A well written crime story. I really love the character of Tony Hill, he is just so different. Love to have him as a friend. 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. 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' Guardian

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Despite the lousy characterization, a thriller can definitely redeem itself by having a rolling and twisting plot. To my surprise, it's not the case in this book. The dual plot lines strangely not intertwine in the end and the case about the missing child is just nothing more than a boring filler lasted for nearly half of the book. Another half concerning the serial hooker killer is comparatively more compelling considering there are more actions and development, but its pace oddly slows down in the middle of the book and given the distraction of the excruciating other half, its satisfactory ending just comes too little too late. So with Carol’s expertise in criminal investigation and Tony’s unbelievable ability to get inside the heads of the weird and the troubled the hunt’s afoot. Things go really pear shaped when Carol puts one of her young female officer on the street, under cover as a prostitute, to be used as a lure only to have her officer get taken right under the noses of the task force. The pace and tension is now cranked up several notches.

Summary

I? Can’t believe this was so good? I like the first two books and thought the third was alright but this was actually wild. Both plots are wrapped up well and the twists are really good and unexpected. Also it was gross which we love to see it. Due to the rave review of "The Wire in the Blood" mini series and countless acclaims on McDermid's works among some of my favorite authors, I finally get the chance to give this book a try. aybe my expectations are too high after all as this book turns out to be one of the most flat and mediocre fictions I have read recently. 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. Serial killers are thankfully rare. It is a tribute to the power of Val McDermid's imagination that she made this one seem so believable' Daily Telegraph 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.

The Torment of Others on Apple Books ‎The Torment of Others on Apple Books

In a small grim room, the body of a woman is discovered, panic and pain etched in her face. The scene matches in every detail a series of murders two years ago-murders that ended when irrefutable forensic evidence secured the conviction of a deeply disturbed young man named Derek Tyler. To have the American effort in Iraq summed up by these images must seem, to those who saw some justification in a war that did overthrow one of the monster tyrants of modern times, ''unfair.'' A war, an occupation, is inevitably a huge tapestry of actions. What makes some actions representative and others not? The issue is not whether the torture was done by individuals (i.e., ''not by everybody'') -- but whether it was systematic. Authorized. Condoned. All acts are done by individuals. The issue is not whether a majority or a minority of Americans performs such acts but whether the nature of the policies prosecuted by this administration and the hierarchies deployed to carry them out makes such acts likely. 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.epubTop criminal psychologist Dr Tony Hill is prepared to think the unthinkable – this is not a copycat murder but something much stranger. While DCI Carol Jordan and her team mount a desperate and dangerous undercover police operation to trap the murderer, Hill heads towards a terrifying face-off with one of the most perverse killers he has ever encountered… 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 ending was not at all what I expected. Not even a little and it takes a lot for me to be totally surprised by a crime novel. Dr. Tony Hill and Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan return in the award-winning series that is the basis for the BBC television show.

The Torment of Others (Tony Hill and Carol [PDF] [EPUB] The Torment of Others (Tony Hill and Carol

The identity of The Voice was a surprise to me, and I think to most readers. It was the unmasking of this criminal that kept me reading until 6 a.m. Then there were a few details to tie up, mostly involving members of Carol’s team. Also, the murder of the two missing young boys was solved, although not without some additional heartbreak for the team. Tagged with: ★ 5 Stars, 2000s, British, Noir, Old Peculier Award, Police Procedural, Prostitution, Psychological, Thriller Clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill and Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan face the toughest challenge of their careers when they are confronted with an 'impossible' series of murders.Book Genre: British Literature, Crime, Detective, European Literature, Fiction, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Psychology, Suspense, Thriller Jordan series written by Val McDermid. The main characters are recovering from the harrowing events of Book 3 (THE LAST TEMPTATION). So now the pictures will continue to ''assault'' us -- as many Americans are bound to feel. Will people get used to them? Some Americans are already saying they have seen enough. Not, however, the rest of the world. Endless war: endless stream of photographs. Will editors now debate whether showing more of them, or showing them uncropped (which, with some of the best-known images, like that of a hooded man on a box, gives a different and in some instances more appalling view), would be in ''bad taste'' or too implicitly political? By ''political,'' read: critical of the Bush administration's imperial project. For there can be no doubt that the photographs damage, as Rumsfeld testified, ''the reputation of the honorable men and women of the armed forces who are courageously and responsibly and professionally defending our freedom across the globe.'' This damage -- to our reputation, our image, our success as the lone superpower -- is what the Bush administration principally deplores. How the protection of ''our freedom'' -- the freedom of 5 percent of humanity -- came to require having American soldiers ''across the globe'' is hardly debated by our elected officials. But it is, by its very nature, extremely freaky. The descriptions of the crimes that take place are far too graphic for most I suspect. And the nature of the crimes (sexual homicide) are far outside what most folks would want to read about. The main characters are compelling and believable. They are complex and McDermid makes them and the environment of the story come to life with careful attention to details.