Tony Hill / Carol Jordan Books In Order

Publication Order of Tony Hill/Carol Jordan Books

The ‘Tony Hill and Carol Jordan’ series is a series of suspense, mystery and thriller novels written by the famous Scottish author Val McDermid. The series features the main protagonists of the series, Tony Hill and Carol Jordan. Tony Hill is a psychologist by profession whereas Crol Jordan is a police officer who helps Tony Hill to catch the criminals and killers and put them behind the bars. Tony Hill suffers from a rare sexual dysfunction, but does not let it come in the way of his dedication to solve the crimes in the city. There is a total of 8 novels in the series which were published between the years 1995 and 2013. The Tony Hill and Carol Jordan mystery went on to become very successful and widely popular all over the world. The success of the series allowed it to be adapted into a television show in U.K under the title ‘Wire in the Blood’. The television series also features the main protagonists Carol Jordan and Tony Hill. The character of Tony Hill is portrayed by the actor Robson Green in the television series.

Dr. Tony Hill is depicted as a clinical psychologist, who works for the National Home Office. He also helps the Bradfield police frequently and specializes in a dealing with a variety of violent offenders. The profession as a psychologist has allowed Dr. Hill to come across a number of serial killers and dangerous criminals throughout his career. However, the career of Dr. Hill seems to be turbulent as he does not have good social skills and suffers from developmental coordination disorder. The reason for his low social skills is given by by the author as an emotional abuse during his childhood days. Dr. Hill is helped by Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan in carrying out the investigations. Carol is a gutsy officer and is dedicated towards her duties just like Dr. Hill. Carol and Dr. Hill share a complicated relationship both personally and professionally. Dr. Hill often avoids indulging into a romantic relationship with Carol, but becomes extremely devastated when she leaves Bradfield. After Carol, Dr. Hill comes close to the replacing officer, Detective Inspector Alex Fielding, but again avoids indulging into a romantic relationship with her too. Dr. Hill and his mother, who is a businesswoman, have a difficult relationship with each other.

In the later parts of the series, it is revealed that when Dr. Hill was very young, his grandmother used to put him inside the cupboards and shut the doors for very long periods of time whenever he used to do any kind of mischief. Both his mother and grandmother used to beat him ruthlessly and disliked his presence in their lives. The trauma of a childhood emotional abuse has resulted in Dr. Hill’s poor physical health. He gets diagnosed with intracranial meningioma in one of the novels of the series. Poor health has made him become irritable, disorganized and hallucinatory. In spite of all the bad changes in his life, he is able to distinguish between his new and previous personality differences. Despite the disturbances in his personal life, Dr. Hill is very skillful in his work as a profiler. He tends to empathize with the criminals, which many believe that it can prove to be hazardous to him. He tends to feel embarrassed very often because of his habit of making shrewd comments about people or a crime without thinking. Very often, Dr. Hill indulges himself into deep thinking so much so that he forgets to take care of everyday details such as turning off the car headlights, tucking his shirt in, etc. These things make a few people come close to him such as Carol Jordan, whereas a majority of people alienates him.

The first novel of the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series was published in the year 1995 under the title ‘The Mermaids Singing’. The novel was published by the St. Martin’s Paperbacks publishing house. The suspenseful plot of the novel opens up with the introduction of Dr. Tony Hill. He is given his first case as a clinical psychologist during a summer at a museum of criminology. This was what he always wanted to do and discovers that the case was far off the timid tourists’ beaten tracks. He always had the vision of torture, which inspired his fantasies a lot. Even though it seemed terrible, he found it fulfilling. In the next case that he comes across, 4 dead bodies are discovered in Bradfield. Dr. Hill gets listed investigate the case. Even though he was a seasoned criminal psychologist, the case of a number of mutilation sex murders was not something that he had encountered before. He possesses all the skills of profiling the psychopath. However, Dr. Hill’s difficult past life has made him one of the victims of his own profession. After dealing with a number of criminal cases in his career and dealing with his own hidden demons, Dr. Hill comes across a profound evil, who seems to be beyond the capacity of Hill. It seems that he may not have the power and courage to deal with the evil or to stop it.

The second novel of the series was published in the year 1997 by the St. Martin’s Paperbacks publishing house. The novel was titled ‘The Wire in the Blood’. The plot of the novel deals with the vanishing of a dozen of teenage girls across the country. The police believe that they have run away from their homes and that the connection that seems in their disappearance is just a coincidence. Carol Jordan and Dr. Hill are hired to find out the pattern in the vanishing of the girls. Hill and Jordan were doing the investigation thinking that it was the work of a madman, as they have seen in their career. However, there was a possibility that the crime might have been done by a sane man. The killer turns out to be a rich and handsome man, who has the power to seduce and destroy. However, there is no proof or evidence of his crime. No one is aware of his capability or what he has already done. Soon, one of the students of Dr. Hill gets murdered. The style of murder is so brutal that Carol and Hill had never seen like that in their entire career. The killer was also very clever in his activities. He was also very elusive and posed a great threat to Carol and Hill. The two have to put in all their expertise to catch the killer and stop him in claiming the lives of other people of the city.