Val McDermid - The Wire in the Blood (St. Martins Minotaur Mysteries.)

THE WIRE IN THE BLOOD[181-142-066-4.8] By: Val McDermid Category: Fiction Police. Synopsis: Young girls are disappearing aroundthe country. Everyone assumes they are teenage runaways, headed for thebig city and bright lights. They vanish without trace - society'sdisposable children. There is nothing to connect them to each other, letalone the killer whose charming manner hides a warped and sick mind. Nobody moves around inside the messyheads of serial killers like Dr Tony Hill.

Now heading up therecently founded National Profiling Task Force, he sets his team an exercise:they are given the details of thirty missing teenagers and askedto use their new techniques to discover whether there is a sinisterlink between any of the cases. Only one officer, Shaz Bowman, comes upwith a concrete theory, but it is ridiculed by the rest of her group ... until a killer murders and mutilates one of their number. Could Bowman's outrageous suspicionpossibly be true? For Tony Hill, the murder of a member of his teambecomes a matter for personal revenge. Aided by his previous colleague,Carol Jordan, he embarks upon a campaign of psychological terrorism- a game of cat and mouse where the roles of hunter and hunted are alltoo easily reversed.
Last printing: 07/31/02 `=190' Taut, suspenseful andshocking, The Wire in the Blood is a ferociously readable thriller from one ofBritain's leading young novelists.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR The Mermaids Singing Kate Brannigan novels Blue Genes Clean Break Crack Down - Kick Back Dead Beat Lindsay Gordon novels Booked for Murder Union Jack Final Edition - Common Murder Report for Murder Non-fiction A Suitable Job for aWoman THE WIRE IN THE BLOOD Val McDermid H&rperCollmsPublishers This novel is entirely a work offiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it arethe work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons,living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. HarperCollinsPublishers 77-85 FulhamPalace Road, London W6 8JB Published by HarperCollinsPublishers1997 3579 10 8641 Val McDermid asserts the moral rightto be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book isavailable from the British Library ISBN: o-4565- oo 215591 x Set in Postscript Linotype Sabon by Rowland Phototypesetting Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Printed and bound in Great Britainby Caledonian International Book Manufacturing Ltd, Glasgow All rights reserved. No part of thispublication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted, in any form or by any means,electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording orotherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It's hard to imagine how I couldhave written this book without a lot of help from several key people.

For theirspecialist knowledge and willingness to give so freely of their expertise, I'dlike to thank Sheila Radford, Dr Mike Berry, Jai Penna, Paula Tyler and Dr SueBlack. I owe an apology to Edwina and Lesley, who ran around like headlesschickens researching something that was cut in the rewrites. Without Jim andSimon at Thornton Electronics, Mac and Manda, I would almost certainly have hada complete nervous breakdown when the hard disk crashed. But the perseveranceand perspicacity of three women in particular got me through to the end. Forthat reason, this book is for: Julia, Lisanne and Brigid With love The trilling wire in the blood Singsbelow inveterate scars Appeasing long forgotten wars. Four Quartets, Burnt Norton T.

S.Eliot
PROLOGUE. Murder was like magic, he thought.The quickness of his hand always deceived the eye, and that was howit was going to stay. He was like the postman delivering to a housewhere afterwards they would swear there had been no callers. This wasthe knowledge that was lodged in his being like a pacemaker in aheart patient. Without the power of his magic he'd be dead. Or as good as.

He knew just from looking at herthat she would be the next. Even before the eye contact, he knew.There had always been a very particular combination that spelledperfection in his thesaurus of the senses. Innocence and ripeness,mink-dark hair, eyes that danced. He'd never been wrong yet. It was aninstinct that kept him alive. Or as good as.

He watched her watching him, andunder the urgent mutter of the crowd, he heard echoing in his head themusic. "Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack felldown and broke his crown ... The chiming tune swelled and burst thenbattered his brain like a spring tide against a breakwater. And Jill?What about Jill? Oh, he knew what happened to Jill. Over and overagain, repetitious as the barbaric nursery rhyme.

But it was neverenough. He had never quite been satisfied that the punishment hadfit the crime. And so there had to be a next one.And there he was, watching her watching him sending her messageswith his eyes. Messages that said, "I've noticed you. Find yourway to me and I'll notice you some more." And she read him. She read him, loudand clear.

She was so obvious; life hadn't scarred her expectationswith static yet. A knowing smile quirked the corners of her mouth andshe took the first step on the long and, for him, exciting journey ofexploration and pain. The pain, as far as he was concerned, was THE WIRE IN THE BLOOD Val Mcdermid Young girls are disappearing aroundthe country. Everyone assumes they are teenage runaways, headed for thebig city and bright lights. They vanish without trace society'sdisposable children. There is nothing to connect them to each other, letalone the killer whose charming manner hides a warped and sick mind.

Nobody moves around inside the messyheads of serial killers like Dr. Tony Hill. Now heading up therecently founded National Profiling Task Force, he sets his team an exercise:they are given the details of thirty missing teenagers and askedto use their new techniques to discover whether there is a sinisterlink between any of the cases. Only one officer, Shaz Bowman, comes upwith a concrete theory, but it is ridiculed by the rest of her group... until a killer murders and mutilates one of their number. Could Bowman's outrageous suspicionpossibly be true? For Tony Hill, the murder of a member of his teambecomes a matter for personal revenge.

Aided by his previouscolleague, Carol Jordan, he embarks upon a campaign of psychologicalterrorism a game of cat and mouse where the roles of hunter and hunted are alltoo easily reversed. Taut, suspenseful and shocking, TheWire in the Blood is a ferociously readable thriller from one ofBritain's leading young novelists. BY THE SAME AUTHOR The Mermaids Singing Kate Brannigan novels Blue Genes Clean Break Crack Down Kick Back Dead Beat Lindsay Gordon novels Booked for Murder Union Jack Final Edition Common Murder Report for Murder Non-fiction A Suitable Job for aWoman THE WIRE IN THE BLOOD Val Mcdermid Harpercollins Publish This novel is entirely a work offiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are thework of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons,living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. Harpercotimspublishers 77-85 FulhamPalace Road, London W6 8JB Published by Harpercollins Publish1997 3579 10 8642 Copyright Val Mcdermid1997 Val Mcdermid asserts the moral rightto be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book isavailable from the British Library ISBN O OO 2.2.5591 X Set in Postscript Linotype Sabon by Rowland Phototypesetting Ltd, Bury St.

Edmunds, Suffolk Printed and bound in Great Britainby Caledonian International Book Manufacturing Ltd, Glasgow All rights reserved. No part of thispublication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted, in any form or by any means,electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without theprior permission of the publishers. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It's hard to imagine how I couldhave written this book without a lot of help from several key people. Fortheir specialist knowledge and willingness to give so freely oftheir expertise, I'd like to thank Sheila Radford, Dr. Mike Berry, JaiPenna, Paula Tyler and Dr. Sue Black.