''The Mermaids Singing'' (

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

) is a crime novel by Scottish author

Val McDermid Valarie "Val" McDermid, (born 4 June 1955) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for a series of novels featuring clinical psychologist Dr. Tony Hill in a grim sub-genre that McDermid and others have identified as Tartan Noir. Biography ...

. The first featuring her recurring protagonist, Dr. Tony Hill, it was adapted into the pilot episode of

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...

's television series based on McDermid's work, ''

Wire in the Blood ''Wire in the Blood'' is a British crime drama television series, created and produced by Coastal Productions for Tyne Tees Television and broadcast on ITV from 14 November 2002 to 31 October 2008. The series is based on characters created by ...

'', starring

Robson Green Robson Golightly Green (born 18 December 1964) is an English actor, angler, singer-songwriter and presenter. His first major TV role was as hospital porter Jimmy Powell in BBC drama series '' Casualty'' in 1989. He then went on to portray Fusi ...

and

Hermione Norris Hermione Jane Norris (born 5 December 1966) is an English actress. She attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in the 1980s, before taking small roles in theatre and on television. In 1996, she was cast in her breakout role of Ka ...

. The title is part of the fifth line from the poem ''Song'' by John Donne, that was referenced in a poem by T. S. Eliot, ''

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", commonly known as "Prufrock", is the first professionally published poem by American-born British poet T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). Eliot began writing "Prufrock" in February 1910, and it was first publishe ...

''.

Synopsis

In the fictional English city of Bradfield, men are being abducted and tortured to death using brutal medieval techniques. The bodies are then found in areas frequented by gay men and women. The police reluctantly recruit a

criminal profiler Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is an investigative strategy used by law enforcement agencies to identify likely suspects and has been used by investigators to link cases that may have been committed by the same perpetrato ...

, Dr. Tony Hill. He joins forces with Detective Inspector Carol Jordan, for whom he develops complicated romantic feelings. Dr. Tony Hill has problems of his own, including a mysterious woman named Angelica who frequently calls him for phone sex. As Tony becomes increasingly involved in the investigation, it becomes apparent that the killer is seeking Tony as the next victim. The killer is revealed to be the anonymous caller Angelica, a

transgender woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and so ...

who kills men that do not return her affections. When kidnapped, Tony figures out her weakness (her desire to be loved) and uses it to avoid being tortured and murdered.

Major themes

McDermid wrote ''The Mermaids Singing'' in response to themes of misogyny she saw appearing in detective fiction. According to McDermid, Angelica, the transgender murderer in ''The Mermaids Singing'', is intended by McDermid as a subversion of and commentary on this gendered pattern; with her graphic descriptions of what Winter Elliott calls "violence exhibited on male bodies, bodies open and exhibited to the reader", McDermid reverses common patterns in crime fiction of the objectification of female bodies. Kate Watson describes ''The Mermaids Singing'' as "both within and against a prior conception and tradition of crime fiction," and as "challeng ngthe traditional grand narrative of crime fiction that defines the male as killer and female as victim." Meghan Freeman says that the book works "to ''speak to'' the voicelessness that is an important dimension of the rape victim’s violation without ''speaking for'' that victim," and "to represent the processes by which rape victims are denied the opportunity to be recognized as victims." In addition to feminist themes, ''The Mermaids Singing'' also engages in exploration of psychological profiling as a police method. Isabel Santaulària criticizes the novel for, in so doing, "ultimately endors ngthe status quo and the state apparatuses that regulate it and guarantee its preservation."

Reception and awards

''The Mermaids Singing'' was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year. While some critics have praised ''The Mermaids Singing'' for its feminism and its subversion of the crime genre, others, such as J. C. Bernthal, have criticized its "extraordinarily damaging stereotypes" about transgender women.

References

1995 British novels Novels by Val McDermid Tony Hill series HarperCollins books {{1990s-crime-novel-stub