BOOK REVIEW: The Torment of Others (Tony Hill/Carol Jordan, #4) by Val McDermid

The Torment of Others is the fourth book in the Tony Hill/Carol Jordan series written by Val McDermid. The main characters are recovering from the harrowing events of Book 3 (The Last Temptation). In addition to dealing with those after effects, Carol and Tony have two (unrelated) major crimes to solve in this book. 

DCI Jordan is brought in to run a new special squad in Bradfield and immediately has to deal with someone who is killing prostitutes in a most horrible way (it involves dildos, handcuff and razorblades!) which is an identical method to four murders that had occurred nearly two years before and whose perpetrator had been supposedly identified, found, convicted and locked up in the looney bin. In addition, two young boys (under 10) have gone missing  a few weeks before the events at the beginning of the book and the police have no leads on finding them and (of course) are considering them as homicide cases, not just kidnappings. 

Dr. Tony Hill is in yet another professional setting, this time as a consulting psychologist at a local mental hospital in Bradfield. Of course, he is treating the 4-time convicted murderer and trying to discover his patient’s connection to the new crimes.

Tony and Carol work together to solve the crimes but their relationship is complicated by a handsome geologist(!!) who gets involved with Carol as well as a theory of the case that Tony develops that he feels he can’t reveal to her.

This fourth entry into the Hill/Jordan series was as full of high-pitched suspense as the previous books but I think it also had more obvious flaws than previous books by McDermid. First, there’s a scenario depicted that ends up with a female police officer (who is working undercover) getting into extreme danger and I just didn’t believe that a trained officer would behave that way in the situation (they let themselves be handcuffed to a bed because they think they are still under surveillance unaware the video/audio connection has been severed). Second, the reveal of the perpetrator of the prostitute murders and how they were able to copy the killing method is done somewhat suddenly (I thought) but maybe that’s because I didn’t figure out who the criminal was before the police did. (In general, I would say the ability of a mystery writer to extend the suspense by delaying the revelation of the perpetrator is a strength of a mystery novel but for some reason in this instance it felt off to me but in hindsight a fair amount of clues that post facto appear obvious were given by the author.) Third, there really is no connection between the pedophile murder-kidnappings and the prostitute killers in the end so the reason they are both included in the same book is unclear, except maybe to put extra stress on Carol and Tony's relationship.

Overall, despite some flaws in this entry, the core story involving Tony and Carol is very strong and definitely a reason to read this book as well as the earlier entries in this series of high-quality, suspenseful police-procedural crime thrillers. I look forward to reading Beneath the Bleeding.

FOUR STARS.

Title: The Torment of Others.
Author: Val McDermid.
Length: 448 pages.
Original Publisher: Harper Collins.
Date First Published: February 4, 2002.
Date Read: May 12, 2018.
Version Read: Kindle.

GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★☆  (4.0/5.0).

OVERALL GRADE: A (3.5/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: B+.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: B+.