The Retribution is the seventh in McDermid's series featuring Hill and Jordon, and her 25th crime novel. One does not need to have read the previous novels in the series to follow the story in The Retribution.
Hill is a brilliant, lonely, and sexually troubled man, with a sad background and a number of personality defects that he shares with many of his criminal subjects. He believes this psychological kinship helps him understand their motivations and actions. With his understanding and knowledge, Hill then aids the police in capturing these violent criminals.
Jordon is an attractive, aggressive, and ambitious police officer who heads the Major Investigation Team in a fictitious British town called Bradfield. She had been one of Hill's first champions when criminal profiling was in its early stages, and the two peculiar professionals formed a personal relationship of sorts and became partners in solving crimes.
Making a return visit in The Retribution is Jacko Vance, who murdered 17 teenage girls and a police officer in The Wire in the Blood. This dark, brilliant character is a celebrated handsome millionaire former athlete with a prosthetic arm. He is also a former TV talk-show star who was once voted the sexiest man on British TV. He is charming, manipulative, and cold-blooded.
Imprisoned at the end of The Wire in the Blood, Vance sits in prison 12 years later at the beginning of The Retribution, plotting his escape and eventual revenge on the people who placed him in his cell.
Informed of Vance's eventual escape, Hill writes a report to the Home Office stating that Vance suffers from narcissistic personality disorder. The key to understanding Vance, Hill offers, is his need to be in control.
