Book excerpt: Psychologist Tony Hill and ex-DCI Carol Jordan—the UK crime fighting partners from the TV series Wire in the Blood—face down a serial killer. International bestselling crime writer Val McDermid’s work speaks for itself: her books have sold millions of copies worldwide, won numerous accolades, and attracted a devoted following of readers around the globe. Cross and Burn picks up where The Retribution left off: following the best crime-fighting team in the UK—clinical psychologist Tony Hill and police detective Carol Jordan—who when we last saw them were barely speaking, and whose relationship will now be challenged even further. But just because they’re not talking doesn’t mean the killing stops. Women are being murdered—ones who bear an unsettling resemblance to Carol Jordan. And when the evidence begins to point in a disturbing direction, thinking the unthinkable seems the only possible answer. Cornered by events, Tony and Carol are forced to fight for themselves and each other as never before. “McDermid is as smooth a practitioner of crime fiction as anyone out there . . . She’s the best we’ve got.” —The New York Times Book Review