The Mermaids Singing/The Wire In The Blood: Val McDermid

The Mermaids Singing: Four men have been found mutilated and tortured. Fear grips the city; no man feels safe. The police turn to clinical psychologist Tony Hill for help in profiling the killer. Up to now, the only serial killers Hill had encountered were safely behind bars. This one is different. This one is on the loose, and soon Hill becomes the unsuspecting target in a battle of wits where he must use every ounce of his professional skill to survive. The Wire In The Blood: No-one gets in the tormented minds of serial killers like Tony Hill. Asked to lead a National Profiling Task Force, he sets his team an exercise: they are given the details of missing teenagers and asked to look for common factors. When one officer offers the theory that there's a serial killer at work, she is ridiculed by the group. But then one of the team is murdered and mutilated. To catch a killer, Hunt embarks on a campaign of psychological terrorism - a game where the hunter and the hunted can be all too easily reversed.