The Retribution

South Florida Sun-Sentinel Best Crime Novels of 2012

The new thriller from internationally best-selling author Val McDermid pits the best crime-fighting team in the UK—detective Carol Jordan and profiler Tony Hill—against a master criminal with a very personal grudge and a perfect plan.

Val McDermid is a world-class crime writer whose books have sold millions of copies worldwide, making her a household name. Now joining the Atlantic Monthly Press list for the first time, she arrives with a chilling, high-velocity thriller featuring her immensely popular characters, Dr. Tony Hill and Carol Jordan.

Clinical psychologist Tony Hill has had a good run. He and police detective Carol Jordan have put away scores of dangerous criminals and have a clearance rate that colleagues envy or resent. But there is one serial killer who has shaped and defined their careers, a person whose evil surpasses all others: Jacko Vance, an ex-celebrity and sociopath whose brilliance and utter lack of remorse have never left Tony’s mind in the ten years Vance has been locked up. Now Jacko has broken out of prison and, with a mind even more twisted and cunning than before, he is focused on wreaking revenge on Tony and Carol for the years he has spent in prison. They don’t know when Jacko will strike, or where. All they know is that he will cause them to feel fear like they’ve never known.

A chilling, utterly gripping tour de force, The Retribution is the ideal introduction or reintroduction to the world of Tony Hill and Carol Jordan. It is an unforgettable read.

“Superb. … The emotional wedge that the sadistic Jacko is able to drive between Tony and Carol makes this one of McDermid’s strongest efforts.”—Publishers Weekly