Val McDermid. (Photo courtesy Thomaston Public Library) On Thursday, June 3, at 2 p.m., Thomaston Public Library’s Mystery Book Group will return to in-person meetings in the library’s Community Conference Room on the second floor of the Academy Building. The book group will be discussing works by Scottish crime writer Val McDermid, with two suggested titles that book club members are welcome to pick between: The Mermaids Singing or A Place of Execution. The Mermaids Singing is the first in the Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series, and is a particularly dark and grisly mystery. From the publisher: “You always remember the first time. Isn’t that what they say about sex? How much more true it is of murder… Up till now, the only serial killers Tony Hill had encountered were safely behind bars. This one’s different – this one’s on the loose. In the northern town of Bradfield four men have been found mutilated and tortured. Fear grips the city; no man feels safe. Clinical psychologist Tony Hill is brought in to profile the killer. A man with more than enough sexual problems of his own, Tony himself becomes the unsuspecting target in a battle of wits and wills where he has to use every ounce of his professional skill and personal nerve to survive.”