I know it is a weekday and I normally update this blog on a Sunday (or try to anyway) but I decided that today is D-Day, or should I say B-Day. I caught myself looking at my stack of books to be reviewed and found that I struggled to remember the plot of a few so I thought it would be about time to get on with it. so with a bit of Queen in the background we are off.... Wish me luck.
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Beneath the Bleeding - Val McDermid
This was my first one by this author and I have to say I really enjoyed it.
Although the characters are all obviously very used to working with one another and are a very well established group they do not feel like strangers. It is not that McDermid introduces each one of them separately but you get enough background of each person's character to give you an idea of who they are and f how they may act and react. They seem like a varied group of people. Perhaps they are somewhat stereotypes but hey... they are written well enough and given enough depth so they are interesting and I want to know more about them. We have the dogged cop, the young upstart and selfish cop, the promise for the future cop, the IT wizz kid, the grafters and the leader (Carol Jordan - fallible and human). As I said, they work together well they feel like a unit. Then we also have Tony Hill who is the one who tries to get into the bad guys' heads. He seems like a nice enough guy; clever, insightful, perhaps too close to some of the team but not so it impedes on the job he has to do. He has his issues with his mum that are played out in this book but they are in the background and only really serve to shape who he is and not to bring him to the foreground more than the other characters or to get in the way of the stories that are played out in this book. I have to say that as Tony gets attacked by an axe wielding nutcase at the start of the book this is quite an accomplishment. Him being in hospital for all of the book does not really interfere with the story or the speed at which the stories pace along.
I say stories because with this one you do get two-for-the-price-of-one. First of all someone is taking out people the old fashioned way - with poison. Apparently for no obvious reason but in the end the team figure out it is all linked to how people deal with their own failure in life.
It all starts when a young promising footballer dies from a mysterious disease and turns out to have been poisoned. After some false starts, some digging and some creative thinking by Tony, the team end up on the trail of the killer. The killer is a sophisticated person who has chosen poisons as his method of killing. A nice way to kill as it gives you time to get away and it sets you apart from the other random violent killers. There is a little twist in the tale as it turns out that one of the men in the team is on the hit list and it is not until it is almost too late that you or the team realise what is going on. I like this development as it not only makes you care for the team but makes you want the story to move on quickly as well, it keeps you reading. In the end our killer does not get to finish his wish list but it feels like McDermid could easily have written the remainder of the kills as well. When there is an explosion at the football stadium that the first murder victim played there is a brief period when the main plot and subplot seem to be linked but this entanglement does not last long and you realise that you do have two plots for the price of one! Tony puts them on the right trail soon enough and we get on with the development of the sub plot.
I have to say that the sub plot is as good as the main story. It serves not only as a red herring to the main plot but the whole thing is set up to have a whole big red herring of its own. In these times of potential terrorism plots, suspicions and bias against certain groups in society it is a interesting storyline. It leads you up one garden path only to make you walk down another. It challenges your own opinions and prejudices. It is one where things are not always what they seem. The way it gets resolved is rather nice but I do not want to give too much away. Just to say that perhaps the motives for the person to do what they do in the sub plot are more gruesome than those provided by our killer in the main story. Revenge may be sweet but betrayal is usually not far behind.
The only bit that to me was a bit of a waste of effort was bringing in the "big guns" when there is a bombing in the football stadium. I understand that perhaps McDermid wanted a bit more action or to create more sympathy for our team but to set up a David and Goliath scenario is not really that relevant to the story. There is nothing in what happens with the big Counter Terrorism boys that could not have come out in another way but I guess it serves as a bit of a distraction and allows McDermid to make the point on how valid their methods are and how far their power reaches and if it should. Point noted.
So, any good? Yes, definitely. good characters, well written, well paced, interesting crime committed. This being my first McDermid I have to say that I am definitely going to add her to the list of authors I want to read more of.
Title - Beneath the Bleeding
Author - Val McDermid
484 pages
Harper
ISBN #978-0-00-724328-0
Books to be read: 155
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