Val McDermid first introduced her massive readership to Tony Hill and Carol Jordan in 1995 with the publication of The Mermaids Singing, which went on to become an international bestseller. Fever of the Bone is the sixth novel in the series and promises to be the most compulsive and gripping to date. In Fever of the Bone, Val introduces Tony Hill's most twisted adversary to date -- a killer with a shopping list of victims, a killer unmoved by youth and innocence, a killer driven by the most perverted of desires. The murder and mutilation of teenager Jennifer Maidment is horrific enough on its own. But it's not long before Tony realizes it's just the start of a brutal and ruthless campaign to target an apparently unconnected group of young people. Struggling with the newly awakened ghosts of his own past and desperate for distraction in his work, Tony battles to find the answers that will give him personal and professional satisfaction in his most testing investigation yet.