Tangled Web UK Review December 2008
Ritual by
Mo Hayder
pbk out November 08
(Bantam)
at £6.99
Police diver Flea Marley finds a severed hand in the water of Bristol’s floating harbour. A second hand is discovered buried under a nearby restaurant. Forensics show that the hands were removed from the body while the victim was still alive. It’s a ghastly scenario and the police, in the shape of troubled DI Jack Caffrey, must try and work out not only who the victim was but why someone would do this to him. Initially it looks like a punishment connected to drugs trafficking but working on parallel lines Caffrey and Flea are led to an even more deadly trade with links to ancient African rituals. Hayder’s stories excel in the gruesome, they include gut-curdling descriptions and the novels are as much horror as they are crime. But they are not simply schlock-fests because Hayder is a master at creating unique and fully-realised characters. DI Caffrey is a haunted man, traumatised by the disappearance and murder of his young brother; he lives on the brink of mental collapse. Flea Marley has her own demons, having lost both her parents in a tragic accident. Victim Mossy is a creation we have great sympathy for as he enters a hellish world, lured by the promise of money to get into rehab. An all-consuming read.
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries and the series creator of TV Blue Murder)
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