Val McDermid stunned readers and critics alike with the publication of her brilliant thriller A PLACE OF EXECUTION, which won the Anthony, McCavity, and the Los Angeles Times awards. Now in THE WIRE IN THE BLOOD, she continues her trademark ingenuity for suspense as criminal profiler Tony Hill must find a killer like none other he's ever encountered before...Across the country, dozens of teenage girls have vanished. Authorities are convinced 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 a pattern. They've spent years exploring the psyches of madmen. But sane men kill too. 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 the power to seduce. And the will to destroy. No one can believe what he's capable of. No one can imagine what he's already done. And no one can fathom what he's about to do next. Until one of Hill's students is murdered-the first move in a sick and violent game for three players. Now, of all the killers Hill and Jordan have hunted, none has been so ruthless, so terrifyingly clever, and so brilliantly elusive as the killer who's hunting them...