VAL McDERMID (b.1955) - photo 1
VAL McDERMID (b.1955) - photo 2
VAL McDERMID (b.1955) - photo 3
VAL McDERMID (b.1955) - photo 4
VAL McDERMID (b.1955) - photo 5

VAL McDERMID (b.1955)

Lot 60
12.07.2022 14:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 756
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 794321
Lot 60 | VAL McDERMID (b.1955)
Estimate value
£ 1 000 – 1 500
VAL McDERMID (b.1955)
The Mermaids Singing. London: Harper Collins, 1995.
‘People sometimes balk at the detailed descriptions of the killings’: first edition, signed and annotated by the author with almost 2000 words of insightful remarks. The Mermaids Singing introduces the clinical psychologist Tony Hill, who is tasked with profiling a serial killer targeting men in the fictional northern city of Bradfield. It was the winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Macallan Gold Dagger Award For Best Crime Novel Of The Year (1995) and was the first in a series of crime novels adapted for television as Wire in the Blood (2002-2008). McDermid’s handwritten annotations bring to light her writing process (‘My books always start with story’), the ways this novel differs from her previous work, and her methods of research before Google: ‘I got some very strange looks from booksellers and librarians when I asked if they had any illustrated guides to torture’. She explains how technological advances since 1995 would lead to a very different novel today, as well as why she deliberately chose to write about male victims. Across both sides of the rear blank endpaper and the pastedown, McDermid humorously explains how this first edition was accidentally printed and issued without the last three pages of text, which led all unsold copies to be recalled and a new version to be printed: ‘I bet there are people out there who have never read another of my books after that. “That Val McDermid, she writes bloody awful endings”.’

Octavo. Original black cloth, silver lettering to spine, pictorial dust jacket.
Place of origin:United Kingdom
Auction house category:Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
28.06.2022 – 12.07.2022
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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