Beneath the Bleeding (47 page)

The music is what keeps me going through a book. It’s the unacknowledged balm, the inspiration, the rhythm and delight. I work in a room alone so I can have it as loud or as soft as I want. I can listen to the same track as many times as I feel like without anybody accusing me of trying to drive them crazy. Every book is accompanied by old friends and new discoveries. So for this book, thank you to Richard Thompson, Sigur Rós, Deacon Blue, Roddy Woomble, Mary Gauthier, Ketil Bjornstad, Elvis Costello, Rob Dougan, Michael Marra, Rab Noakes, Karine Polwart, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the Blue Nile. Thanks too to Radio Scotland’s Iain Anderson, who has cost me a small fortune in CDs and downloads. And a particularly big hand for Sue Turnbull who came all the way from Australia to introduce me to Sigur Rós and Peter Temple.

I had two major orthopaedic surgeries between the previous book and this one, and I am very grateful to Mr David Weir and the nursing team at the Newcastle Nuffield Hospital for my magnificent new knees, and also for the inspiration for one element of this novel.

Some of the people who helped with this book have asked not to be named. I hope they don’t feel their trust was misplaced. Harry and Louise assisted me with aspects of the medical stuff and the helpful staff at the Alnwick Garden unwittingly provided food for thought.

Finally, thanks to my loyal team at Gregory and Co, at HarperCollins and at Coastal Productions, particularly Jane, Julia, Anne, Sandra and Ken.

But most of all, thanks to Kelly, who makes everything better.

Scottish crime writer
VAL M
C
DERMID
is the author of twenty-three novels. Her books have won the Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, been named
New York Times
Notable Books, and been nominated for the Edgar Award. She lives in the north of England.

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International
Praise
for

“McDermid’s previous novels have set the bar vertiginously high, but the latest outing for criminal profiler Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan has all the craft, panache, and pace that we have come to expect from this outstanding writer…. Vintage stuff: unplug the phone, lock the door, and prepare to read in a sitting.”

—The Guardian
(London)

“If Rankin is the king of British crime, Val McDermid is undoubtedly the queen…. Hill and Jordan are compelling creations and their encounters in
Beneath the Bleeding
fairly crackle. McDermid is a consummate plotter, so there are pleasing twists and turns in this first-rate story.”

—
The Observer
(London)

“This classy police procedural—[the] latest in a series featuring the criminal profiler Tony Hill—compels from start to finish…. A narrative of nerve-stretching immediacy…. Sharply written, suspenseful, and full of insight into the world of the criminal psychologist.”

—
The Times
(London)

“Tackled cleverly, with a well-concealed plot twist making a political point…. An accomplished performance…. This is Britain’s most successful series featuring a woman police detective.”

—
The Sunday Times
(London)

“[McDermid is] the queen of serial killers…. As a former journalist, few can scoop Val on throat-clutching narrative, but at the same time she is marvelous on the subplot details.”

—Daily Mail
(London)

“Edgy and dark as always…. I love it.”

—The Express
(London)

“This is a book that works on more than one level. It fulfills the criteria of a very good contemporary crime thriller in terms of excitement, topicality, and its sense of authenticity. But it delivers more than this: the complex and unpredictable relationship between Hill and Jordan lies at the heart of the series and is one of its greatest strengths. McDermid’s writing gets better and better.”

—The Spectator
(London)

“Val McDermid again proves herself one of Britain’s top crime authors in
Beneath the Bleeding,
a sophisticated, complex, and gripping story…. It’s a joy to follow along with Hill and Jordan…. Leave yourself lots of time for this one. I finished it at 3 a.m.”

—The Globe and Mail
(Toronto)

The Grave Tattoo

Stranded

The Distant Echo

Killing the Shadows

A Place of Execution

A Darker Domain

Tony Hill novels

The Torment of Others

The Last Temptation

The Wire in the Blood

The Mermaids Singing

Kate Brannigan novels

Star Struck

Blue Genes

Clean Break

Crack Down

Kick Back

Dead Beat

Lindsay Gordon novels

Hostage to Murder

Booked for Murder

Union Jack

Final Edition

Common Murder

Report for Murder

Nonfiction

A Suitable Job for a Woman

Cover design by Robin Bilardello

Cover photograph by Plainpicture Photography/Veer

BENEATH THE BLEEDING
. Copyright © 2009 by Val McDermid. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Adobe Digital Edition August 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-195920-2

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