Book review: The Mermaids singing by Val McDermid

[Natazzz]

I'd already read a number of books by Scottish author Val McDermid, which I all enjoyed a lot. I'm a big fan of crime novels anyway, so there's already a lot to like about McDermid's books. Add to this the fact that I loved the Wire in the blood TV series, so when I came across The Mermaids singing (1995), the first book in the Wire in the blood series, I just had to read it.

Reading a book after you've seen a TV or movie adaptation is always hard, as you already know the general plot and what the characters are like and look like. However, it is so much better than the other way around: seeing an adaptation after you read a book. This is because a book can give you so much more detail and let's you use your imagination to make the story your own.

In this case, the fact that I had seen the TV series did not really affect my reading much. I did already know what was going to happen, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book's detailed descriptions of the story.

The story in short is about the police in Bradfield being confronted with a serial killer, one who gets their rocks of by torturing victims with ancient torture devices. To help them solve the case, the police bring in Tony Hill, a very good, but very odd, clinical psychologist, who is very experienced in profiling.

 

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