9 August 2008

Progress Report: BENEATH THE BLEEDING, Val McDermid

ISIS Audio book on CD.

In Bradfield Moor Secure Hospital profiler Tony Hill has got between an inmate and the fire-axe he is threatening staff with. The result is incredible damage to Tony's knee and now he is recuperating in Bradfield Hospital.

Another patient in Bradfield Hospital is Bradfield Victoria's star midfielder, quickly dying from a poison for which there is no antidote. It is obvious he has been murdered but why?

In a way this story reminds me a bit of Josephine Tey's THE DAUGHTER OF TIME where Scotland Yard's Inspector Alan Grant, is forced to spend time laid up in a hospital, and investigates the evidence for a 500 hundred year old mystery, the disappearance of the princes in the Tower.

In BENEATH THE BLEEDING Carol Jordan brings Tony his laptop and arranges wireless access to the internet for him. So Tony spends his time tapping databases and attempting to profile the killer, and to work out whether he has struck before, and whether he will strike again.

I've been listening to this unabridged book on 14 CDs in the car to and from work, in 20 minute gobbets, over the last 3 weeks, so I'm making relatively slow process as you can see. I'm about half way through. One of the things I'm finding a bit odd is that the reader could very well be Robson Green, the actor in the Wire in the Blood TV series, but it isn't. The voice is so similar to Green's though that it makes me feel as if everything is being seen from Tony Hill's point of view, which of course it isn't. There is a slight differentiation for other characters, but for me, not quite enough.

My verdict so far: excellent reading/listening. I wish I travelled further and have taken to getting behind frequently stopping buses.

If you'd like to read the opening chapter of BENEATH THE BLEEDING, Val McDermid has it available here. At the bottom of this page you can subscribe to Val's newsletter which arrives in a rather random fashion.

3 comments:

Peter Rozovsky said...

Lots of bleeding and blood in your reading these days.

I once got between a meat-cleaver-wielding neighbor and a drunk who was threatening him, but no damage ensued to anyone.
===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

Kerrie said...

And in reality I'm quite squeamish Peter. Can't hold the cat's pat at the vet's for example. People who cut themselves in my presence have to deal with their injury themselves. So why do I like crime fiction?

Peter Rozovsky said...

Because the authors and the characters can deal with all the blood for you.
===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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