100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Thanks for supporting our 100% NZ-owned independent bookstore ❤️ Open Sat & Sun until 5pm

The Mermaids Singing

3.95 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 27,173 ratings, 1,704 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
In The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid, a gritty crime thriller unfolds as psychologist Tony Hill is drawn into a gruesome murder investigation. Set in the fictional town of Bradfield, the novel follows Hill's collaboration with Detective Inspector Carol Jordan as they work to capture a serial killer targeting men. The tension escalates as they delve into the mind of the elusive murderer, pushing their skills and resilience to the limit.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2300
Elsewhere:
$2499
OVERNIGHT NZ-WIDE DELIVERY

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you're intrigued by psychological thrillers that delve into the minds of both cops and killers. It offers a gripping and intense narrative featuring a brilliant, yet troubled profiler who unravels a chilling series of murders. Fans of suspenseful crime novels with complex characters and unexpected twists may find it particularly captivating.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

In this special 20th anniversary edition, Lee Child introduces the Gold Dagger award-winning serial killer thriller that began the Number One bestselling crime series featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill, hero of TV’s much-loved Wire in the Blood.

First book of award-winning serial killer crime series now TV series Wire in the Blood

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

In this special 20th anniversary edition, Lee Child introduces the Gold Dagger award-winning serial killer thriller that began the Number One bestselling crime series featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill, hero of TV’s much-loved Wire in the Blood.

You always remember the first time. Isn’t that what they say about sex? How much more true it is of murder…

Up till now, the only serial killers Tony Hill had encountered were safely behind bars. This one’s different – this one’s on the loose.

Four men have been found mutilated and tortured. As fear grips the city, the police turn to clinical psychologist Tony Hill for a profile of the killer. But soon Tony becomes the unsuspecting target in a battle of wits and wills where he has to use every ounce of his professional nerve to survive.

A tense, beautifully written psychological thriller, The Mermaids Singing explores the tormented mind of a serial killer unlike any the world of fiction has ever seen.

Series: Tony Hill and Carol Jordan

View all
  • The Mermaids Singing
    In this special 20th anniversary edition, Lee Child introduces the Gold Dagger award-winning serial killer thriller that began the Number One bestselling crime series featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill, hero of TV’s much-loved Wire in the Blood. You always remember the first time. Isn’t that what they say about sex? How much more true it is of murder… Up...
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Wire in the Blood
    The ferociously readable, #1 bestselling crime thriller that led to the much-loved ITV show… ‘Wholly satisfying’ Ian Rankin Young girls are disappearing nationwide. Dr Tony Hill sets his team a task: find a link between the cases. Only one officer comes up with a theory, but it’s too wild… that is, until one of their number is murdered and mutilated....
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Insidious Intent
    Buy Val McDermid's masterful new thriller, 1989, now! 'One of the most surprising twists you'll read this year. Outstanding' Irish Independent 'Engrossing . . . a colossal reminder of just why McDermid has been the queen of crime for three decades' Heat 'Murdered people don't kill themselves . . .' A quiet night on a country road. The stillness shattered...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Cross and Burn
    Someone is brutally killing women. Women who bear a striking resemblance to former DCI Carol Jordan. The connection is too strong to ignore and soon psychological profiler Tony Hill finds himself dangerously close to the investigation, just as the killer is closing in on his next target. This is a killer like no other, hell-bent on inflicting the most severe...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Splinter the Silence
    Buy Val McDermid's masterful new thriller, 1989, now! ___________________ 'The Queen of Crime reigns again with a thrill from Hill' Independent 'No one can plot or tell a story like she can' Daily Express 'That day, waiting had been almost unbearable. He wanted something more spectacular, something that couldn't be ignored. These deaths needed to make a mark . ....
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Fever Of The Bone
    Fever Of The Bone by Val McDermid draws you into a chilling narrative with this gripping opener: 'You should have been a detective. If there's one thing the last year has proved, it's how good you are at finding things out. Not simple things. Hard things. Things that nobody is supposed to be able to find out. Things that are...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Retribution
    There is one serial killer who has shaped and defined police profiler Tony Hill's life. One serial killer whose evil surpasses all others. One serial killer who has the power to chill him to the bone: Jacko Vance. And now Jacko is back in Tony's life. Even more twisted and cunning than ever before, he is focused on wreaking revenge...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • How the Dead Speak
    Don't miss the electrifying new Karen Pirie thriller - STILL LIFE is out now The eleventh book in the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series, from No. 1 bestselling author Val McDermid. 'The queen of crime is still at the top of her game' Independent No one can tell a story like she can' Daily Express 'One of today's most...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid is described as a gripping, compelling, and superb psychological thriller with a blend of cruelty and compassion. It's praised for its stylish, terrifying nature and ability to shock, offering an intense exploration of a serial killer's mind.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780008134761

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 05 November 2015

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Hemlock Press

Edition: 20th Anniversary edition

Contributors:

  • Foreword by Lee Child

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 28.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 320g

Pages: 464

About the Author

Val McDermid grew up in a Scottish mining community then read English at Oxford. She was a journalist for sixteen years, spending the last three as Northern Bureau Chief of a national Sunday tabloid. She divides her time between Northumberland and Cheshire.

Also by Val McDermid

View all
  • Marple: Twelve New Stories
    Marple: Twelve New Stories is a tantalising collection of short stories that reintroduces the legendary detective Jane Marple. This anthology, crafted by twelve bestselling and acclaimed authors, breathes new life into one of Agatha Christie's most beloved characters. Each author brings their unique voice and perspective to Miss Marple, whilst masterfully preserving the hallmarks of a traditional mystery. The tales...
    Paperback
    $3100
    Elsewhere:
    $3500
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Marple: Twelve New Stories
    A brand new collection of short stories featuring the Queen of Crime’s legendary detective Jane Marple, penned by twelve remarkable bestselling and acclaimed authors. This collection of twelve original short stories, all featuring Jane Marple, will introduce the character to a whole new generation. Each author reimagines Agatha Christie’s Marple through their own unique perspective while staying true to the...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2500
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • A Darker Domain
    The second riveting crime novel in the Karen Pirie series, from No.1 Sunday Times bestseller Val McDermid. ‘A superb mystery’ The Times From the creators of Line of Duty and Bodyguard, KAREN PIRIE is now on ITV, starring Lauren Lyle (Outlander). Twenty-five years ago, a woman and her baby son were kidnapped and held to ransom. Catriona Grant ended up...
    Paperback
    $2500
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Match Up
    FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER ... In Match Up, an unparalleled anthology brought to life by the most celebrated crime writers of our time, Lee Child's iconic Jack Reacher partners with Kathy Reichs' meticulous forensic anthropologist, Temperance Brennan, to catch a cunning killer who operates under the radar. Val McDermid’s brilliant profiler, Tony Hill, and his steadfast ally, DCI Carol...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Distant Echo
    The first novel in the bestselling Karen Pirie series. The award-winning Number One bestseller and Queen of crime fiction, Val McDermid, carves out a stunning psychological thriller. The past is behind them, but what’s still to come will tear them apart… From the creators of Line of Duty and Bodyguard, the series KAREN PIRIE is now on ITV, starring Lauren...
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Silent Bones
    The Masterful New Thriller in the Karen Pirie Series, Now a Major TV Series The truth is buried just beneath the surface . . . When torrential rain causes a landslide on a motorway in Scotland, it reveals a crime scene: someone hid a body in the tarmac eleven years before. Journalist Sam Nimmo had been the prime suspect in...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Trick Of The Dark
    When Charlie Flint is sent a mysterious package of cuttings about a brutal murder, it instantly grabs her attention. The murder occurred in the grounds of her old Oxford college — a groom battered to death just hours after his wedding. As his bride and wedding guests sipped champagne, his alleged killers were slipping his bloodstained body into the river....
    Paperback
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Winter
    'A warm hug of a book... like sitting by a roaring winter fire' JACKIE KAY Winter is the time to snuggle indoors without guilt; to curl up on the sofa with a good book or a box set, a hot drink or a wee whisky to hand. Val McDermid has always had a soft spot for winter: the bitter clarity...
    Hardback
    $3899
    Elsewhere:
    $4499
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • 1989
    THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Karen Pirie returns . . . Pre-order Past Lying, the eagerly-awaited new Karen Pirie thriller, publishing October 2023 ___________ 1989. The world is on the brink of revolution and journalist Allie Burns is a woman on a mission. When she discovers a lead about the exploitation of society's most vulnerable, Allie is determined to investigate...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Forensics
    The dead talk. To the right listener, they tell us all about themselves: where they came from, how they lived, how they died - and who killed them. Forensic scientists can unlock the mysteries of the past and help justice to be done using the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene or the faintest of human traces. Forensics...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Matchup
    MatchUp is a thrilling anthology that invites you into a world of crime, intrigue, and suspense where the stakes are higher than ever. Edited by the renowned New York Times bestselling author Lee Child, this collection offers an exceptional collaboration among twenty-two of the globe's top thriller writers, each contributing their most iconic characters to create a tapestry of riveting...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $4100
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Out of Bounds
    Don't miss Past Lying, the twisty new Karen Pirie thriller. 'It grabs the reader by the throat and never lets go' Daily Mail 'Incredibly suspenseful' Sunday Mirror __________ 'There are lots of things that ran in families, but murder wasn't one of them . . .' When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up in a coma,...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

More from Crime & Thriller

View all
  • New Release
    Dying Days
    Award-winning writer delivers a pulse-pounding espionage thriller. Missing soldiers, MI6 secrets and European partisans collide in a deadly game where the lines between lies and reality are fast disintegrating. In the dying days of the Second World War, a new conflict is about to ignite. May, 1945: After fighting to liberate Europe from the Nazis, Tito's Yugoslav Army and Allied...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Country Road Murders
    New Release
    The Country Road Murders
    From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a pulse-pounding thriller about justice, vengeance and the roads that lead us home. No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades — LEE CHILD Cross Rivers is the kind of small town where everyone knows your name – and your secrets. Silas Tucker...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Every Lake
    Scary stories are fun... until your life becomes one. When Alice was fifteen, her father killed Mia Heywood in their lakefront cottage before vanishing into the trees. At least that's what the locals think happened. Over a decade later, Alice has lost her job as a journalist, she's going through an expensive divorce and she desperately needs to sell the...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Nautilus
    New Release
    Nautilus
    The follow-up to the bestselling novel The Turing Protocol. Nautilus is a machine with the astonishing power to send messages eight weeks back in time. Its users must follow a set of protocols established by its inventor, Alan Turing, including that it can only be used by a descendant of his family, and only to avert global disasters. But what...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Cold River
    New Release
    Cold River
    The sensational new novel from the author of the bestselling thriller, The Creeper, winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction 2025. Deep in the mountains, secrets grow deadly... Detective Constable Sally White knows how easily hikers can go missing in Victoria's high country. But there's something about the disappearance of Louis Taylor, a young man lost up...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    It Could Have Been Her
    PREPARE TO BE HOOKED: The no. 1 Sunday Times and MULTI-million-copy bestselling author is back with a brand-new spine tingling thriller. It was the night she almost died. Jane Trevally, newly divorced and feeling a little lost, agrees to accompany a man she doesn't know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath. She's offered a drink, goes in, and...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    26 Beauties
    The twenty-sixth thrilling novel in the globally bestselling Women's Murder Club series. Beautiful young women are disappearing by the dozen. A celebration is cut short when a concerned father crashes Detective Inspector Lindsay Boxer's party. His daughter is missing - and she's not the only one. DI Lindsay Boxer has been tracking a chilling pattern: a Jane Doe washed ashore,...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    The Secrets We Hide
    The stunning new North Falls thriller by the bestselling author of We Are All Guilty Here 'Quite simply, Karin Slaughter is the best of us' Dervla McTiernan Welcome back to North Falls -- a small town with big secrets. The house at 1601 Iris Drive looks like any other in the quiet, residential street. But rumours are rife about the Vickery...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    The Parkwood Murders
    They came for an escape, but can they escape a killer? Detective Nicola Bridge returns in another gripping and immersive mystery For its loyal guests, Parkwood Holiday Village in west Dorset is a haven- woodland walks, a tranquil lake, service around the clock. Until, just after midsummer, a body is found floating in the swimming pool. Detective Nicola Bridge, exhausted...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Hope Rises
    'BALDACCI IS STILL PEERLESS' - THE SUNDAY TIMES REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD . . . Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him....
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Slash
    A year after a brutal shootout left her lover dead, ex-police sergeant Honey Chalmers is a hot mess, drinking too much and eating too little, working casual gigs for a shady firm of private investigators — while holding conversations with a ghost. A desperate father asks her to investigate his missing son — a double-murder suspect last seen during the...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    A River Red With Blood
    The players call it the Game, and its aim is simple: to abduct and kill a stranger without getting caught. They're very good at it. They've been playing it for a long time. And they can keep playing as long as everyone sticks to the rules: No Killing Close to Home and No Killing Outside the Game. But those rules...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.