The Mermaids Singing

⚖The case for it

Clinical psychologist Carol Jordan and detective Tony Hill investigate serial killings of men in a northern English city. McDermid created something new: forensic psychological profiling as literary subject, the criminal mind rendered with genuine psychiatric depth. The Hill/Jordan series launched the British psychological thriller renaissance of the 1990s. Gold Dagger winner, 1995.

— the canon

✕The case against

McDermid's killer chapters linger over medieval torture devices with a relish the plot never requires, and the climactic reveal leans on the deranged trans killer trope, which has aged about as badly as a twist can age. Tony Hill's profiling carries a scientific authority the real discipline never earned. You will admire the machinery and wince at what it was built to display.

— the honest librarian