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The Torment of Others

Author: Val Mcdermid
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

19 reviews
Sales Rank: 6060

Media: Paperback
Edition: Film Tie-in Ed
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.4 x 1.3

ISBN: 0007142900
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780007142903
ASIN: 0007142900

Publication Date: March 7, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

Also Available In:

•	Hardcover - The Torment of Others

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Torment of Others is a salutary reminder what an asset to British crime fiction Val McDermid is. Her first books with journalist Lindsay Gordon as heroine gave hints of the talent that was to mature so impressively--and the subsequent series with the resourceful private eye Kate Brannigan demonstrated a sharper eye for the harder edges of society. But the best was just around the corner. McDermid's third sequence with clinical psychologist profiler Tony Hill was something of a quantum leap: as well as forging one of the most memorable figures in contemporary crime fiction with mildly eccentric Hill, McDermid added a degree of psychological acuity that made the earlier books seem like warm-ups for the main event.

The latest outing for Hill, The Torment of Others, also features McDermid's other richly realised creation, DCI Carol Jordan, and the author carries her familiar protagonists into truly unsettling new areas. This time, Hill is coping with a return to practical clinical profiling after a frustrating spell as an academic. And there's another major complication for him: his ex-partner Carol Jordan is no longer sure she wishes to be in charge of a team after the brutal sexual assault she suffered during undercover work. But she is persuaded to do so--and realises that one of her main tasks will be to create a cohesive unit.

A dead woman discovered in a sexual position on a bloody mattress, appears to be the victim of a killer the team knows all about: the monstrous Derek Tyler, who had carried out similarly bloody work two years before. However, forensics have landed Tyler in a mental institution--does this mean that Hill and Jordan are searching for a murderer who is copying the techniques of the psychotic Tyler?

While this may not be the best starting point for those new to McDermid, enthusiasts will find all the key elements are firmly and satisfyingly in place. --Barry Forshaw

Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Good but let down on a couple of points July 18, 2008
It was a really good read and kept me interested but you felt the ending was too quickly wrapped up. The serial killer who thought of everything didn't have a paasword on the home computer that contained incriminating evidence.
Also the fact that the hookers seem to know who the creeper was but wouldn't say anything. That part of the story didn't ring through very well. Other than that it was well worth a read and I will track down her other novels.

4 out of 5 stars

Different type of crime thriller December 13, 2007
Her characters are very harsh but you know that underneath their brave fronts they are usually vulnerable and that seems to draw them more sympathy from the reader.
What makes the Tony Hill books different from other crime thrillers is that having a psychologist involved in the story but not working directly as a cop gives the author the freedom to theorise about the murders, so providing a good contrast between this and the usual police procedural progress.
I was a bit disapppointed that there were two cases which were given prominence but turned out not to be linked and I felt that the child killer case was given a fairly swift windup at the end of the book.
Other than that a very good book. I've read several Val McDermid books and will read more.

4 out of 5 stars

A high tensioned thriller October 19, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This is the fourth book in the series featuring Dr Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan.
Two crimes to solve..... a past case involving two missing children and a murderer who is brutally killing women in a fashion which is identical to previous murders but with the killer already convicted and locked up.
This is one of the best books in the series, a high tensioned thriller with twists and turns along the way.

4 out of 5 stars

Very Good September 17, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

A murderer is killing prostitutes, in a very gruesome manner. The method of the murders, is identical to a series of murders committed a few years earlier. However, that killer, Derek Tyler, has been put away, and could not have been involved, with the new cases.

I found this book a rivetting read. I felt the characters, DCI Carol Jordan and Tony Hill, along with the rest of the crime investigating team, seemed quite believable, and that the dialogue between them was realistic, as well.

The storyline never got dull, and there are a few twists in it, too. It kept me interested throughout.

3 out of 5 stars

Poorly plotted June 22, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful

This book begins with Carol having moved to London, having been betrayed in some kind of police operation, which resulted in her being raped. The way in which Jordan tries to deal with the rape and it's effect on her relationship with Hill is one of the main themes in the book, and I feel a little guilty for my lack of patience with it. Having a strong female character having to deal with a rape is, in my opinion, becoming something of a cliche in crime fiction. It's to McDermid's credit that she doesn't drag it out or wrap it in sentimentality (in fact, Jordan is remarkably resilient about the whole thing which is refreshing), but it did feel too much blah blah blah to me and as it kept recurring as a theme, my eyes began to glaze over. Jordan is persuaded back to Bradfield by Brandon (her former Chief Constable, making a welcome return from The Mermaids Singing) to front an elite investigation squad looking at serial killers and re-opening cold cases when times are quiet. Hill, who moved to St Andrews to teach, hears that she's coming back and gets a part-time job in Bradfield's local high-security hospital (where it just so happens that Derek Tyler from the Blurb on the Back is a patient) so he can support her - including by buying a house and converting the ground floor into a flat for her, which struck me as a bit weird.

Jordan's first two cases are a cold case concerning the disappearance of two boys (an investigation headed up by Merrick, also making a welcome return from The Mermaids Singing) who was clearly personally invested in the investigation, which makes things awkward given that he's serving as her Inspector in the new unit. Her second case concerns the gruesome murder of prostitutes in a way echoing a previously solved case. One of my big problems with the book is that the cold case is very much the poor relation in terms of investigation (it's solved much too easily) and emotional impact (there's no look at the effect on the parents or indeed, any relationship with the people really suffering) and I think that structurally, it would have been more effective to just focus on the serial killer, which is clearly what she's more interested in. The reason why the cold case is there is to provide a Big Shocking Twist at the end (which was over too quickly to be effective and whilst I will miss the character concerned, they'd had such a poor ride throughout the story that it was really a relief) and to give Jordan a Potential Love Interest to help her get over her rape and force her and Hill to acknowledge their feelings for each other. Yawn.

Like I said, the serial killer story is more effective - McDermid is never better than when she's drawing on the gruesome and chilling and she gives just enough detail about the killings and the killer's motivation to make you keep your legs tightly crossed as you're reading the scenes. However, I was very disappointed by the way in which she rushed the ending. For starters, there is v. little explanation for how The Voice was controlling the killers - McDermid says it's to do with hypnosis or psychological suggestion, but there's no real explanation for how this was accomplished and it felt uncharacteristically ham-fisted. Then the denouement itself was incredibly unsatisfying - we literally go from having a face-off between Hill and the killer to the end of the book to a twist that the killer had killed Tyler to a further twist that Tyler had made a confession implicating The Voice and providing handy evidence to bring a conviction in the space of 4 pages. From someone like McDermid, I really expected better.

I'd also like to comment on how McDermid seemed to lose control of her character POVs towards the end - in order to bring the book to a conclusion we started getting inundated with perspectives - from The Voice, to her tools, to Hill and Jordan, to random policemen, to prostitutes with key pieces of evidence - it's a mess. Also a mess is the fact that the Big Reveal is dependent on the prostitutes being afraid of one of the members of Jordan's team - so afraid that when they can potentially reveal the killer to Jordan, they don't. Unfortunately, this fact comes at the end of the book and in going back through the scenes where you see the prostitutes interact with this character, there's nothing at all to indicate that they're any more afraid of them than they are the 'good' policemen. That's sloppy and unconvincing and again, I really expected better from McDermid.