''Fever of the Bone'' is a

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

written by noted Scottish crime 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 M ...

. It was published by Little, Brown in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

(2009) and HarperCollins for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

(2010), and is the sixth novel in the series featuring psychologist Dr. Tony Hill and Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan. Several of the books in this series have been adapted into the television series ''

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 V ...

'', 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 Fusili ...

as Tony Hill 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 ...

as Carol Jordan. Like the other novels in the series, the title of this book is inspired by a poem written by T. S. Eliot. In this instance, the poem "Whispers of Immortality" provides the source, with the lines "No contact possible to flesh Allayed the fever of the bone."

Plot

The story centers on the investigation of the murders of several teenagers who, at first, can only be connected by their use of the fictional social networking site RigMarole. Along the way, Carol has to deal with the pressures placed on her by new Chief Constable James Blake, which include an attempt to lower the costs of the investigation by using in-house profiling help instead of going to Dr. Hill. Tony, meanwhile, is dealing with a personal loss that forces him to re-examine several long-held beliefs.

RigMarole social networking site

A tie-in version of the RigMarole website was launched by Little, Brown around the time that the novel was published in Great Britain, but is no longer available.

Awards

* 2011, Barry Award for Best Paperback Novel *2011,

Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery The Lambda Literary Award for Mystery is an annual literary award, presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation, to a mystery novel by or about people in the LGBT community. Prior to 2021, the award was separated into separate categories for Gay ...

References

2009 British novels Tony Hill series Novels by Val McDermid Little, Brown and Company books Lambda Literary Award-winning works {{2000s-crime-novel-stub