Insidious Intent

A killer targets single women at weddings: “[An] intense plot…McDermid keeps each twist believable.” —The Washington Post In the north of England, single women are beginning to disappear from weddings. A pattern soon becomes clear: Someone is crashing the festivities and luring the women away—only to leave the victims’ bodies in their own burned-out cars in remote locations. Psychologist Tony Hill and former police detective Carol Jordan are called upon to investigate—but this may be the toughest case they’ve ever had to face. Meanwhile, Detective Sergeant Paula McIntyre and her partner Elinor must deal with a cruel cyber-blackmailer targeting their teenage ward. Impeccably plotted and intensely gripping, Insidious Intent comes from Val McDermid, Diamond Dagger Award winner, multiple Edgar Award nominee, and “one of crime fiction’s most eminent writers” (Entertainment Weekly).

'One of the most surprising twists you'll read this year. Outstanding' Irish Independent 'Engrossing . . . a colossal reminder of just why McDermid has been the queen of crime for three decades' Heat 'Murdered people don't kill themselves . . .' A quiet night on a country road. The stillness shattered by a car engulfed in flames, and a burned body discovered in the driver's seat. As the investigation unfolds, DCI Carol Jordan and psychological profiler Tony Hill quickly realise that this is more than just a tragic accident. And so begins the hunt for a truly terrifying killer, someone who believes he is invisible, untraceable and untouchable. As other victims are found to have met the same terrible fate, and with more women at risk, Tony and Carol are drawn into a dark and twisted web of fear and revenge that will force them to question their own ideas of justice . . . A pulse-pounding mystery from the number one bestseller. If you enjoyed Insidious Intent, don't miss the first in a new series from the Queen of Crime. 1979 is out now, introducing the unforgettable Allie Burns. ___________________ Praise for Queen of Crime Val McDermid: 'It grabs the reader by the throat and never lets go' Daily Mail 'So gripping it puts your life on hold' The Times 'As good a psychological thriller as it is possible to get' Sunday Express 'One of today's most accomplished crime writers' Literary Review 'McDermid remains unrivalled' Observer 'No one can tell a story like she can' Daily Express

Unmarked graves are found on the grounds of an old orphanage in this “riveting” British crime thriller by an Edgar Award finalist (Publishers Weekly, starred review). With profiler Tony Hill behind bars and Carol Jordan no longer with the police, he’s finding unexpected outlets for his talents in jail and she’s joined forces with a group of lawyers and forensics experts looking into suspected miscarriages of justice. But they’re doing it without each other; being in the same room at visiting hour is too painful to contemplate. Meanwhile, construction is suddenly halted on the redevelopment of an orphanage after dozens of skeletons are found buried at the site. Forensic examination reveals they date from between twenty and forty years ago, when the nuns were running their repressive regime. But then a different set of skeletons is discovered in a far corner—young men from as recent as ten years ago. When newly promoted DI Paula McIntyre discovers that one of the male skeletons is that of a killer who is supposedly alive and behind bars—and the subject of one of Carol’s miscarriage investigations—it brings Tony and Carol irresistibly into each other’s orbit once again in this masterfully plotted novel by “the queen of psychological thrillers” (Irish Independent).

The bestselling “Queen of Crime reigns again” when a profiler and an ex-cop investigate the suspicious deaths of women targeted by Internet trolls (Independent, UK). From the international bestselling author of The Mermaids Singing and The Wire in the Blood comes the ninth installment of her beloved series featuring psychologist Tony Hill and former DCI Carol Jordan . . . Vicious online attacks seem to be driving outspoken women to silence themselves through suicide. Yet for profiler Tony Hill, who knows a thing or two about patterns in human behavior, something doesn’t add up. Carol Jordan, meanwhile, is too busy tackling her own demons to think about a potential serial killer. But when she gets an opportunity for a second chance, it’s game on. This time around, though, the stakes have never been higher. One of the Boston Globe’s Best Books of 2015

Psychologist Tony Hill and ex-DCI Carol Jordan—the UK crime fighting partners from the TV series Wire in the Blood—face down a serial killer. International bestselling crime writer Val McDermid’s work speaks for itself: her books have sold millions of copies worldwide, won numerous accolades, and attracted a devoted following of readers around the globe. Cross and Burn picks up where The Retribution left off: following the best crime-fighting team in the UK—clinical psychologist Tony Hill and police detective Carol Jordan—who when we last saw them were barely speaking, and whose relationship will now be challenged even further. But just because they’re not talking doesn’t mean the killing stops. Women are being murdered—ones who bear an unsettling resemblance to Carol Jordan. And when the evidence begins to point in a disturbing direction, thinking the unthinkable seems the only possible answer. Cornered by events, Tony and Carol are forced to fight for themselves and each other as never before. “McDermid is as smooth a practitioner of crime fiction as anyone out there . . . She’s the best we’ve got.” —The New York Times Book Review

When clinical psychiatrist Charlie Flint is sent a mysterious package of press cuttings about a brutal murder, it instantly grabs her attention. The murder occurred on the grounds of her old Oxford college—a groom battered to death just hours after his wedding. As Charlie delves back into the closeted, mysterious world that is academic life at Oxford, every step she takes toward the truth is a step closer to danger.

Reinventing Romantic Poetry offers a new look at the Russian literary scene in the nineteenth century. While celebrated poets such as Aleksandr Pushkin worked within a male-centered Romantic aesthetic—the poet as a bard or sexual conqueror; nature as a mother or mistress; the poet’s muse as an idealized woman—Russian women attempting to write Romantic poetry found they had to reinvent poetic conventions of the day to express themselves as women and as poets. Comparing the poetry of fourteen men and fourteen women from this period, Diana Greene revives and redefines the women’s writings and offers a thoughtful examination of the sexual politics of reception and literary reputation. The fourteen women considered wrote poetry in every genre, from visions to verse tales, from love lyrics to metaphysical poetry, as well as prose works and plays. Greene delves into the reasons why their writing was dismissed, focusing in particular on the work of Evdokiia Rostopchina, Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaia, and Karolina Pavlova. Greene also considers class as a factor in literary reputation, comparing canonical male poets with the work of other men whose work, like the women’s, was deemed inferior at the time. The book also features an appendix of significant poems by Russian women discussed in the text. Some, found in archival notebooks, are published here for the first time, and others are reprinted for the first time since the mid-nineteenth century.