The Retribution

Val McDermid

Average Rating 7/10 (1 Review)

There is one serial killer who has shaped and defined police profiler Tony Hill's life. One serial killer whose evil surpasses all others. One serial killer who has the power to chill him to the bone: Jacko Vance.

And now Jacko is back in Tony's life. Even more twisted and cunning than ever before, he is focused on wreaking revenge on Tony - and DCI Carol Jordan - for the years he has spent in prison.

Tony doesn't know when Jacko will strike, or where. All he knows is that Jacko will cause him to feel fear like he has never known before - and devastate his life in ways he cannot imagine...

'To write one brilliant book is hard. To write 25 is a miracle... flawless and superb.'

'It's perhaps fitting that for McDermid's 25th novel she's revisited her most thrillingly murderous creation, Jacko Vance.'

Review by Ben Macnair (301116) Rating (7/10)

Review by Ben Macnair
Book Source: Not Known
Rating 7/10
Throughout her career, Val McDermid has gained a reputation as a writer of the highest quality, her writing having a razor like sharpness, forensic exactness, and as well as the victims within her books, she also gives her police force and detectives a hard time. Detective Tony Hill and Detective Chief Inspector Cathy Jordan are re-united in a tale that pits them against one of the most notorious, and chilling serial killers that either one of them has ever dealt with, Jacko Vance.

Unlike Ian Rankin, whose Inspector Rebus and Ger Cafferty gain a grudging respect, despite working on the other side of the law, the relationship between long suffering detective Tony Hill and his team and Jacko Vance, the fallen, former television personality is anything but collegiate.

Tony Hill has many problems, but the spectre of Jacko Vance is one of the biggest, and now that he has served time for his crimes, his next intended victim is Tony Hill, and as an extension of that DCI Cathy Jordan is also under threat.

The twisting narrative of the story, the humanity of the police team, and the sheer evil that Vance now personifies are all very well drawn within this complex novel. The depth of Vance’s depravity, and his ability to go depths that most people could not even comprehend is comprehensively drawn, with each jarring turn of events having its own forward momentum.

The Retribution is Val McDermid’s twenty fifth book, and although she has never been the easiest of readers, in terms of characterisation, and subject matter, this is one novel, and one character, who although fictional, at times seems far to real.
Ben Macnair (30th November 2016)