Lets hope therest of the series is better...
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I normally love Mo Hayder books and I was looking forward to her latest but I was left feeling very disappointed after reading this one. The main character Jack Cafferty seems like a completely different man and the other leading character (Flea) is just weird. I found that I didn't really understand how all the characters fitted together. The `Walking Man' seemed not to be important but clearly he will be involved in the future books. I did find the topic of African Rituals very interesting and I was gripped by the scenes with Mossy in his lair. The story was easy to follow even though the timeline jumped around although I found it predictable and was not surprised by the ending. It's just frustrating because we know that Mo Hayder can do better.
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A gripping read
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I really enjoyed this book. Even though it didn't quite match the graphic horror of Birdman or The Treatment, it could still chill my blood. Mo Hayder writes about an unusual killing (or is it???) when a human hand without a body is found. Jack Caffery, who we know from the earlier books mentioned, is assigned the case; his first after his relocation to Bristol. I also enjoyed his new partner, a police force diver. Her position in the Force gave the story a different angle over other, similiar books. I didn't want to put it down. It certainly isn't your typical mystery novel.
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What a disappointment
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Let me start by saying that I love Mo Hayders books, she goes where no female author has gone before. So when I saw that she had written another Jack Caffery novel I was eagerly expectant, but what a disappointment, at no time did this grip me, easily put down and a bit of a chore to pick up. I couldn't relate to any of the characters, they all seemed rather two dimensional, normally you can see a character in your mind, get a flavour of the person, but not this time, I actively dislike Flea the new female police diver, and even Jack seemed oddly insubstantial. And as for The Walking Man, Walk away!
The whole book had an ethereal unworldly feel to it, apparently this is the first novel in a series featuring the walking man. I'm afraid the second book will have to improve greatly to make me want to stick with a whole series of novels.
Mo Hayder has earned the right to produce the odd duff story, all authors throw at least one out, but she could lose a lot of fans by perpetuating the error.
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Good but not the best
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After the disappointment of Pig Island I, like a number of other reviwers on this page, eagerly awaited the new Caffrey novel. Its good to see it set in Somerset, an area Mo obviously knows well, from living in the area, and some of the settings, particularly the restaurant, whilst parading with a pseudonym are obvious to those who spend time out and about in Bristol.
But what of the novel? Well, its not Birdman or the Treatment, but better than Pig Island, as as others say, it appears a book which sets up what could be a good series.
If you are a Mo fan, worth a read; if you are new to her works, I would suggest you start with Birdman and The Treatment, then read this - the earlier works explain more about Caffrey [the central character] than you will gain from this novel.
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A Real Edge of Your Seat Nail-Biter
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Police diver Phobe "Flea" Marley is more at home under water, no matter how murky, than she is on dry land. Her parents were lost in a cave dive in Bushman's Hole in South Africa, they went down and never returned, so perhaps she feels closer to them when she's diving, or maybe she feels guilty, because she didn't go down with her folks that day.
Someone has reported a severed hand in Bristol's floating harbor and Flea goes down looking for it and the rest of the body. There is no body and the hand is fresh. Could the victim still be alive? Not long after the second hand is found, still no body though, so DI Jack Caffrey is put in charge of the case and, like Flea, he's got problems from his past that plague him. When he was younger his brother had been taken, probable molested and murdered.
Meanwhile young, drug taking, male prostitute Mossy has been captured by some very bad people. They take some of his blood to be used in an African ritual and it seems they're going to take his hands next for use in still another.
Ms. Hayder effortlessly flows from not only point of view, but from point of time as well. One minute keeping us in the present with Flea and Caffrey and taking us back a couple days in the following chapter with poor Mossy, bringing us forward again, then back again, a technique that kept me riveted. I knew what was going to happen to Mossy, gruesome as it was, but was held spellbound waiting for it.
Ms. Hayder's characters are as believable as any out there. She puts you in their heads, makes you feel for them. Both Flea and Caffrey are damaged goods and we care about them. That is the mark of a good storyteller, making her people real.
The novel builds toward a climax that I didn't see coming and I was well fooled as to who the bad guy was. I was so sure I was onto it, so sure I had the ending pegged, then the book took a twist I didn't see coming. A first rate police thriller this is. A real edge of your seat nail-biter. A pulse-racing thriller of the first order. I can't praise this book highly enough.
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