The death of Mo Hayder last year from motor neurone disease at just 59 was a major loss to crime and thriller fiction, not just in Britain but internationally.
Her debut novel, ‘Birdman’ is devastating for its brutality and unflinching look at an appalling crime; the ritual murder of five women in London. Its successor, ‘The Treatment’, goes even further to explore an unbearable crime.
Her main protagonist, Detective Inspector Jack Caffery, is young, driven… and haunted by the disappearance of his brother as a child, possibly at the hands of a local paedophile. In these two, and a further four Caffery novels, Hayder examines evil at its most extreme, made more unbearable by its mundane everyday setting.Start with ‘Birdman’, and if you’re tough enough to reach the end, you’ll be hooked.
