I don't always have the strongest stomach for this level of violence but the author got so far under the skin of this character that it felt oddly appropriate. The book intersperses the serial murder case and the burgeoning relationship between Carol Jordan and Tony Hill with excerpts from the murderer's diary.

It is most certainly graphic - harder to read than to watch - and I don't remember the TV series stilting on the violence. I loved the characters in the TV series and wasn't disappointed by the book. Secondly, I had watched the Wire in the Blood series and really enjoyed it but I'm always wary of trying the book after the TV/movie version. It hadn't put me off completely but I'd been surprised, as everyone seemed to rate this author so highly. The first Val McDermid book I tried - Conferences are Murder - felt dry and stilted.

'I approached this book a little nervously for several reasons. As Hill confronts his own hidden demons, he must also come face-to-face with an evil so profound he may not have the courage or the power to stop it. Hill’s own past has made him the perfect man to comprehend the killer’s motives-but it has also made him the perfect victim. But profiling the psychopath is not beyond him. Even for a seasoned professional, the series of mutilation sex murders is unlike anything he’s encountered before. Enlisted to investigate is criminal psychologist Tony Hill. The bodies of four men have been discovered in the town of Bradfield.

The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid