The torment of others (2004)

Carol Jordan's team faces murders that appear to reproduce crimes for which a man is already confined. The investigation splits between clinical psychologist Tony Hill's enquiries and police operations, making coordination and the risks of a chosen tactic part of the story. McDermid offers pace, pressure and a distinctly fallible organisation. This is a very graphic serial-killer thriller, including sexual violence; its profiler-led machinery is a dramatic convention, not a promise of documentary procedure.