Fiona Cameron is a psychologist who consults for the police to help solve series of crimes, but she's not like "Cracker": she uses statistics to build a picture of the likely geographic areas where suspects might live, and helps identify where it might be worth looking for them. Fiona is partner to a crime novelist, Kit, and through him knows various other authors. But now there's a serial killer on the loose who seems to be targetting writers of crime fiction, and killing them in ways that match crimes committed in their own novels. Is Kit on the list? Can Fiona do anything to save him if he is?

Well, this was pretty poor. Nothing special at all here, the main effect this book had on me was to encourage me to write a crime novel, because I reckon I could do better than this. In contrast to A Place of Execution, which had quite an original and ambitious structure, this was pedestrian, a sort of painting by numbers serial killer investigation. Actually I find it hard to believe it was written by the same person. When Kit inevitably got abducted, I didn't really care because I hadn't been made to feel either for him or for Fiona.

Another McDermid book just turned up from the library so I'll listen to that but if that's no good then I won't bother with any more.

Completed : 14-Jul-2005 (audiobook)