Splinter the Silence (Tony Hill and Carol Jordan, Band 3) - Hardcover

McDermid, Val

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802124089 ISBN 13: 9780802124081

Verlag: ATLANTIC MONTHLY PR, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

“Smooth. Confident. Deeply satisfying. What else can you say about McDermid’s writing? . . . The Jordan-Hill relationship remains the star of the show . . . It’s a match made in heaven amid hell on earth.”—Entertainment Weekly (editor’s choice) on The Torment of Others

Widely recognized as one of our finest crime writers, with numerous accolades and legions of devoted readers worldwide, internationally bestselling author Val McDermid is back with the latest installment in her much beloved series featuring psychologist Tony Hill and former police detective Carol Jordan. Splinter the Silence is an adrenaline-fuelled rollercoaster guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat: a masterful novel centered on the mysterious deaths of several women who were the victims of vicious cyberbullying.

Is it violence if it’s virtual? The outspoken women targeted by the increasingly cruel internet trolls and bullies would probably say so. For some of them, the torrents of bile and vicious threats prove too much. They begin to silence themselves in a series of high-profile suicides.

Or do they? Tony Hill isn’t convinced. But he’s the only one. Former cop Carol Jordan is too busy messing up her life to care. Until she gets an unexpected second chance. Now it’s game on, and the stakes have never been higher.

Unpredictable and unputdownable, Splinter the Silence is a must-read that cements Val McDermid’s place as one of the best crime writers in the business.

“Hill and Jordan dominate as brilliantly as ever.”— Times Saturday Review (UK) on Cross and Burn

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Val McDermid is a world-class crime writer, whose best-selling novels have won the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year Award, and the Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger and Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding achievement. She is also a multiple finalist for the Edgar Award. She lives in Scotland.

Val McDermid is a world-class crime writer, whose best-selling novels have won the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year Award, and the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger and Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding achievement. She is also a multiple finalist for the Edgar Award. She lives in Scotland.

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Splinter the Silence

By Val McDermid

Grove Atlantic, Inc.

Copyright © 2015 Val McDermid
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8021-2408-1

CHAPTER 1

Weekends were best. It was easy to avoid working then. So it was easier to watch the women he was interested in. Mostly they didn't go to work then either, so he had a chance to observe their routines and work out the best way to kill them.

He was good at watching. His teachers and later his employers had always commented on his attention to detail. How he would never attempt a project until he'd weighed up the risks and the possibilities. The first time he'd killed, he reckoned he'd still been in a state of shock, but even then he'd been able to make a plan and stick to it. Afterwards, he'd understood that act had opened a door to a mission. Now, his mission had assumed central importance in his life.

Like today. He hadn't quite made his mind up who was going to be next. He had a couple of names on his mental list and he knew how he wanted to kill the chosen one. It was mostly a matter of figuring out whether the logistics would work. When you were planning on hanging someone, you had to be sure there was something to hang them from. And he was in no hurry. The latest one remained fresh in his mind, a source of deep satisfaction. Perfectly executed.

This one, though ... she ticked all the boxes. But he wasn't going to be rushed into making a final decision. Not like the first time he'd gone out into the wild, as he liked to think of it. Sitting here now, watching a house where nothing was happening, it was thrilling to summon up the memory. Exciting but unnerving too. So many ways it could have gone wrong.

She'd been alone. It was so unexpected, he'd forgotten how to walk and tripped over his feet. He grazed his knuckles against the brick wall, a rash of blood spotting the skin. He couldn't quite believe it, but she really was alone. No minder, no driver, no PA, none of the chattering bitches she used to get her validation from. Just her, jogging down the five steps from her front door to the narrow sweep of gravel that divided her unfairly lovely home from the street where the likes of him were exiled. He half-expected the door to open again, one or more of her retinue to come blundering after her, running to catch up before she reached the gate.

But no. There was nobody. Only her.

He looked around wildly, his usual determination to blend in with the streetscape torn into confetti and scattered on the diesel breeze stirring the city air. But nobody was paying a blind bit of attention. Late afternoon in North London; nobody was paying any heed to anyone or anything outside their own tight little knot of concern, least of all to her. It wasn't as if she was recognisable beyond the Twitterati. To the average person in the street, she was simply another North London thirty something. Designer jeans and a fashion hoodie hugging her unexceptional frame rather than hiding it, that year's must-have leather satchel slung across one hip, multi-shaded blonde dye job caught back in a loose ponytail. Hardly worth a first glance, never mind a second one. Hard to believe anybody had ever taken any notice of anything she'd said or done.

Oblivious to his confusion, she opened the heavy iron gate with the gothic creak he'd grown familiar with lately. She closed it carefully behind herself and started walking.

He couldn't quite believe it was happening. For three weeks, he'd been keeping tabs on her whenever he could manage it. And she never ever ventured out alone. Running scared, he'd decided. Not scared enough to shut up, but scared enough to make sure there was always somebody around to watch her back.

After the things they'd said to her the night before, she should have been hiding under the duvet, cowed into submission. Not striding along the pavement acting like she was the one with the moral high ground instead of acknowledging the truth – that she was a destructive, disruptive, dangerous bitch who deserved everything that was coming to her.

He'd not planned on dealing with her today. He hadn't been expecting so golden an opportunity. But he wasn't going to let it slip away. Who knew when he'd get another chance like that? And it wasn't like he hadn't worked it all out in his head a hundred times, testing every element of the plan for weak points and figuring out how to overcome them.

'Get a grip,' he chided himself under his breath, falling into step behind her, a few metres and a couple of teenage girls between them. He knew it could be a long while till he got her alone again. 'Get a grip.'

Taking her off the street had been a lot easier than he'd expected. Women like her – middle class, secure in their status, used to the world running the way they wanted – had a false sense of safety. They trusted people until someone gave them good reason not to. She'd trusted him, because he made himself look and sound like all the other pathetic guys who let their women run the show – whipped into line and made into some bitch's gutless slave.

He'd done his research. He knew the names that would make his bullshit credible. She'd believed the tale he'd spun about her radio station needing her in the studio to cover for a sick colleague. She'd got in the car without a murmur. And then he'd shown her the photos on his phone.

He'd been proud of that. He knew how to plot, how to plan, how to prepare. Her daughter, doing a foundation course at film school, had been laughably easy. He'd pretended to be a photographer doing a project about hostages and protest. He'd got three of them involved, so he didn't look like a pervert singling out one girl in particular. Then he'd mocked up a series of shots of them apparently being held prisoner and tortured. And now he had a series of carefully edited shots on his phone that provided perfect leverage.

As soon as he showed her the first shot, she had frozen to stillness. A whimper from behind her closed lips. She'd pulled herself together and said, voice wobbling through an octave or more, 'What do you want?'

'It's more about what you want. You want your daughter to come out of this alive, don't you?'

'That's a stupid question,' she said, a flare of anger lighting up her face.

He wasn't having any of that. He took his left hand off the gearstick and backhanded her hard across the face. She cried out and shrank away from him. 'Don't make me call her babysitter. You won't like what happens to Madison if I have to do that.' He snorted. 'Madison. What kind of fucking name is that? We don't have any limits. We'll cut her, we'll rape her, we'll leave her so nobody will ever want to touch her again. Except out of pity. So do what the fuck you're told.'

Her eyes widened and her mouth formed an anguished O. He had to admit, there was real pleasure in seeing her pay the price for her bitching and whining and moaning. She'd called men like him misogynists. That was the opposite of what they were. Men like him, they loved women. They understood the kind of life that suited women best. They knew what women really wanted. Proper women didn't want to be out there in the world, having to shout the odds all the time. They wanted to build homes, take care of families, make their mark and exercise their power inside the home. Being women, not fake men.

After that, it had been easy. Back to hers after the staff had gone home. Into the garage. Wrist cuffed to the armrest to make it look like she was determined not to change her mind. Hose from the exhaust into the car. The book on the seat beside her, a reminder to himself of the roots of what he...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: ATLANTIC MONTHLY PR
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0802124089
• ISBN 13: 9780802124081
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 416
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar