Review: HOW THE DEAD SPEAK

HOW THE DEAD SPEAK by Val McDermid (Little, Brown, 2019)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

With former profiler Tony Hill behind bars and former DCI Carol Jordan finally out of road as a cop, he's finding unexpected outlets for his talents in jail and she's joined forces with a small informal group of lawyers and forensics experts looking into suspected miscarriages of justice. But they're doing it without each other; being in the same room at visiting hour is too painful to contemplate. 

Meanwhile, construction is suddenly halted on the redevelopment of an orphanage after dozens of skeletons are found buried in the grounds. Forensic examination reveals they date from between twenty and forty years ago, when the nuns were running their repressive regime. But then a different set of skeletons are discovered in a far corner, young men from as recent as ten years ago.

When newly promoted DI Paula McIntyre discovers that one of the male skeletons is that of a killer who is supposedly alive and behind bars--and the subject of one of Carol's miscarriage investigations--it brings Tony and Carol irresistibly into each other's orbit once again.

It must be hard to sustain a long-running crime series at very high levels. Like a band putting out album after album, it must be tricky to balance reader/audience demand for something that's a mix of similar and different. I'm sure keen crime readers can all think of characters we love to follow whose exploits plateau in later books, whose creators seem to be going through the motions a bit. More of the same with not enough forward movement. Still enjoyable, but not reaching the previous peaks.

Then there are authors like Val McDermid (and Michael Connelly, among others), who've been entertaining us for more than a quarter century - 32 years in McDermid's case - and continue to grasp for higher ground. Among many impressive things about McDermid's storytelling is the way she continues to push herself and her characters, finding fresh stories to tell, issues to explore, and ensuring that past events have an impact, rather than pressing the reset button each book.

This eleventh novel starring Tony Hill and Carol Jordan is a great example.

Throughout the novel the duo is separated, and both are struggling with their new situations and the absence of the other, following the cataclysmic ending to the tenth tale, INSIDIOUS INTENT.

With Tony behind bars and Carol no longer a cop, the remnants of Jordan's ReMIT team are forced to deal with both their unsettling absence and the unsettling presence of new bosses and peers, who have their own agendas. How much trust can Paula, Stacey, and Alvin have in the new regime as they move forward and tackle twin investigations sparked by the discovery of dozens of bodies in the grounds of an abandoned convent. Can so many deaths be explained away by the nuns? And what about the other bodies that are uncovered nearby? Has a serial killer been operating under the radar?

McDermid adroitly weaves a variety of storylines into a gripping novel. While the new-but-not-improved ReMIT team is busy with the convent bodies, Carol is struggling to cope with ongoing PTSD as well as her absence from Tony and unexpected requests from two former nemeses. Tony is trying to keep himself occupied, and alive, inside the concrete walls of prison. Fresh shoots for all.

So much has changed. What do you do?

HOW THE DEAD SPEAK showcases Tony and Carol's former colleagues while also giving readers a greater understanding of the series protagonists. After INSIDIOUS INTENT, McDermid could have taken the easy way out in a number of ways (jumping ahead to a new equilibrium, having Hill 'let off' for his actions), but instead she painted herself into a corner, then delivered a superb tale that could be a fitting conclusion to a beloved series while underlining the impact of all that has gone before.

More than thirty years after introducing the first-ever openly lesbian detective into British crime fiction, and almost a decade after receiving the Diamond Dagger for a career of ‘sustained excellence’ and a ‘significant contribution’, Val McDermid continues to raise the bar.

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. You can heckle him on Twitter.