This is the second of three McDermid novels which I acquired second-hand and after the lacklustre first one - one of her series about Tony Hill - I had hoped for better with this, and at first it seemed more interesting.

A psychiatrist, Charlie Hill, is suspended over a controversy where she cleared a suspect in a murder case because he had not, in her opinion, committed a murder although he had the potential to do so (and she was right). He then went on to murder four women. While waiting for an opportunity to clear herself with the General Medical Council, and the press and public who have pilloried her, she is asked by her old university teacher to help investigate the background of a successful business woman. Jay Stewart has a tendency to leave bodies in her wake, although nothing has ever been proven against her, but is now involved with this teacher's daughter. Rather implausibly, the daughter's husband was murdered at the wedding reception, and the teacher believes he was yet another of Jay's victims, this time because he stood in the way of her having a relationship with the daughter.

None of the characters comes across as particularly convincing, even Jay whom we see writing her self-serving memoirs. Charlie is not very likeable - she spends most of the book lusting over another woman despite being in a committed relationship for the last seven years, and contemplating finishing with this long suffering soul. Rather hypocritical in view of the self-proclaimed moral high ground she claims to occupy. And despite supposedly being an intelligent woman and someone who profiles serial killers for the police, she is completely lacking in self-awareness and analysis, and fails to realise she is being manipulated by a master manipulator, every bit as psychopathic as she assumes Jay to be. So I rather lost patience with the character.

It was obvious pretty early on who the killer was, although I didn't work out a couple of the twists revealed at the end. But one of the problems with this book is that all the action has taken place off stage years ago and is therefore told in conversation or character internal monologue rather than being shown. The process of Charlie going from place to place, talking to people to find out if there is any evidence against Jay becomes protracted and some of the points do not seem to be resolved at the end - certain people seem to have completely escaped prison sentences for perverting the course of justice, for example. All in all, can only rate this at 2 stars. ( )

A good, fast-paced thriller. I enjoyed trying to figure out the little clue-threads that McDermid sprinkled through the narrative. ( )

A psychiatrist is asked by her old Oxford tutor to investigate her daughter’s girlfriend, a determined woman who has been associated with a number of mystifying deaths. An interesting investigation, & McDermid’s main characters: investigator, investigated, & their partners are all lesbian, thus allowing the author as another aspect of the story to shed a light on prejudice, coming out, & being gay in a largely straight world. ( )

This book has been used by the author to push her homosexual agenda. There is more than one who talks about her 'wife' which is wrong and all the way through anyone who objects is portrayed as being bigoted. The Christians in the book both Evangelicals and Catholics are portrayed very negatively.

Behind all the rhetoric is an intersting story and it shows the lengths a mother will go to to protect her family. I enjoyed the twists and turns as you try to work out what really happened and was amazed to work it out before the end. ( )

"My mother disappeared when I was sixteen. It was the best thing that could have happened to me.
When I say that out loud, people look at me out if the corners of their eyes, as if I've transgressed some fundamental taboo. But it's the truth. I'm not hiding some complicated grief reaction.
My mother disappeared when I was sixteen. The guards had walked away from the prison leaving the door unlocked. And I emerged blinking into the sunlight."

I wanted to keep this book for a while and read it when I needed a solid mystery to delve in and occupy my mind for a spell - when I needed something dependable.
But just looking at the fabulous cover of the paperback edition made me twitch.

This is only my fourth McDermid - I am quickly becoming a fan - and a short way into the story of disgraced psychiatrist Charlie Flint I got the impression that this book is different. Just a short way into this book I began to wonder if McDermid had an agenda which she wanted the characters in the book to play out.

Trick of the Dark is centred on a mothers suspicion that her daughter is being seduced by a woman of dubious character - or rather one with a dubious past. There is no police work, no obvious crime, but one "obvious" suspect.

Strangely enough, the story and the character had soon drawn me in and it took no time at all to want to figure out the mystery surrounding the main suspect. As mentioned, there is little in the way of procedural policing. Most of the book is based on good old sleuthing and psychology, or as I would call it "following a hunch" but I really liked it.
There is also some humor in this, and I hope some of the giggles I got reflect some of McDermott's own sense of fun.

The only criticism - and, having read some of the scathing reviews this book received, this is only a slight criticism - is that the dialogues were too stilted to be believable. Yes, the conversations between the characters carried most of the story, but some of the conversations, even hard ones to have, were way too polished. ( )