The title "Wire in the Blood" is a phrase that comes from T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets": "The trilling wire in the blood / sings below inveterate scars / appeasing long-forgotten wars." As for the meaning, in an interview Robson Green said the phrase was taken to mean a genetic kink, something impure and unusual in the blood, that leads to the kind of psychosis Dr. Tony Hill might deal with. Series writer Val McDermid says: "Who knows what Eliot really meant by that line? Robson's explanation is as good as any. For myself, I've always taken it to be a metaphor for the thrill of adrenaline surging through the bloodstream. But we'll never know for sure".