Insidious Intent by Val McDermid

Insidious Intent by Val McDermid is the 10th and penultimate Tony Hill and Carol Jordan novel. Published in 2017, it is the sequel to Splinter the Silence and the action follows on immediately from its predecessor.

In Insidious Intent, DCI Carol Jordan’s new regional team – ReMIT – has its first proper case. But the mistake she made previously still haunts her and she is waiting for it to come out and end her career…

A woman is found dead in a burning car. But it turns out it wasn’t just a tragic accident. And she is only the first victim of a killer who makes no mistakes. Without forensic evidence or information from ANPR, how will the team track down the murderer before more women die?

Carol is under pressure from above to solve the case and Dr Tony Hill feels powerless to help her. Will they go too far this time in their pursuit of justice?

Meanwhile, the rest of the team have their own problems to deal with. Something is bothering Torin (the teenage boy DS Paula McIntyre is bringing up following the action in Cross and Burn) and she is determined to get to the bottom of it, using whatever means necessary. And DC Stacey Chen has got her own back on her former boyfriend in a way that only Stacey can…

Insidious Intent is a real page turner with a brilliant twist at the end. I couldn’t put it down. It is a return to form for Tony and Carol after what was, for me, the most disappointing book of the series – Splinter the Silence. 

I’ve only got one Tony and Carol book left to read now – How the Dead Speak. I tend to read them consecutively in pairs, but I’ve decided to wait a bit before reading it. I will be very disappointed to get to the end of the series.

Since I went along to see Val McDermid at Cheltenham Literature Festival in October 2023 because my friend had a spare ticket, I’ve read the complete Karen Pirie series, both Allie Burns (‘the nines’) novels, one standalone novel – Trick of the Dark – and now nearly the entire Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series. If you like a detective story and you don’t mind a bit of gore, I can’t recommend Val McDermid highly enough!