Book Review: Cross And Burn By Val McDermid

                 Cross and Burn

By Val McDermid

If, like me, you are an avid fan of Val McDermid’s Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series, you will no doubt have formed a strong emotional bond with the characters and their relationship.  At the outset of her previous Hill/Jordan novel, The Retribution, it seemed that the pair finally found common ground, only for that fragile glimmer of hope to be extinguished by the end of the book.  McDermid skilfully threw all the familiar things that constituted the series up in the air and who knew where they would land.

Val McDermid

Well finally, in Cross and Burn, McDermid’s new Hill/Jordan novel we find out.  Tony has miraculously navigated his way through the canals with his houseboat and is back in Bradfield in his old job.  A mourning Carol has disappeared to the place you’d least expect to find her and is toiling her way rough her grief.  Paula, working as DS for a boss completely unlike Carol, is tasked with catching a serial killer targeting women bearing a marked similarity to Carol.  When evidence links the women to Tony, he finds himself in a precarious position.

With the change in dynamics between the characters, McDermid has opened up a whole new set of exciting possibilities for the series.

Cross And Burn is, as we’ve come to expect, up to the usual McDermid standard.  It’s a bit like chocolate in fact…. Moreish.

You can buy Cross and Burn  on Amazon: PB £4  Kindle £7.60

Also an interesting one to look out for !!! -  Some authors have been asked to rewrite the Jane Austin Classics with a modern slant.  Val McDermid has taken on Northanger Abbey and her version is due out in March.