A clash of intrigues

The Last Temptation is an example of a new genre, which might be dubbed the eurothriller. It opens by introducing us to a serial killer who, in order to compensate for an unhappy childhood, is, understandably, murdering academic psychologists throughout Europe and scalping their pubic hair. Most novelists might have contented themselves with this scenario, but Val McDermid piles Pelion on Ossa by adding another plot involving Berlin resident Tadeusz Radecki, a suave Polish opera lover and dealer in drugs, arms and illegal immigrants.

The two intrigues are connected through two of the author's series characters: psychologist Tony Hill is profiling the killer, while his girlfriend, DCI Carol Jordan, the spitting image of Tadeusz's dead mistress, is working undercover to trap the Pole.

Instead of meshing, however, the two intrigues clash, each drawing attention away from the other, with the result that the narrative is not doubly, but half as exciting - as blandly inoffensive, indeed, as a shiny new euro. This seems a pity, since the novel has a well-researched and well-portrayed background, and interesting characters, dealt with at some depth.