I didn't really need to visit the Val McDermid forum to know that the Tony and Carol shippers wouldn't like her latest Tony Hill novel, Fever of the Bone. There are, after all, great chunks of the novel where Tony and Carol aren't even working together, let alone making out, the way so many fans want them to. But I loved this book - it's my favourite Tony Hill book since Wire in the Blood. Not least because, for the first time since the TV series, also called Wire in the Blood, started, Tony Hill in the novel sounded like Tony Hill in the early books, rather than like Robson Green playing Tony Hill.

I like all Val McDermid's books, but I always feel a bit ambivalent about the Tony Hills, however good they are. I find Tony's impotence boring and Carol's drinking and the whole will-they-won't-they thing between them grates. I like Carol's team, though, especially Paula - and it was good to see more of Paula in this latest novel. I think the only other series I like despite not caring at all about the main protagonists is Elizabeth George's Linley mysteries, where in particular I can't stand St James and Deborah (and Helen!) - LInley is bearable, but Barbara's the one I read the books for.

Fever of the Bone has Tony and Carol on the trail of a serial killer who is murdering teenagers previously groomed on the social networking site, RigMarole. Although I guessed what the killings were all about before Tony and Carol did, I still haven't worked out whether RigMarole existed before the novel or appeared alongside it, given ads for the book are all over the home page. It was good to have some of the action set in Worcester, too - it's not so long since I was there for the Australia v. England Lions cricket ... Anyway, I found it hard to put this book down, and now have a long wait before a new book by Val or my other favourite crime writer, Peter Robinson. I've heard Stuart MacBride is good, so might give him a go.   

Four years ago I won a copy of Peter Robinson's Aftermath in a raffle at a Sisters in Crime event. A couple of weeks later, I took it on holiday to Noosa and devoured it in a couple of sittings. The following day I found what was then his latest book, Playing with Fire, in the newsagent, bought it and loved it as well. Over the next 12 glorious months I bought and read his backlist* (yes, an expensive raffle win, this!), following DCI Alan Banks's investigations in any old order, then found myself in the same position as I am with my other favourite crime writer, Val McDermid - having to wait 12 months between new books!

The Price of Love is his latest book - a collection of ten short stories, plus a novella featuring Alan Banks, in which he reflects on his last case before leaving the Met, 20 years ago. This was, of course, the read of the book: we get to find out how Alan got his scar and what state his marriage to Sandra was in when they lived in London (rather worse than I'd imagined from the first few books in the series). There was one thing in it that really niggled me - Banks's discussing intimate (and undisclosed to the media) details of the murders with a copper who wasn't on the case. I found that really out of character for him. But it was still an enjoyable read - and a little sad too, with Alan's reflections on how both his life then and now were/are in a mess.

The short stories vary in quality, and overall I thought this collection wasn't as good as the one he published a few years ago (Not Safe After Dark). It includes a short story featuring Frank Bascombe, the World War II 'special constable' who solved a couple of crimes in Not Safe After Dark, but this story was too obvious and therefore nowhere near as good. There are also a couple of Banks short stories, including the atmospheric and murderless 'Blue Christmas'. Probably my favourite short story was 'The Price of Love', about a young boy solving a crime. I enjoyed this for the 1960s holiday in Blackpool as much as for the plot - it brought back memories of my own childhood holidays in Blackpool boarding houses, where I was always looking out for Blyton-style crimes to solve, hopefully involving smugglers ...

Now I have 12 months to wait to find out what's going on in Banks's life, but in the interim, Val McDermid's latest, Fever of the Bone, awaits ...

*All except for one book - No Cure For Love, set in and only published in North America. I wish it would come out here!