Beneath the Bleeding

Beneath the Bleeding is the fifth novel in Val McDermid's Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series. Tony is recovering in hospital after being attacked by an axe-wielding patient, but he can't resist being pulled into Carol's newest case: the death of popular football star Robbie Bishop from ricin poisoning.

As Carol and her team dig through Bishop's life searching for a link to the obscure poison, an explosion tears through Bradfield's football stadium, forcing them to consider whether the killing and the bombing are connected, and whether they are dealing with a serial killer, a terrorist, or both. McDermid weaves in echoes of real-world terrorism while pushing Tony and Carol's evolving personal and professional relationship to a new, harder edge, as their instincts about the case put them at odds with each other and with Britain's anti-terrorism unit.