The Torment of Others (Tony Hill and Carol Jordan): Book 4

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Val McDermid's novels featuring psychologist-profiler Tony Hill are always excruciatingly gory portrayals of serial killers, sadists, and tormentors of small children, and this one manages to include all three. Adding to the pain is the presence of McDermid's detective, Carol Jordan, who has survived an undercover operation gone terribly wrong, only to find herself subjecting another officer to the same risk.

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The Kirkcaldy-born crime writer has delivered a powerful and disturbing novel about the very measure of evil… Val McDermid is an intelligent, supremely talented novelist and, with this latest tale, she is writing at the height of her power. It may not be comfortable, it may be neither pretty nor pleasant, but it is utterly compelling Overall, despite the 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 later entries in this high-quality, suspenseful police-procedural crime thrillers. The Torment of Others is a crime novel by Scottish author Val McDermid, and is the fourth entry in her popular Carol Jordan and Dr. Tony Hill series, which has been successfully adapted into the television series Wire in the Blood. The novel was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger, and won the 2006 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. As with her other novels in the Tony Hill series, the title is an extract from a poem by T. S. Eliot.Stunning new psychological thriller featuring Tony Hill, hero of The Wire in the Blood, from one of Britain’s bestselling novelists: ‘Val McDermid has become our leading pathologist of everyday evil… The subtle orchestration of terror is masterful. The inner workings and more than camaraderie of the police dept. are the focus in this story. This holds especially true when one of their own is abducted. the author held my attention during the first third of this book and the last third. The middle made the story a bit too drawn out. Although the end result was stunning. An erotic life is, for more and more people, that whither can be captured in digital photographs and on video. And perhaps the torture is more attractive, as something to record, when it has a sexual component. It is surely revealing, as more Abu Ghraib photographs enter public view, that torture photographs are interleaved with pornographic images of American soldiers having sex with one another. In fact, most of the torture photographs have a sexual theme, as in those showing the coercing of prisoners to perform, or simulate, sexual acts among themselves. One exception, already canonical, is the photograph of the man made to stand on a box, hooded and sprouting wires, reportedly told he would be electrocuted if he fell off. Yet pictures of prisoners bound in painful positions, or made to stand with outstretched arms, are infrequent. That they count as torture cannot be doubted. You have only to look at the terror on the victim's face, although such ''stress'' fell within the Pentagon's limits of the acceptable. But most of the pictures seem part of a larger confluence of torture and pornography: a young woman leading a naked man around on a leash is classic dominatrix imagery. And you wonder how much of the sexual tortures inflicted on the inmates of Abu Ghraib was inspired by the vast repertory of pornographic imagery available on the Internet -- and which ordinary people, by sending out Webcasts of themselves, try to emulate. 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. Both Tony and Carol have returned to Bradfield (the setting of Book 1) — Carol to head a special crime unit and Tony to private practice combined with a part-time position in a hospital for the criminally insane. Carol is dealing with the aftermath of her rape, which occurred in Book 3, trying to regain her emotional stability as well as successfully manage the task force under her control. While she is looking into a cold case involving two missing (and presumed dead) young boys, a brutal torture/murder of a young prostitute occurs.

The Torment of Others By Val McDermid | Used - Wob The Torment of Others By Val McDermid | Used - Wob

PDF / EPUB File Name: The_Torment_of_Others_Tony_Hill_namp_Carol_Jordan_4_-_Val_McDermid.pdf, The_Torment_of_Others_Tony_Hill_namp_Carol_Jordan_4_-_Val_McDermid.epub Jordan series written by Val McDermid. The main characters are recovering from the harrowing events of Book 3 (THE LAST TEMPTATION). The only thing that disturbed me while I was reading was that the chapters were extra long, shifting from one scene to another without warning. I would have appreciated more section breaks.

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It’s hard to know what to praise first here: the impeccable plotting or the sharp social relevance of the narrative (a McDermid speciality). Most of all, though, it’s the relationship between her two central characters that makes THE TORMENT OF OTHERS work so well. This is a real, adult relationship; complex, combative and nuanced. Tagged with: ★ 5 Stars, 2000s, British, Noir, Old Peculier Award, Police Procedural, Prostitution, Psychological, Thriller This entry into the 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 given that ends up with a police officer (who is undercover) getting into extreme danger and I just didn’t believe that a trainer officer would behave that way in the situation (they let themselves be handcuffed because they think they are still under surveillance unaware the video/audio connection has been severed). Secondly, 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 it was before the police do. (In general I would say that is a strength of a mystery novel but for some reason 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 is unclear, except maybe to put extra stress on Carol and Tony. What about “the odd couple”? It is quite obvious that Carol and Tony work well together when they are teamed up to catch criminals. It is also pretty clear that they love each other. They question is, what, if anything, will they do about it? Condition: Good. Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc.