Val McDermid grew up in a Scottish mining community then read English at Oxford. She was a journalist for sixteen years, spending the last three years as Northern Bureau Chief of a national Sunday tabloid. Now a full-time writer, she divides her time between Cheshire and Northumberland.

Her novels have won international acclaim and a number of prestigious awards, including the Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year, the Anthony Award for best novel, and the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year Award. Her thriller series featuring criminal profiler, Tony Hill, has now been adapted for television under the generic title Wire in the Blood and stars Robson Green and Hermione Norris.

By the Same Author

By the Same Author

A Place of Execution
Killing the Shadows
The Distant Echo
The Grave Tattoo

TONY HILL NOVELS
The Wire in the Blood
The Mermaids Singing
The Torment of Others

KATE BRANNIGAN NOVELS
Star Struck
Blue Genes
Clean Break
Crack Down
Kick Back
Dead Beat

LINDSAY GORDON NOVELS
Booked for Murder
Union Jack
Final Edition
Common Murder
Report for Murder

NON-FICTION
A Suitable Job for a Woman

Copyright

Copyright

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

HarperCollins Publishers
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First published in Great Britain by
HarperCollins Publishers in 2002

Copyright © Val McDermid 2002

Val McDermid asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

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EPub Edition © 2002 ISBN: 9780007327621

About the Publisher

About the Publisher