Skin

There are plenty of missing persons and dead bodies scattered throughout this book. Some of the circumstances are linked, some are not. That keeps the reader thinking throughout. On top of all this, the two principal police officers involved have their own personal problems, which become more complicated as soon as their paths cross. One is a female sergeant who leads a dive team, the other is a male detective inspector who works in the major crimes unit. There is the horror left in the wake of a skin collector, and a fair amount of African ritual and suspicion. To say any more would only spoil the read for you. Personally, I found the ending to be a bit of an anti-climax. You may not, so I would recommend that you read the story for yourself.

Mo Hayder has a deliciously dark and devious imagination. I've been a die hard fan of hers since I plucked Birdman, the first of the Jack Caffery books, off the shelf. Skin is the fourth in the series. Jack is now a Detective Inspector with the Bristol Major Crimes Investigation Unit. Young women, apparent suicides, are turning up throughout the city. Jack begins to question the suicide verdict when he discovers they all have a connection to a set of quarries, known to attract the desperate. Flea Marley is the police diver charged with hunting for clues or bodies in the depths. But Flea is over her head in more ways than one. The story line involving her brother is a train wreck just waiting to happen. That's just a very, very bare bones summary of the plot. Hayder's plotting is much more layered and complex. There's no way to predict which way the story is going to turn. I appreciate being Fans of Thomas Harris and John Sandford would enjoy this series. There's a cover blurb from another favourite author of mine - Karin Slaughter. I'll be watching for the 5th in the series - Gone - to hit the North American shelves.kept on my toes. Skin is a murder mystery but so much more. Hayder injects her trademark creepiness into the story, turning up the thriller dial yet another notch. Caffery is a complex character. He has a strong moral compass, but it doesn't always point north. His sense of justice does not always follow what the law says. Throughout the series, I've changed my opinion about him a few times, but he is always a mesmerizing protagonist. Caffery is a tortured soul, trying to rid himself of the past. Skin lets us explore the character of Flea in more depth. She too is a damaged soul. A definite creepy, chilling page turner. I would suggest starting with the beginning of this series, to really get to know the character. Skin opens just after the previous book Ritual ends. The case from Ritual is referenced and there is some carry over of plot. Fans of Thomas Harris and John Sandford would enjoy this series. There's also a cover blurb from another favourite author of mine - Karin Slaughter. I'll be waiting for the 5th in this series - Gone - to hit the North American shelves.

Reason for Reading: Next in the series and Mo Hayder is my favourite author in the world! (at the moment) Summary: A suicide is found and everything points to case closed, though the ex-husband does show concern that things don't seem right. When another suicide with the same MO shows up Jack Caffery asks to be put on the case as he has found some connections between the two. At the same time celebrity rich girl, Misty Kitson, has simply vanished and police diver Flea Marley has been called in to search a few lakes and a quarry. Flea and Jack do not work together in this novel, they are off on their own this time. Jack's case takes him to a very strange human being and a sick prolific serial killer while Flea is hit out of the blue by a family problem that she must deal with and it is something that will change her life forever. Comments: First off the mystery story was quite good, it did lack Hayder's trademark gruesomeness and weirdness which I've come to expect but still a strange enough case to be worthy of Hayder's talent. Flea's story, however, is the one that gets the reader's blood thumping. Not exactly a mystery as we learn the facts as quickly as Flea does but more pure thriller. What Hayder has done in this book is examine her main characters personalities and moral boundaries. From earlier books we know what Jack is capable of, but he has shown determinedly to prove himself the better man he knows he can be. Flea we've only seen from one side, this novel tests her boundaries and between them both Mo Hayder has created two very unique main character detectives for a police procedural series. Are they likable? "Can" they be likable? What does it say about the reader if he does like them? Personally, I did not like Jack the first time I met him in "Birdman" but I grew to like him quite quickly. At this time I do still like both Flea and Jack but with caveats and I must see what the next book brings before I make any final decisions. But whether I like them or not as persons, I love them as the unique, distinct detective team in Hayder's twisted thrillers with plots that no one else could write.

There are all kinds of protagonists, but the two featured in this novel (after first appearing in "Ritual") are very different. Jack Caffery and Phoebe ("Flea") Marley carry pretty heavy baggage from their past, but they get the job done somehow in this thrilling police procedural, despite their individual quirks and iconoclastic attitudes. DI Caffery is engaged in two separate investigations which somehow become intertwined with an escapade in which Flea is involved. As a result, he has to weigh whether or not to expose Flea's efforts or to keep silent. One case involves a series of strange deaths, initially thought to be suicides, although Caffery believes them to be murders. Another has to do with a missing person, a woman who may or may not also be such a victim, but no body has been found. Marley is a police diver and the descriptions of her efforts, especially in the opening scene, are especially gripping, as Flea is seeking the body of the MisPer in a flooded quarry, diving deeper and deeper beyond recommended depths and apparently seeing a supernatural sight. Both she and Caffery think there is a "Tokoloshe" in the area, a creature out of African witchcraft. This sequel is so tightly written and absorbing one can hope that the author can follow up with more such unusual efforts in the future. Recommended.

Mo Hayder strikes again with a new thriller, calling on familiar protagonists from Ritual, DI Jack Caffrey of Bristol's Major Crime Investigation Unit and Police underwater search unit lead Sergeant Flea Marley. Having run into one another on a prior investigation that introduced the Tokoloshe and ancient African rituals called muti, the pair cross paths once more. While Caffrey remains unconvinced in the resolution of the ritual murders in the last case and suspicious about a string of missing local women, Flea is diving Elf's Grotto, a network of flooded quarries outside the city in search of the body of a missing celebrity wife escaped from rehab, discovering instead a mutilated pet. The spark between Caffrey and Marley is rekindled, although each is off on other pursuits in this novel, a twisted skein of false starts, apparent suicides and a family problem that sets Flea spinning. To add to the thrills, Hayder throws in a particularly dark figure, a surgeon obsessed with collecting the skin of female patients. Although his connection to recent events seems remote, eventually the focus turns to the surgeon's rural home and an ethical conundrum for Caffrey. Meanwhile, Flea has her own ethical issues, caught in an increasingly difficult situation and an uncomfortable contretemps with the brother who got her into trouble in the last novel. On parallel tracks, both cases are fascinating, bizarre and gruesome, Hayder never flinching from the details of human depravity and the methodology of serial murders. As their paths converge in a shocking ending, the author proves once again her genius when it comes to the dark side. DI Caffrey and Sergeant Marley are certain to meet again in another explosive adventure, but Hayder will surely line the trail with a series of gruesome details. The thriller is Hayder's genre, a clever juxtaposition of regular police investigation with the realities of the autopsy room and the infinite varieties of serial murder, none for the faint of heart. In equal proportions of mystery and gore, the banal takes on a new dimension when a twisted mind is at play- and there is always one behind the scenes in Hayder's work. Like a vampire hunter, Hayder is fearless in the face of human depravity, a connoisseur of the macabre, by definition ever an outrageous experience for loyal fans. Luan Gaines/2009.