Val McDermid is one of my favorite authors. Besides the urban fantasy genre that i gotten to like a lot, thrillers are my favorite to read. I was hooked at first by the authors by BBC America, when they made her books into a series. I started to read her books and immediately hooked on to her writing style, her descriptions, her complex but flawed characters. I have been awaiting this book ever since i heard about it . This author hooks you from the get go. Dr. Tony Hill is a clinical psychologist turned profiler due to his nack of being able to get into serial killers head. DCI Carol Jordan, I don't know how else you can refer to her, a cop who has a close and complicated relationship with herself and Dr. Hill. And then there is Paula McIntyre, also a cop, who used to be on DCI Jordans team. Since the team was disbanded in the last book, she started to work for DCI Alex Fielding. DCI Fielding was character out of the series on TV. She replaced Carol Jordan after the actress left the series. Val MCDermid states in her intro that she borrowed DCI Fielding from the TV series and she was very successful with incorporating her character into the books without losing any of the nuances. I am looking forward to many more Tony Hill novels. I can only recommend this novel. However, to fully understand the complexity of the characters it is very helpful to have read all other novels in the series. ( )

Kind of a part two for previous book in the series.
This time around Carol is a train wreck, Tony is a mess and needs serious legal Help, and Paula pulls everyone together. ( )

Tony Hill Book 8

A fairly transitional book in the series. The actual solving of the case is done too quickly to fit in comfortably with the first three quarters of the book, perhaps it was edited down to fit in a certain format. I often find mysteries stretched out to the point of boredom; this one, however, could have done with a bit more drawing out of the actual solving of the murder (= –1 star) ( )

I thought it would be time to finally read this book since I have been granted the latest Tony Hill & Carol Jordan book (Splinter the Silence) and it was great to return to where we left Tony and Carol in the last book. Well, great is probably the wrong word since the catastrophically ending of the last book with deaths and Carol and Tony's relationship in tatters.

In this book is Carol trying to move on after a personal loss, she isn't working and she refuses to have anything to do with Tony. Tony meanwhile is struggling to go on with his life without Carol in it. But when Tony is suspected as a serial killer is it, Carol that have to come to his rescue, she is still angry with him, but she knows he is innocent and out there is the real killer…

Cross and Burn is a really good suspenseful thriller and I was really happy to read about Tony Hill again since he is one of my favorite characters. I do hate to read about main characters being accused of something they haven't done and I must admit that I wasn't looking forward to reading about that. But I knew that would bring Carol back into Tony's life so I prevailed and was rewarded with a very good ending. One of my favorite parts of the book is Carol turning to one person she doesn't like, but she knows will help her getting Tony off the hook.

Now I'm looking forward to reading the next book! ( )