Fever of the Bone by Val McDermid
Fever of the Bone is the sixth Tony Hill and Carol Jordan novel by Val McDermid. It is the sequel to Beneath the Bleeding and was first published in 2009.
DCI Carol Jordan has a new boss and he’s not sure if he wants her Major Incident Team any more. He gives them three months to prove themselves before the team members get absorbed back into CID. And he’s not paying for the specialised services of Dr Tony Hill. They can use a home-grown psychological profiler from within the police.
But Tony is called on by West Mercia police to help with the case of a murdered teenage girl in Worcester. He has his own reasons for going to Worcester anyway, so it works out well for him.
Meanwhile, two teenage boys have been abducted and murdered in quick succession on Carol’s patch in Bradfield. The only connection seems to be that they’ve been chatting to strangers online about their hobbies and ambitions, before being lured to their deaths. The police profiler is no help. Can Carol and her team work out the connection between the teenagers and who is murdering them before someone else gets killed?
Like all Val McDermid novels, Fever of the Bone is a real page turner. I didn’t want to put it down. The blurb on the back describes it as the perfect introduction to Tony and Carol and I would agree! The previous two novels – The Torment of Others and Beneath the Bleeding – work well as a pair. There are small mentions of previous cases in Fever of the Bone, but it isn’t necessary to have read the whole series beforehand.
From a personal point of view, I liked that it was partly set in Worcester. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book set in Worcester before. Worcester isn’t too far from us. I’ve run the half marathon there twice, run both the parkruns there, bought my daughter’s pointe shoes from there and my son was doing one of his hospital placements for his degree there!
If you enjoy a detective novel with lots of twists and turns (and you don’t mind them being gory and upsetting – this isn’t cosy crime), you will love Fever of the Bone.
Sounds interesting, and I do love a good mystery, but I usually pass on anything gory or truly creepy, so probably this isn’t a series for me. Visiting from bookworms monthly
Probably best avoided in that case! This series is particularly gory. Her Karen Pirie series is a bit less gory.
I like it when sequels don’t actually have to be read in order but offer nods and have the same characters. Terry Pratchett was a genius at this.
It’s definitely a good skill for a writer to have! This is possibly the only series I’ve read completely in order. I read the Rebus series out of order, as well as the Jo Nesbo Harry Hole books. Even Val McDermid’s other series – Karen Pirie – I didn’t read in order.