinks that this is not a terrorist plot and yet again, Carol ignores Tony's reasoning. This is where McDermid needs to be careful. In many of her Hill/Jordan books, the action is driven and expanded by Carol's refusal to heed Tony's insights and advice. This mechanism is getting a little old. Surely by now, Tony has been correct often enough to merit Carol's faith in him. The sidetrack caused by Carol's lack of belief in this book isn't grievous, but it is getting a little old.
Still, this is a great and timely story and a caution against face value in our dealings with others. A secondary story line that is nearly as powerful as the main story threads throughout this book as a tale of unexpected and undeserved revenge on the successful graduates of a local school and directly involves a member of Carol's team. McDermid does keep things ticking!
A final note: the unusual titles for Val McDermid's Hill/Jordan books are taken from T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets".
 Must be hard for Val McDermid to write with that chip on her shoulder June 27, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I love Val McDermid's novels, especially those in her Dr. Tony Hill/Carol Jordan series. So I was really excited to find that she'd written a fifth one of these.
Val, oh Val -- what went wrong here? There are so many great elements in this book: great story, great characters, great setting. The problems with this book are twofold. First off is the writing. Val McDermid has never been a great writer (she's a great story teller) but usually you don't notice that much because the plot and the characters are so fabulous. In Beneath the Bleeding, however, she seems to have raced through the execution and it suffers. It's really too bad because I quite enjoyed reading about a case for psychologist/profiler Dr. Hill and Chief Inspector Jordan to solve that for once didn't involve a sadistic torturer/serial killer. The format is otherwise very similar to the prior books in the series -- the police are simultaneously working on two crimes, one involving what seems to be a terrorist bombing of a football stadium, and the other involving a serial poisoner. As usual, McDermid takes us into the minds of the perpetrators as well as those of Dr. Hill and Carol Jordan as they feel out their relationship with each other and with the other people in their lives. McDermid introduces Tony's mother and for the first time in the series gives us some insight into Tony's past. She also explores Carol Jordan's increasing dependence on alcohol, something that Jordan will no doubt have to contend with in a big way in future novels in the series.
The biggest problem that I had with this book though is that the characters seem to have picked up whenever chip it is that Val McDermid has on her shoulders. They are angry in ways and to an extent that seem inconsistent with their characters. They are angry about everything: treatment of gays and lesbians, the Bush administration, Tony Blair, the police who specialize in terrorism investigations, sexism. I certainly don't mind McDermid having a point of view about all of these things, but in this book it gets in the way of the story. And it's such a good story I can't help wishing that it were better written. It's worth reading if you're already a fan of the series, but if you aren't I wouldn't start with this book.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
