Val McDermid stunned readers andcritics alike with the publication of her brilliant thriller A PLACE OFEXECUTION , which won the Anthony, McCavity, and the Los Angeles Timesawards. Now in T HE WIRE IN THE BLOOD , she continues her trademarkingenuity for suspense as criminal profiler Tony Hill must find a killer likenone other he's ever encountered before... Across the country, dozens of teenage girls have vanished. Authorities areconvinced they're runaways with just the bad luck of the draw to connect them.It's the job of criminal profilers Dr. Tony Hill and Carol Jordan to look for apattern. They've spent years exploring the psyches of madmen. But sane men killtoo. 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 thepower to seduce. And the will to destroy. No one can believe what he's capableof. No one can imagine what he's already done. And no one can fathom what he'sabout to do next. Until one of Hill's students is murdered-the first move in asick and violent game for three players. Now, of all the killers Hill and Jordanhave hunted, none has been so ruthless, so terrifyingly clever, and sobrilliantly elusive as the killer who's hunting them...