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Content snapshot
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Violence
Very heavy
Serial killings depicted in graphic forensic and narrative detail; the victims are teenagers; scenes from the killer's POV
Language
Some
Some strong language
Sexual Content
Barely any
Mild content
Substance Use
Barely any
Moderate drinking; Tony Hill is not Rebus but he has his own ways of not coping
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The specific horror of a predator who understands psychology and uses it; the institutional frustration of a profiler who is right but can't be heard in time
What this book is about
Clinical psychologist Tony Hill joins a new profiling task force with DCI Carol Jordan. When a group of teenage hitchhikers go missing across England, Tony becomes convinced they are connected and the work of a single killer — but the evidence is circumstantial and the police don't want to hear it. The killer is methodical, charming, and very aware of how profilers think. Val McDermid's second Wire in the Blood novel is the one that established the template for the series and, to a significant extent, for British psychological crime fiction: the cat-and-mouse between a brilliant, troubled profiler and an equally intelligent killer, with Carol Jordan as the institutional anchor who makes the investigation possible.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
very graphic serial killer violence including crimes against teenagers
second of the Wire in the Blood series
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