Val McDermid has 32 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 22 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.2★ across 114 ratings. The most-rated is Forensics.
Forensics
Summary
The dead talk - to the right listener. They can tell us all about themselves: where they came from, how they lived, how they died, and, of course, who killed them. Forensic scientists can unlock the mysteries of the past and help serve justice using the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene, or the faintest of human traces. Forensics draws on interviews with some of these top-level professionals, groundbreaking research, and Val McDermid's own original interviews and firsthand experience on scene with top forensic scientists. Along the way McDermid discovers how maggots collected from a corpse can help determine one's time of death; how a DNA trace a millionth the size of a grain of salt can be used to convict a killer; and how a team of young Argentine scientists led by a maverick American anthropologist were able to uncover the victims of a genocide. It's a journey that will take McDermid to war zones, fire scenes, and autopsy suites and bring her into contact with both extraordinary bravery and wickedness as she traces the history of forensics from its earliest beginnings to the cutting-edge science of the modern day.
©2015 Val McDermid (P)2015 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
The Mermaids Singing
Summary
The bodies of four men have been discovered in the town of Bradfield. Enlisted to investigate is criminal psychologist Tony Hill. Even for a seasoned professional, the series of mutilation sex murders is unlike anything he's encountered before. But profiling the psychopath is not beyond him. Hill's own past has made him the perfect man to comprehend the killer's motives. It's also made him the perfect victim. A game has begun for the hunter and the hunted. But as Hill confronts his own hidden demons, he must also come face-to-face with an evil so profound he may not have the courage - or the power - to stop it....
©1995 Val McDermid (P)1996 ISIS Publishing Ltd.
How the Dead Speak
Summary
After an explosive case that forced Tony Hill and Carol Jordan to reassess everything they thought they knew about right and wrong, both are dealing with the fallout in their own separate ways. While Tony must pay the price for his actions, Carol is conducting investigations into suspected miscarriages of justice. But when a shocking discovery is made on a construction site, and skeletal remains are found to belong to a killer who is supposedly alive and in prison, suddenly, Tony and Carol are brought into each other's orbit once again.... The next eagerly anticipated, electrifying thriller from number-one best seller and queen of crime, Val McDermid, featuring the unforgettable Tony Hill and Carol Jordan.
©2019 Val McDermid (P)2019 W. F. Howes Ltd
Dead Beat
Summary
Dead Beat introduces Kate Brannigan, a Thai-boxing, rock-and-roll female private detective from Manchester. As a favor to her rock journalist boyfriend, Kate agrees to track down a missing song-writer Moira Pollock, a search that takes her into some of the seediest parts of Leeds and Bradford. But little does she realize that finding Moira is only a prelude to murder. Juggling her other cases, including a search to uncover the source of counterfeit luxury goods, Brannigan finds herself for the first time on the trail of a killer.
©1992 Val McDermid (P)2019 W.F. Howes Ltd.
Insidious Intent
Summary
Widely recognized as one of our finest crime writers, with numerous accolades and legions of devoted fans worldwide, internationally best-selling author Val McDermid is back with the latest installment in her series featuring psychologist Tony Hill and former police detective Carol Jordan. In Insidious Intent, Tony and Carol are on the hunt for a serial killer who victimizes women at weddings without a date - and forces the duo to confront their most haunting moral dilemma so far. In the north of England, single women are beginning to disappear from weddings. A pattern soon becomes clear: Someone is crashing the festivities and luring the women away - only to leave the victims' bodies in their own burned-out cars in remote locations. Tony and Carol are called upon to investigate - but this may be the toughest case they've ever had to face. Meanwhile, Detective Sergeant Paula McIntyre and her partner Elinor must deal with a cruel cyber-blackmailer targeting their teenage ward, Torin. Impeccably plotted and intensely gripping, Insidious Intent reaffirms Val McDermid's place as Britain's reigning Queen of Crime.
©2017 Val McDermid (P)2017 Recorded Books
Still Life
Summary
Hailed as the UK's Queen of Crime, Val McDermid is the award-winning, internationally best-selling author of more than 30 novels and one of the best crime writers working today. With Still Life, McDermid returns to her propulsive series featuring cold-case Detective Karen Pirie, who finds herself investigating the shadowy world of forgery, where things are never what they seem. When a lobster fisherman on an early morning run pulls in his traps, he finds something he wasn't expecting to catch - a body. When police discover the dead man was the brother of a senior Scottish government official who vanished without a trace, Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie takes over the investigation. At the same time, a woman in the wealthy enclave of Perth is clearing out her sister's home after a fatal road accident and finds a mysterious camper van in the garage containing a skeletonized body. But who is it? And how long has it been there? The two cases will draw DCI Pirie into the world of imposters, identity theft, and art forgery. Meanwhile, the man responsible for the death of the love of Karen's life is being released from prison, just as Karen was getting back on her feet. Intensely gripping from the first moment, Still Life is further proof that McDermid is writing at the top of her game. Longtime fans and new listeners alike will find it hard to pause this tightly plotted thriller.
©2020 Val McDermid (P)2020 Recorded Books
Broken Ground
Summary
Internationally best-selling author Val McDermid is one of our finest crime writers, and her gripping, masterfully plotted novels have garnered millions of readers from around the globe. In Broken Ground, cold-case Detective Karen Pirie faces her hardest challenge yet. Six feet under in a Highland peat bog lies Alice Somerville’s inheritance, buried by her grandfather at the end of World War II. But when Alice finally uncovers it, she finds an unwanted surprise - a body with a bullet hole between the eyes. Meanwhile, DCI Pirie is called in to unravel a case where nothing is quite as it seems. And as she gets closer to the truth, it becomes clear that not everyone shares her desire for justice. Or even the idea of what justice is. An engrossing, twisty thriller, Broken Ground reaffirms Val McDermid’s place as one of the best crime writers of her generation.
©2018 Val McDermid (P)2018 WF Howes
The Wire in the Blood
Summary
Across the country, dozens of teenage girls have vanished. It's the job of criminal profilers Dr. Tony Hill and Carol Jordan to look for a pattern. They've spent years exploring the psyches of madmen. But sane men kill, too. And when they hide in plain sight, they can be difficult to find. He's handsome and talented, rich and famous - a notorious charmer with the power to seduce... and the will to destroy. No one can fathom what he's about to do next - until one of Hill's students is murdered. Now, of all the killers Hill and Jordan have hunted, none has been so ruthless, so terrifyingly clever, and so brilliantly elusive as the killer who's hunting them.
©1997 Val McDermid (P)1998 ISIS Publishing Ltd.
Fever of the Bone
Summary
Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger Award-winning author Val McDermid pens thrilling mysteries eagerly devoured by fans. In the sixth novel in her Tony Hill series—the inspiration for the hit British television show Wire in the Blood—psychologist Tony Hill and Detective Carol Jordan’s investigation of a teenage girl’s murder leads them to an Internet predator.
©2009 Val McDermid (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC
The Retribution
Summary
World-class crime writer Val McDermid has sold millions of copies of her books worldwide. In The Retribution, clinical psychologist Tony Hill and detective Carol Jordan face a terrifying reality: Serial killer Jacko Vance has escaped imprisonment - and appears hell-bent on revenge against those who put him behind bars.
©2012 Val McDermid (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC
MatchUp
Summary
In this incredible follow-up to the New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller FaceOff, twenty-two of the world’s most popular thriller writers come together for an unforgettable anthology. MatchUp takes the never-before-seen bestseller pairings of FaceOff and adds a delicious new twist: gender. Eleven of the world’s best female thriller writers from Diana Gabaldon to Charlaine Harris are paired with eleven of the world’s best male thriller writers, including John Sandford, C.J. Box, and Nelson DeMille. The stories are edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child and feature: -Lee Coburn and Joe Pickett in “Honor & …” by Sandra Brown and C.J. Box -Tony Hill and Roy Grace in “Footloose” by Val McDermid and Peter James -Temperance Brennan and Jack Reacher in “Faking a Murderer” by Kathy Reichs and Lee Child -Jamie Fraser and Cotton Malone in “Past Prologue” by Diana Gabaldon and Steve Berry -Liz Sansborough and Rambo in “Rambo on Their Minds” by Gayle Lynds and David Morrell -Jeffrey Tolliver and Joe Pritchard in “Short Story” by Karin Slaughter and Michael Koryta -Harper Connelly and Ty Hauck in “Dig Here” by Charlaine Harris and Andrew Gross -Regan Pescoli and Virgil Flowers in “Deserves to be Dead” by Lisa Jackson and John Sandford -Lucan Thorne and Lilliane in “Midnight Flame” by Lara Adrian and Christopher Rice -Bennie Rosato and John Corey in “Getaway” by Lisa Scottoline and Nelson DeMille -Ali Reynolds and Bravo Shaw in “Taking the Veil” by J.A. Jance and Eric Van Lustbader
©2017 Lee Child (P)2017 Simon & Schuster Audio
Star Struck
Summary
"McDermid has a sharp ear for the dialogue and intrinsic humor of the Manchester dialect.... She manages, as always, to combine her wit and exuberant writing with a careful and clever plot and oodles of perceptive social observation." (The Times (London)) Bodyguarding had never made it to Manchester PI Kate Brannigan's wish list. But somebody's got to pay the bills at Brannigan & Co., and if the only earner on offer is playing nursemaid to a paranoid soap star, the fast-talking, computer-loving, white-collar-crime expert has to swallow her pride and slip into something more glam than her Thai-boxing kit. Soon, however, offstage dramas overshadow the fictional storylines, culminating in the unscripted murder of the self-styled "Seer to the Stars", and Kate finds herself with more questions than answers. What's more, her tame hacker has found virtual love, her process server keeps getting arrested, and the ever-reliable Dennis has had the temerity to get himself charged with murder. Nobody told her there'd be days like these....
©1998 Val McDermid (P)2019 Recorded Books
A Darker Domain
Summary
Award-winning author Val McDermid offers up a suspense-filled stand-alone novel with A Darker Domain. Karen Pirie is the newly appointed Deputy Inspector of the Cold Case Unit, and her first investigation takes her 25 years into the past to the national miners’ strike. At the time, a kidnapping gone wrong left a small boy missing, but new evidence suggests he might still be alive. As Pirie delves deeper, she realizes the boy’s disapperance may be linked to another cold case involving a missing miner.
©2008 Val McDermid (P)2008 W.F. Howes, Ltd.
Beneath the Bleeding
Summary
Winner of the Gold Dagger Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Val McDermid pens mysteries heralded on both sides of the Atlantic. In Beneath the Bleeding, Dr. Tony Hill must make sense of the perplexing death of a soccer star—but the footballer’s demise is only a prelude to greater violence.
©2009 Val McDermid (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC
Splinter the Silence
Summary
When psychological profiler Tony Hill comes across a series of suicides among women tormented by vicious online predators, he begins to wonder if there is more to these tragedies than meets the eye. Could it be murder? But what kind of serial killer wants his crimes to stay hidden? Tony and DCI Carol Jordan begin the hunt for the most dangerous and terrifying kind of killer - someone who has nothing to fear and nothing to lose....
©2015 Val McDermid (P)2015 W F Howes Ltd
Kick Back
Summary
In the second in the series, Kate Brannigan investigates the bizarre case of the missing conservatories (sunrooms attached to the back of a standing house), unearthing an unscrupulous lawyer (later found hanging from his balcony in flimsy women's apparel); a supersalesman with an overstuffed bank account; and a brother-sister pair who are double-crossing everyone. And this real estate fiddling ties in with a separate scam involving Kate's best buds - and murder of the most unexpected order. Clearly Kate has stumbled upon something very rotten in real estate. And little do the criminals realize that in proposing to write Manchester's canny, kick-boxing P.I. out of the picture, they have signed a deed for their own downfall.
©1993 Val McDermid (P)2019 W.F. Howes Ltd.
Cross and Burn
Summary
Internationally best-selling crime writer Val McDermid' s work speaks for itself: her books have sold millions of copies worldwide, won numerous accolades, and attracted a devoted following of readers around the globe. Her latest, Cross and Burn , picks up where The Retribution left off: following the best crime-fighting team in the UK-- clinical psychologist Tony Hill and police detective Carol Jordan-- who when we last saw them were barely speaking, and whose relationship will now be challenged even further. Guilt and grief have driven a wedge between long time crime-fighting partners psychologist Tony Hill and ex-DCI Carol Jordan. But just because they're not talking doesn't mean the killing stops. Someone is killing women. Women who bear an unsettling resemblance to Carol Jordan. And when the evidence begins to point in a disturbing direction, thinking the unthinkable seems the only possible answer. Cornered by events, Tony and Carol are forced to fight for themselves and each other as never before. An edge-of-your-seat page-turner from one of the best crime writers we have, Cross and Burn is a chilling, unforgettable read.
©2013 Val McDermid (P)2013 Recorded Books
Crack Down
Summary
There was only one reason Manchester-based private eye Kate Brannigan was prepared to let her boyfriend help out with an investigation into a car sales fraud - nothing bad could happen. But by now Kate should know that with Richard you have to expect the unexpected. With Richard behind bars, Kate seems to be the obvious choice to look after his eight-year-old son - who proves even more troublesome than his father. Kate finds herself dragged into a world of drug traffickers, child pornographers, fraudsters, and violent gangland enforcers bringing her face-to-face with death in the most terrifying investigation of her career.
©1994, 2018 Val McDermid (P)2019 Recorded Books
Report for Murder
Summary
Lindsay Gordon, self-proclaimed cynical socialist lesbian feminist journalist, is less than overjoyed at the prospect of spending a weekend at a posh girls' boarding school. Tensions are running high over the school's financial problems; the fact that school alumna and renowned musician Lorna Smith-Couper will return to the school to perform at a benefit concert only exacerbates anxieties. When Smith-Couper is found strangled with her own cello string right before the concert, Lindsay and Cordelia find their new relationship tested in unique ways as they seek to find the murderer among a long list of suspects.
©1990 Val McDermid (P)2018 Recorded Books
The Vanishing Point
Summary
One of the finest crime authors we have, Val McDermid’s heart-stopping thrillers have won her international renown and a devoted following of fans worldwide. In The Vanishing Point, she kicks off a terrifying thriller with a nightmare scenario: a parent who loses her child in a bustling international airport. Young Jimmy Higgins is snatched from an airport security checkpoint while his guardian watches helplessly from the glass inspection box. But this is no ordinary abduction, as Jimmy is no ordinary child. His mother was Scarlett, a reality TV star who, dying of cancer and alienated from her unreliable family, entrusted the boy to the person she believed best able to give him a happy, stable life: her ghost writer, Stephanie Harker. Assisting the FBI in their attempt to recover the missing boy, Stephanie reaches into the past to uncover the motive for the abduction. Has Jimmy been taken by his own relatives? Is Stephanie’s obsessive ex-lover trying to teach her a lesson? Has one of Scarlett’s stalkers come back to haunt them all? A powerful, grippingly-plotted thriller that will keep listeners on the edge of their seats until the end, The Vanishing Point showcases McDermid at the height of her talent.
©2012 Val McDermid (P)2012 W.F. Howes