Insidious Intent

This series is one of my all-time favourites.
The early books in the series made me a fan of Val McDermid and are full of edge of the seat suspense. Over the series, McDermid has come to concentrate her efforts on developing the characters, exploring the team relationships and how dealing with violent crime impacts the police officer’s private life. This has often been at the expense of the earlier nail-biting climax to the read. In this book, the final few chapters are really intense but the suspense is related to the methods Tony and Carol are thinking of using to catch the killer rather than the thrill of the chase.
Another thing I’ve noticed in McDermid’s books is the side plot is as if not more interesting than the main story.
I’m still not sure what I think of the ending of this book but it was definitely exciting. The ending does have a logic if you’ve followed the series from the start. Although this book could be read as a stand-alone the ending wouldn’t have the same impact if the reader didn’t know what had come before. For this reason, I recommend readers have at least read two or three of the earlier books in the series before this one.

This book started off well, for me, but then fizzled a bit. I think it was because I wasn’t familiar with the characters, this being the first Val McDermid book that I’ve read. I know, right? But when I picked it up again and persevered through the rather long list of characters involved in the new crime-fighting ReMIT initiative (stands for Regional Major Incident Team) I soon got into it. After that, I couldn’t put it down. The frustrating chase for the serial killer was littered with seemingly circumstantial clues, which left the team at a loose end. With ever-increasing pressure both professionally, to ensure ReMIT was successful, and personally, being off the wagon, lead-investigator, Carol Jordon, had her work cut out for her. As a reader, I could sense her fear – that her past mistakes would impact her career and the careers of those she’d picked to be on the ReMIT team with her – and her frustration that the investigation wasn’t progressing as fast as it should. McDermid seemed to weave this into the story perfectly and in the right amounts, so as to up the stakes but not detract from the essence of the plot.

I enjoyed Carol’s psychologist side-kick, and potential love interest, Tony Hill, whose input helped solve the case. I think I would have gained more from the book if I had read some of the previous novels in the Carol Jordon series and understood their history a bit better, however, it didn’t affect my understanding of the plot. There was also a reference to a previous investigation that I would have liked to have had some knowledge of, again, more to understand what made the characters tick, rather than because of the outcome.

The side-plot involving Paula McIntyre and Elinor Blessing’s adopted son, Torin, was not only interesting but also relevant. Teenagers are so enamored with social media these days and they don’t understand how vulnerable they are. In this case, the consequences were dealt with, thanks to Paula’s tech-savvy colleague, Stacey, another strong and enthralling character. This sends a strong message to parents, demonstrating how teens lack the maturity to figure out how to get out of some of the situations they find themselves in and need parental assistance, even if the topic is humiliating. I don’t know if this was intentional, but as a parent, it certainly opened my eyes.

McDermid has some lovely turns of phrase and some interesting descriptions. The extract below is taken from Tony Hill’s point of view and illustrates not only McDermid’s skill but also the way the forensic psychologist thinks, with painstaking attention to detail and intense observations:

“The national pastime of dressing in sophisticated technical gear and wandering round the countryside meant that every National Park was criss-crossed with paths. From the air they must look like elaborately patterned knitwear, he thought.”

Then there was the ending. Well, I won’t give it away, not least because McDermid herself requests as much at the end of the book, but also because it would be a monstrous spoiler. I was shocked. I was left cold. I couldn’t understand why it had been written that way, but then on closer scrutiny, I realized it did make sense, and was a fitting ending for the book, even if it left the reader feeling slightly disturbed.

I do recommend this book, however, if you’re new to McDermid, as I was, then I would suggest perhaps reading a couple of her preceding books first, just to get to grips with the various characters and their motivations. I will repeat, however, that it did not detract from the plot but made it a bit muddly until I’d figured out the backstories of each.