Comment

Feb 10, 2018Gentowl rated this title 1.5 out of 5 stars
The next book in the Tony Hill series will prove if this one was a colossal mistake. The book before this ratcheted up the emotional quotient for our protagonists, Tony and Carol, to shocking levels. This book takes it to an extreme and unbelievable end. Without giving anything away, I wonder what McDermid thinks she is doing or what she's trying to achieve. I've read the entire series and noticed that the writing style -- once convoluted, rich, and dense -- has given way to a far simpler prose closer in style to the bad B novels McDermid also writes. The plotting has also gotten plainer and less convincing. Is McDermid even trying anymore? Or is she as bored with the characters in this series as she seems to be, in which case, she should just end it here. In "Insidious Intent," a title that makes me think of cheap pulp fiction, the killer is smart and engaging and there is some interest in the procedures the new regional team follows. But Carol, one of the two main characters and past heroes, is sidelined and grotesquely simplified. Instead, Paula McIntyre, her private life, and Tony Hill get the spotlight. Paula is a far more sympathetic and levelheaded character but she also succumbs to ridiculous and grossly illegal behavior in a situation involving her son. Stacey, who helps Paula sort out her son's issue, is over-the-top in the illegal things she does both to an ex-boyfriend and for Paula. From this story, none of the main characters should be in the police business. Their private lives are even more heinous as McDermid turns Tony and Carol's relationship into a mortally dysfunctional disaster that also makes no sense as what happens at the end could easily have had the opposite effect. Tip for reading this book: You can save a lot of time and miss nothing by skipping all the short chapters covering the victims' points of view and all the short chapters covering the killer's point of view except the first one. They add nothing to the story.