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    How the Dead Speak
    How the Dead Speak
    How the Dead Speak
    Audiobook12 hours

    How the Dead Speak

    Written by Val McDermid

    Narrated by Saul Reichlin

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    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 bestseller and queen of crime, Val McDermid, featuring the unforgettable Tony Hill and Carol Jordan.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateDec 3, 2019
    ISBN9781980061786
    Author

    Val McDermid

    Val McDermid is the author of many crime novels and has created the notable characters Lindsay Gordon, Karen Pirie, Kate Brannigan and Tony Hill. Her novels have been translated into forty languages and have sold over 16 million copies. Visit her online at ValMcDermid.com.

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    Reviews for How the Dead Speak

    4/5

    81 ratings9 reviews

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    • 4/5
      When it's a Tony Hill story you know it will be interesting, entertaining and a top-notch well written mystery. As usual this was great. So why didn't it get another star? Well Tony is in prison. That just didn't seem right to me. I know Val McDermid has it all worked out, but I want Tony and Carol to be working together. Carol is dealing with her drinking and PTSD, so hopefully things will soon be back to normal. I have followed Tony Hill and Carol Jordan from the start and loved every moment in their company. The book, although very readable, just didn't deliver the same impact as the others. The usual characters drift in and out of the story line, but the "must find out what happens next" feeling just didn't happen and the resolution of the main crime seemed weak. As for Carol and Tony...we get a very tiny glimmer of hope for their relationship. I do hope that Ms. McDermid will take the next Hill/Jordan book back to its exciting place that it was headed and give us some resolution on the tentative relationship between these two well-loved characters. It's not the same without them doing what they do best.
    • 4/5
      Oh, very nice. Very, very nice developments in the continuing Hill & Jordan story. Loving the old faces and enjoying the new. The crimes are appalling, and full of sad commentary on the world, but at least there's light at the end of the tunnel for our friends.
    • 4/5
      How the Dead Speak. Val McDermind. 2019. Tony Hill and Carol Jordan Mysteries Book 11. Hill is a criminal profiler and Jordan is a police inspector in charge of a special group that works on serial murders. I don’t know how many of these books I have read, but I have enjoyed the ones I have read. As I read this one, I wished I’d read them in order. We find out immediately that Hill is in prison for murder and he is refusing to see Carol until she gets treated for PTS syndrome. At the same time the bodies of 40 girls are discovered buried in front of a now closed convent, and if that were not enough. the bodies of several young men are discovered behind the convent in a vegetable garden. Carol’s old group is charged with determining what happened. Several loose ends are left. I assume for the sequel. I really enjoyed this, but think who haven’t read other titles in the series wouldn’t like it as much. Read them in order!
    • 4/5
      At first, it was hard to get a grip on the story, as I hadn't read the first book, so it started kinda slow. But as the storyline developed, I got really interested in the plot, which moved along at a good place. The characters were nicely fleshed out, and relatable. My only criticism is the way the story ended. I thought it wasn't thought out enough, like the author was just tying up loose ends and quickly as possible so she could get back to two of the main characters and their troubles.
    • 4/5
      4.5 stars.

      How the Dead Speak by Val McDermid is an intriguing police procedural. This eleventh installment in the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series can be read as a standalone.

      Psychologist and profiler Tony Hill is now serving his prison sentence and trying to find his footing in jail. He is working on a book while trying to come up with a way to make a difference behind bars. Tony is dismayed when his mum Vanessa pays him a visit and he is forced to comply with her request. Unfortunately this means asking former DCI and long time friend Carol Jordan to investigate something for Vanessa.

      Carol Jordan is, like Tony, trying to decide what comes next now she is no longer a police officer. She is surprised by how much she likes working with her hands and she is hard at work on a carpentry project. She is also finally making a concerted effort to get treatment for her PTSD. Carol is surprised when defence solicitor Bronwen Scott shows up with an unexpected proposition. Not willing to fully commit to  Bronwen's proposal,  Carol does agree to give it serious consideration. She is also quite dismayed by Vanessa's visit and she reluctantly begins looking into Tony's mum's situation.

      Detective Inspector Paula McIntyre is now working in the newly reformed ReMIT under DCI Ian Rutherford. She and her fellow team members are rather flummoxed when Rutherford forces his way into a case that is not exactly their typical investigation.  A construction crew has recently made a grisly discovery on the grounds of a former convent.  A cadaver dog makes another shocking find and McIntyre and her fellow detectives are now working to uncover who is responsible for the gruesome murders.

      How the Dead Speak is a clever, well-executed mystery. The cast of characters is richly developed with realistic shortcomings and enviable strengths. Tony and Carol continue to grow and evolve as they adapt to their new situations. DI McIntyre is a brilliant investigator who keenly feels Tony's and Carol's absence as she interviews witnesses and suspects. The various story arcs are interesting and the investigations move at an even pace.  Val McDermid brings the novel to an exciting and satisfying  conclusion. Old and new fans are sure to enjoy this newest addition to the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series.
    • 4/5
      This is another of my favorite series, so I was eager to find out what was happening with Carol and Tony. At the end of the previous book, Tony was going to jail and Carol was kicked out of the police force. They aren't back together of course because Tony really went to jail, but the good news is that they both want to be with the other. Meantime, they're trying out new ways to use their talents because for sure they're not going to be welcome in their former professions. The ReMit team that Carol used to head is going through changes, too. Several of the former members, including Paula, are still on the team, and they are dealing with some bodies that are found buried on the grounds of a former Catholic children's home. There are a couple of mystery investigations going on, and some rehabilitation of lifestyles and relationships that held my interest throughout.
    • 4/5
      Val McDermid has been one of our most prolific of crime novelists, generally publishing at least one novel each year, and maintaining several different series featuring recurring characters. Most impressively, however, I feel that despite that prolific output, she has not allowed the quality of her stories to waver, and the books never lead the reader to think that they have just been churned out by a literary assembly line. [Hey! Who mentioned James Patterson?]Perhaps her best-known sequence, not least because of the television version of some of the stories, is that featuring (now former) police detective Carol Jordan and psychologist Dr Tony Hill. She has, however, also produced sequences featuring Detective Inspector Karen Pirie, based in Edinburgh, private eye Kate Brannigan (based in and around Manchester) and, her earliest books following journalist Lindsay Gordon. To be honest, while I had enjoyed the majority of the book, I was not satisfied with the ending of Insidious Intent, the previous novel featuring Carol Jordan and Tony Hill, and had wondered whether that volume might have brought the series to an end. Not so. This book sees them struggling to overcome their respective burdens arising from the denouement of that novel, and of necessity both at a low ebb. Carol has to contend with the consequences of post-traumatic stress disorder, which she had hitherto denied having suffered, while also battling to avid succumbing to other problems rooted in her past, while Tony Hill has to adjust to a completely different way of life to anything he has known before.While they work through their respective avenues of rehabilitation, the daily life of crime in their native Bradfield continues. Builders at work in the grounds of a former convent which is now being redeveloped for the creation of luxury flats uncover a grim collection of bodies of girls and young women. Closer investigation shows that they were buried over a long period, possibly stretching back as far back as thirty or forty years. When specialist search teams are brought in, a separate group of corpses – this time of young men – is found.There are multiple plot strands to this novel, and the synopsis above falls far short of doing them justice, but McDermid weaves them together masterfully. She never compromises the plausibility of the plot, yet never risks losing the reader’s complete attention. This is yet another highly competent and engaging story from a modern master of the crime novel.
    • 4/5
      This is a hugely popular series & like most of its kind, you probably enjoy some instalments more than others. I’ve read them all & this was not one of my favourites but that may be down to the format of the story more than content which I’ll try to explain.If you read the last one, no doubt you remember the ending. It was a corker. The old cast of regulars was broken up & here we get to see where everyone landed. First, the elite police unit known as ReMIT has been reformed with some changes. “Oldtimers” like DI Paula McIntyre, DC Stacey Chen & a few others are back. They’re joined by a couple of green recruits & Carol Jordan’s replacement, DCI Ian Rutherford ( a pompous, preening ass who is all hat & no cattle but I digress…).Their inaugural case is disturbing to say the least. A defunct Catholic convent that also served as a home for disadvantaged girls was purchased by developers & construction was going just fine until they dug up the front yard. Bones…lots & lots of bones. By the time Paula & her team get their bearings, the remains of 30-40 young girls have been unearthed. Hmmm…probably won’t be solved by tea time then. That alone would challenge the new team but the site has a few more surprises to throw at them.Meanwhile ex-cop Carol Jordan is filling her days with DIY projects, long walks & staying sober. Then a couple of job opportunities pop up. One involves Vanessa, Tony’s witch of a mother. The other is an offer from an old adversary who’s started a version of the Innocence Project. They want her to reinvestigate a murder case to see if the wrong man was convicted. As for Dr. Tony Hill, he’s just trying to survive. Life in prison is a daily struggle & he needs something to distract from his current reality. He was in the middle of writing a book when arrested & decides to pick up where he left off. Not like he doesn’t have the time.Initially, the plot lines play out separately in short chapters. They alternate & are told in turn through the eyes of Carol, Tony, Paula, Stacey, a couple other ReMIT members plus a serial killer we meet along the way. Interspersed with these are passages from Tony’s book which signals a change of narrator & story line. And I have to admit I found this frustrating at times.The constant switching of multiple POV’s (often at a critical moment) made it a challenge to become fully engaged in any of the story lines & I was probably at the 60% mark before I got an inkling of that need-to-know feeling. It took that long for each to develop enough to get me hooked. Also, I’m not sure I understood the point of Carol & Vanessa’s little adventure. There are plenty of other threads running & I felt it could have been left out entirely without affecting the overall story. I can’t help but feel I missed something there.By far, my favourite parts were those involving Paula & Stacey. They’re struggling to adapt to ReMIT’s new direction & suffering under Rutherford’s rule (did I mention he’s a pompous, preening….oh ya, I did). They band together to get the job done in spite of him & deliver some of the best dialogue. The story surrounding the convent provides some suspense in what is otherwise a more personal instalment that serves as a transitional book in the series.Eventually the plot lines intersect but as with real life, not everything is neatly tied up by the end. If you are a new reader, this is not a good place to start. There is so much history between these characters that I recommend beginning with an earlier book. So while this didn’t fully work for me, perhaps it was necessary to alert long time fans the series is heading off in a new direction with fresh starts for some of the characters. It will be interesting to see where the author takes them next.
    • 4/5
      How the Dead Speak is the eleventh Tony Hill/Carol Jordan book from Val McDermid and, while having a different feel still manages to satisfy.If you're a reader of the series, you might wonder how there could be another volume without essentially erasing the results of the previous one. Well, McDermid managed to write a compelling novel while not disrupting the fictional world we inhabit in these novels. So, yes, Tony is in jail and Carol is no longer a cop. Yet this works here. I'll admit some probably won't like the new dynamics but just give it a try, there is far more to like here than dislike.If you're new to this series, you can read this as a standalone I think, McDermid brings you up to speed enough for the purpose of this case. In some ways, new readers might have an easier time with this one since they won't be trying to navigate the new dynamics as a contrast to the old.Either way, the gritty and shocking elements we have come to expect are here, the forensic puzzles are every bit as engaging, and I found the new characters to be interesting in their own right. If you like dark forensic mysteries, you will likely find this to your liking. Did I just use like, likely, and liking in one sentence? Yeah, I need more coffee, my vocabulary is limited without coffee.Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.