Unmarked graves are found on the grounds of an old orphanage in this “riveting” British crime thriller by an Edgar Award finalist (Publishers Weekly, starred review). With profiler Tony Hill behind bars and Carol Jordan no longer with the police, he’s finding unexpected outlets for his talents in jail and she’s joined forces with a group of lawyers and forensics experts looking into … forensics experts looking into suspected miscarriages of justice. But they’re doing it without each other; being in the same room at visiting hour is too painful to contemplate.
Meanwhile, construction is suddenly halted on the redevelopment of an orphanage after dozens of skeletons are found buried at the site. Forensic examination reveals they date from between twenty and forty years ago, when the nuns were running their repressive regime. But then a different set of skeletons is discovered in a far corner–young men from as recent as ten years ago.
When newly promoted DI Paula McIntyre discovers that one of the male skeletons is that of a killer who is supposedly alive and behind bars–and the subject of one of Carol’s miscarriage investigations–it brings Tony and Carol irresistibly into each other’s orbit once again in this masterfully plotted novel by “the queen of psychological thrillers” (Irish Independent).
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I love all of Val’s books and this latest one is no exception. Thanks Val McDermid
Human remains are unexpectedly found when a property developer begins digging on land purchased from a convent. Once the police take over they find a burial ground, beginning an investigation to identify the bodies and how they ended up in unmarked graves. The main characters are also dealing with the fallout from a previous case.
This is an interesting and well-paced character driven mystery. You can read this book as a standalone but the relationships will be clearer, and the character situations more powerful, if you read the series in order. Also, this book contains major spoilers for a prior book.
Content Warnings: SPOILER misogynistic language; abelist language; racism END SPOILER
The opinions in this review are honest and my own. #mystery #policeprocedural
I’m a thriller lover and this is no exception. Ties all the lose ends together . She is a master story teller
Psychiatrist Tony Hill and ex-DCI Carol Jordan make another appearance in this 11th book of the series.
Picking up where Book 10 left off, Hill is in prison and Carol is no longer with the police department. She has joined forces with a small informal group of lawyers and forensics experts looking into suspected miscarriages of justice. A little different for both of them as they are working without each other.
Newly promoted DI Paula McIntyre picks up where Jordan left off. She and her team are called in to investigate the finding of multiple skeletons buried sometime between 20 and 40 years ago. In another area, another burial site reveals the bones of young men, buried as late as 10 years ago.
One of those skeletons belongs to a killer who is supposedly alive and behind bars. This turn of events bring Tony and Carol into each other’s paths once again.
This has been an interesting, entertaining series. I love how the characters have grown and matured, and how Carol and Tony still relate to each other since book 1 in 1995 or thereabouts. It’s hard to say ,… but I was a bit disappointed with this one. There are multiple story lines, with baffling mysteries to solve. Parts of it felt somewhat disjointed. The ending was unsatisfactory … although it does nicely set up the next book.
Many thanks to the author / Grove Atlantic / Netgalley / Edelweiss for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
How the Dead Speak is another riveting read from Val McDermid, often called the Queen of Crime.
Things have changed for Tony and Carol, he is in prison and she has resigned from being a police officer.
The supporting cast of characters are there, Paula, Elinor, Stacey, Alvin.
Val McDermid is a master of having more than one story going at once and managing to keep all of them making you want to turn the pages to see what transpires.
Don’t want to spoil the story so all I will say is get your copy and settle in for a great read. Can’t wait for the book to be published in Canada so I can purchase my hard copy to sit beside my collection of Val McDermid books.
Thanks to Net Galley, Grove Atlantic/Atlantic Monthly Press to enable me to spend more time in Carol and Tony’s world. Loved it !!!
How the Dead Speak is book number 11 in the Tony Hill/Carol Jordan series. Though it is the first book in the series that I have read, I personally had no trouble following the story. There are a few things that would help to explain the characters a bit better had I read the previous books but it in no way took away from this particular book.
The main characters in the story are complex and flawed but nonetheless it helps make them more real. Each chapter goes from one persons situation to the next and then back again. Usually that drives me crazy with a book but it actually worked very well in this circumstance.
A grizzly find at a long closed convent brings more questions than answers for the newly re-formed ReMIT squad. With Tony and Carol no longer part of the squad they can only watch from afar. While trying to adjust to their new lives there are still ways their talents can still be used and because of their past, their influences have carried over to some of those that are back with ReMIT. Can those skills be used to figure out what really happened on the convent grounds?
I truly enjoyed this book. It is extremely well written and held my interest to the end. I will definitely be adding more of Val McDermid’s books to my TBR list.
Though this book has not been released yet, I did receive an ARC copy from the publisher. The publisher never asked for me to submit a review so therefore I was under no obligation to do so. This is my fair and honest opinion of the book.