Review: INSIDIOUS INTENT, Val McDermid

• 
  this edition from my local library
  
• published by Little Brown 2017
• ISBN 978-1-4087-1476-8
• 419 pages 
• Tony Hill & Carol Jordan #10
  

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

In the north of England, single women are beginning to disappear from weddings. A pattern soon becomes clear: Someone is crashing the festivities and luring the women away—only to leave the victims’ bodies in their own burned-out cars in remote locations. Psychologist Tony Hill and former police detective Carol Jordan are called upon to investigate—but this may be the toughest case they’ve ever had to face. Meanwhile, Detective Sergeant Paula McIntyre and her partner Elinor must deal with a cruel cyber-blackmailer targeting their teenage ward.

Impeccably plotted and intensely gripping, Insidious Intent comes from Val McDermid, Diamond Dagger Award winner, multiple Edgar Award nominee, and “one of crime fiction’s most eminent writers” (Entertainment Weekly).

My Take

Carol Jordan has taken over a new regional squad ReMIT designed to take on the burden of very difficult cases and that's what they are doing with case of the corpse in a burnt out car, then comes a second one. But there are those jealous of Carol's appointment, and also at least one detective resentful that he wasn't asked to join her squad. Carol's managers are annoyed at the resources ReMIT seems to require. In addition a journalist is muck raking, looking at a case where Carol was breathalysed and then the machine was declared faulty. Carol herself is finding the case demanding and stressful, exacerbated by her self-imposed alcohol ban.

An enjoyable read. Highly recommended.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read

• BENEATH THE BLEEDING
• 4.8, THE SKELETON ROAD
• 4.8, OUT OF BOUNDS
• 4.7, 1979