The Treatment

Be aware that this novel is largely based on crimes against children. No filter. Somehow, the horror of the crimes don't seem to be in the narrative purely for shock value. But it makes very tough reading in parts and plays on your mind long after you finish. This is my second novel by this author and I intend to read the rest of the novels in the Jack cafferty series. Despite the harrowing content, it is clear that this author is a master of her craft. Excellent plot construction, with a natural flair for detail and easy conversations between characters. This truly is a terrifying and tense read, and its worth investigating if you love a dark thriller. Genius writer. Her publisher must dread to think what she comes up with next!!!

After learning about the tragic death of MND by the author and hearing the rave reviews for this title I'm sad to say I bought it. I must have read an entirely different book to everyone else because I found none of it dark, scary, or believable. In fact I didn't find it even mildly suspenseful or even entertaining. Not only that but it's not particularly modern even for the original 2001 sudience. WPCs haven't been termed that since the 90s. In the early 2000s we already termed female PCs, PCs. The same as their male counterparts. I could not relate to Rebecca, the DIs girlfriend who was apparently an oversexed rape survivor still traumatised by her experience the year before but trying to jump him throughout the entire book before he rapes her. Yes, that's right, we're expected to sympathise with the DI who then rapes his girlfriend who's apparently oversexed and still traumatized about the rape she experienced the year before. That put me off to the point I could no longer read on. The plot is long drawn out and lesbians call themselves dykes and make jokes about their sexuality in a way that had I not known the author was a woman I'd have believed she was a sexist, prejudiced man. Overall I rate this book on the fact the author took the time to write it. I don't regret buying it because the family could do with the royalties since her sad passing at such a young age. But I disliked the book a lot.

This is the second of Mo Hayder's "Jack Caffery" novels and I'm reading them in order. Thus far, the author's work has been enhanced by twisting (maybe that should be twisted) plots and very realistic (and very flawed) characters. I am so glad that I began by reading the first in the series – I'm not sure that you could follow several plot twists without knowing the back story. A number of reviews here have noted that the paedophilia in this novel is grotesque – there is really nothing that the author writes that is grotesque, it just seems so very unsettling if you overthink the situations (or are, like myself, a father with a son – perhaps the parent of any child). I don't like to give away any details in my book reviews here – that's what the blurbs are for – I will only say that I've been blown away by the first two novels in the series. However, there is only one reason that I don't give this book five stars... ...the Americanisation of the book is just terrible: it really isn't too much of a problem for Americans to read a "British English" book nor for a Brit to read an "American-English" book. And the changes are often just inconsistent and confusing: on one page a character has tucked a "flashlight" into his coat pocket but the, when he walks up to the dark entrance, he takes a "torch" from the same pocket. I find these changes disruptive to a smooth flow of sentences... it's like a bump in the road that makes you stop for a bit. Wholly unnecessary and, to me, almost offensive. Now don't get me started on my preferences for the proper use of quotation marks!

Detective Jack Caffery is called in once the couple is discovered. A man and his wife, imprisoned in their house for days, beaten and left to die of hunger and dehydration. Even worse, they have a young son and he is no where to be found. As the police search for the boy, they find nothing and have to wait until the parents are able to talk. By the time they find him, he is dead. Caffery has an incident in his own past that makes working on cases like this even more painful than for the other officers. His older brother, Ewan, was abducted when he was nine and never found. The police suspected a neighbor but no proof was found and the man was never arrested. Jack grew up in the house across the tracks from the probably abductor and killer of his brother. He will never be able to give up the case until he finds out the truth about what happened that day years ago. Caffery's pain seems to give him an insight into the kind of mind that could commit such crimes. That's a good thing as everyone is convinced that this type of killer will strike again. Caffery finds a related older case that no one else connected until now and it sends him on the trail of what he suspects is the next family to fall under the killer's eye. Can he discover the identity before it is too late? This is the second in the Jack Caffery novels. Readers will be fascinated by the character of Jack and his need to find a way to put to bed the truths that have haunted him his entire life. Jack's insights and abilities to go the extra mile to discover what has happened makes for a riveting novel. This book is recommended for mystery readers.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series and this one was even better. Author, Mo Hayder delivers an amazingly sad and disturbing novel about pain and suffering. There were so many characters affected by so many different levels of depravity. You feel sorry for so many characters but utter disgust for others. You want to like the protagonist but he's extremely flawed. The book was dark and tormented and I couldn't stop reading and thinking about what was going to happen next. Overall, a disturbing masterpiece.