Birdman
(Jack Caffery Book 1): the gruesome and gripping first book in the bestselling Jack Caffery series
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4.0 • 20 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
This dark and disturbingly compelling thriller is not for the faint-hearted. Perfect for fans of Stephen King, Karin Slaughter and Stuart MacBride.
'A first-class shocker . . . a frightening mix of forensics, thrills, analytical police work and poetic images.' Guardian
'Wickedly constructed . . . The detail, if you can stomach it, is fascinating.' Daily Telegraph
'Hayder's vibrant narrative and crunchy characterisation propel the book along to its denouement with fearsome velocity.' The Times
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THE RITUAL HAS TO END. SOON.
Greenwich, south-east London: Detective Inspector Jack Caffery - young, driven, unshockable - is called to one of the most gruesome crime scenes he has ever seen. Five young women have been ritualistically murdered and dumped on wasteland near the Millennium Dome. Subsequent post-mortems reveal a singular, horrific signature linking the victims.
Soon Caffery realises that he is on the trail of that most dangerous offender: a serial killer. Beset by animosity within the police force, haunted by the memory of a very personal death long ago, Caffery employs every weapon forensic science can offer to hunt him down.
Because he knows that it is only a matter of time before this sadistic killer strikes again...
'WOW! This is one scary thriller, gripping from the first page to the last.' Five star reader review
'I was hooked!' Five star reader review
'An exhilarating, but disturbing, read that has you on the edge of your seat from the get go.' Five star reader review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Treading the grisly path blazed by Thomas Harris in 1981 with Red Dragon, promising newcomer Hayder crafts a blood-curdlingly creepy debut thriller set near the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, England. When Det. Insp. Jack Caffery is called in to investigate the puzzling murder of a young woman, he is confronted by a host of ghastly details, not the least of which is a live bird sewn inside the brutally mangled corpse. The timing of the case could not be worse: DI Caffery's relationship with his girlfriend is on the rocks; there's a new DI from CID who's trying to usurp Caffery's Golden Boy status with the superintendent; and Caffery's obsession with his next-door neighbor, a convicted pedophile who Caffery believes may have murdered Caffrey's own long-missing brother, has reached a confrontational stage. The detective and his good-natured partner, Paul Essex, focus the murder case on a seedy local pub, which is both the locus of the area's illegal activities and the watering hole for workers at a nearby hospital, one of whom, Caffery thinks, must be the surgically trained killer. Caffery's CID competitor targets a local black drug dealer, which ups the political and media ante uncomfortably. Caffery's more methodical approach leads him to the man he believes is the killer, whose suicide convinces him he's right. But when more bodies turn up with the same trademark mutilations, Caffery must start all over again, and his new findings lead him to an altogether more appalling conclusion. Hayder is impressively successful in appealing to a broad, multigenre fan base (mystery/police procedural, thriller, horror). She displays a good working knowledge of forensics and English police procedures, and Birdman's plot has more twists than a surgeon's knot. But the weak of stomach are forewarned--her graphic imagination knows no bounds. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild featured selection.
