Showing 1-4 out of 4 reviews.

• Wow...Val McDermid's latest book, The Retribution, was literally a non-stop read for me. Picked it up in the morning and finished late that night.Now, I don't know if you're familiar with this fantastic Scottish author, but if you love crime novels, she's an author you want to read. She has written three series, but my favourites are the Tony Hill/Carol Jordan books. A television series - Wire in the Blood - is also based on these characters.In The Retribution, Hill, a psychological profiler and Jordan, a Detective Inspector with the MIT - major incident team - are stunned to learn that Jacko Vance, a charismatic serial killer they imprisoned, has escaped. Jacko - "killer of seventeen teenage girls, murderer of a serving police officer and a man once voted the sexiest man on British TV", promised he would seek retribution against those who put him away. At the same time, the MIT is working to solve the gruesome murders of local prostitutes. All this while the higher ups have decided to dismantle the crack team Carol has put together, due to budget constraints.These two characters have always fascinated me. Neither one of them completely 'fits' into society, especially Tony. "When he interviewed the psychopaths that became his patients, he heard so many echoes of his own empty childhood. It was, he thought, the reason he was so good at what he did. He understood them because he had come within a hair's breadth of being them." The tenuous building of the relationship between Carol and Tony has been building over the course of the series. We get to know more of what makes Tony tick in this offering. My opinion of Carol changes from book to book - still no final opinion. The MIT team is filled with interesting support characters with their own stories.Vance is a diabolical character. We are privy to his plans and thoughts and they are truly disturbing. The second case involving the prostitutes was good but had a bit of a 'filler' feel to it. That being said, McDermid's plotlines are always ingenious, complex and gritty. I was caught a bit off guard by the ending of the book, but then again, I like it when an author can keep me on my toes.Definitely recommended.

  5.00 out of 5

  Twink

• In The Retribution , Jacko Vance, who had murdered 17 teenaged girls in an earlier book, has broken out of prison and is seeking retribution against the people who put him there. His main targets are psychologist and profiler Tony Hill and Carol Jordan, who led the police unit who captured Vance. Tony and Carol are two damaged souls who have a long-standing but troubled relationship.At the same time that the team are trying to recapture Vance, they are investigating a string of prostitute murders. Each murder is different but the killer marks each victim with the word 'mine'.Overall, although I am not a huge fan of thrillers, I enjoyed The Retribution. I have only two criticisms: I would have liked a little more story about the prostitute murders as it got somewhat shortchanged against the Vance narrative and, second, the end of both plots seemed a bit rushed and, in the case of Vance, it seemed to come, well, a little out of left field.Still, I would highly recommend this book to fans of McDermid and to readers of mysteries and thrillers in general. Author McDermid is a real wordsmith and knows how to keep a plot moving while introducing new characters and storylines. If you have never read any of the other books in the series (this is the seventh), don't worry, even though The Retribution revives an old villain, it can be read as a standalone.

  4.00 out of 5

  lostinalibrary

• Val McDermid is the mother of the British serial killer novel. These are not American serial killers with the typical plot, Mr. Big Handsome and Damaged Sherriff/Police Officer driving around in fast cars to save the heroine at the last minute with everyone scarred, but deeper for their experience. Not even close.Val McDermid can write and has a bountiful imagination. She writes fully fleshed characters, including evildoers who do evil that you wouldn't imagine in your wildest nightmares. Her stand-alones are excellent, as are her series, my favorite of which are the Tony and Carol Jordan books. Beginning with The Mermaids Singing, there are seven in the series. My favorite is The Wire in the Blood (which is also a pretty good British TV series), but they're all excellent.These books will shock you to your core, will keep you up reading late, and might give you nightmares.The Retribution is the latest in the Tony Hill/Carol Jordan series and it is well worth the read. Everything between everyone in the series has gained a deep level of complexity and the return of one of McDermid's scariest villains - Jacko Vance - makes for a whopping good read. If you haven't read the series and you love this kind of fiction, I highly recommend you start at the beginning and work your way through - you won't regret it. If you're already a fan, this one won't disappoint.As a sidenote for anyone interested in reading LGBT books, Ms. McDermid is an out lesbian and treats things like sexual preference as normal within the working environment. Shocking, no? It just makes me love her more.

  4.00 out of 5

  kraaivrouw

• I’ve read more of Val McDermids Kate Brannigan series than this series featuring Tony Hill and Carol Jordan but I have also watched a dozen episodes of Wire in The Blood which is based on the pair and it is the book of the same name that first introduces the terrifying killer who is seeking revenge in The Retribution.Jacko Vance, celebrity and hero was incarcerated for just a single murder of a teenage girl despite the police being convinced he was responsible for at least seventeen, as well as the brutal killing of a colleague who got too close. For the last ten years Jacko has focused his considerable resources of intelligence, patience and money, towards escaping jail and making everyone responsible pay before fleeing the country. His escape leaves clinical psychologist, Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan, who have just managed to find some sort of equilibrium in their difficult lives, reeling, especially when it becomes obvious Vance isn’t targeting them directly, but the ones they love.The Retribution is a gritty crime novel that delves into the darkness of human nature. While the main plot involves the sadistic behaviour of Vance and the desperate desire to recapture him, DCI Jordan’s team is also searching for a serial killer murdering young street prostitutes – a last case before the Major Incident Team is disbanded due to budget cuts. McDermid doesn’t spare us the details of the depravity committed by these two very different killers but it is the psychological tension that is so engrossing.The murdered prostitutes are slow to be linked, changes in the method used by the killer confusing the team until the manner of deaths are attributed to a cancelled television show.Vance is playing a cat and mouse game with Carol, Tony and Vance’s ex wife, wounding them in ways certain to inflict psychological suffering. That his brilliant plan is eventually thwarted can be no surprise, but exactly who takes down Vance and how is a twist you won’t see coming.McDermid’s protagonists, Hill and Jordan, are almost as tortured and flawed as the criminals they hunt. Their relationship is complicated, both carry unimaginable burdens that they have struggled to share. Vance shatters their fragile connection and for fans of the series this might be a blow.Though the seventh of the series, The Retribution can be read as a stand alone but readers would benefit from having gotten to know the characters in previous books. The Retribution is a page turning psychological thriller with plenty of twists and turns by Scottish author, Val McDermid.

  4.00 out of 5

  shelleyraec

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