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Praised as a "maestro of the sinister" by the New York Daily News—Mo Hayder delivers her most suspenseful novel to date. By turns thrilling and horrifying, Gone follows the investigation of a brilliant and twisted carjacker with a disturbing game to play.
Jack Caffery's newest case seems like a routine carjacking, a crime he's seen plenty of times before. But as the hours tick by and his investigation morphs into a nightmare, he realizes the sickening truth: the thief wasn't after the car, but the eleven-year-old girl in the backseat. Meanwhile, police diver Sergeant Flea Marley is pursuing her own theory of the case, and what she finds in an abandoned, halfsubmerged tunnel could put her in grave danger. The carjacker is always a step ahead of the Major Crime Investigation Unit, toying with their minds in taunting letters, and ready to strike again. As the chances for his victims grow slimmer, Jack and Flea race to fit the pieces together in time.
Gone is Mo Hayder at her terrifying best. Each dark and captivating twist reveals a new dimension to this tight-knit plot, burrowing deeper into the chilling and clever world Mo Hayder creates.
Winner of the 2012 Edgar Award for Best Novel
A carjacker in a clown's mask drives off with an 11-year-old girl in the back seat, drawing DI Jack Caffery of Bristol's major-crime unit into a multilayered plot that also brings back unsteady female police diver Flea Marley.
Hayder's fifth novel to feature Caffery (introduced in Birdman, 1999) tones down the gruesome violence (if not the creepy scenarios), delivering a brilliantly plotted mystery that keeps you guessing not only who the villain is, but what exactly he's after. With his poorly disguised antipathy toward children, Caffery is not the best choice to investigate the disappearance of little girls. But the former Londoner, who's still losing sleep over his brother's childhood disappearance, is comfortable on the missing-person trail. Helped by his unhinged but brilliant street friend, the Walking Man, he is led to a canal with a submerged barge and an odd network of air shafts. That's where Marley (introduced in Ritual, 2008) is on her own mission to make up for a traumatic past—not to mention a recent criminal act in taking responsibility for the death of a woman her drunken brother ran over. The complicated personal history of Caffery and Marley provides a compelling undercurrent, as does Marley's confessed love-hate affair with Caffery and his checkered past. She does something most mystery writers wouldn't with their star protagonist: She has him miss major clues and get outsmarted by the mother of a missing girl. But only, of course, to a point.
First-rate mystery that takes full advantage of the wintry, moonlit West Country and the unusual skills of its lady diver.
Det. Jack Caffery is called out for a carjacking case when he discovers there was an eleven year old girl in the car at the time. With very few leads, he and his team are doing everything possible to find young Martha when there's another carjacking and this one also includes a young girl.
Police diver Flea Marley has had some serious problems which led to an estrangement from Jack. Because of her lack of leadership Flea's group has become disorganized and disjointed. Pulling herself and her team together, they start their own investigation into the carjackings hoping to not only find the missing girls but to also prove their dedication and improve her team's reputation.
When the "jacker" starts sending notes to the families of the missing girls the police realize this is a much different crime. As they find themselves racing to try to rescue the girls as well as prevent more kidnappings, they realize that the kidnapper knows exactly what they're doing and what their next moves will be. Caffery finds himself even more emotionally involved with the families because of the disappearance of his brother many years ago.
Since I had never read anything by Ms. Hayder before, it felt like this was a sequel to another of her books and that the background between Jack and Flea was missing. It took quite a while for all of the bits and pieces of the cause of the tension between them to surface, which made the story drag a little.
I liked this book and I enjoyed reading it but I'd recommend that you start with the previous Mo Hayder book so that you'd have the proper background for the protagonists' relationships. Lynn Kimmerle
6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.ocsb
Posted Sun Aug 19 00:00:00 EDT 2012
Ever since Birdman (the first of this series) was available as a Free
Friday book, I've been reading all the books in this series. This one
was a little more difficult of a read, but I think that's due to so many
characters in this one and the increasing complexity of the
relationships between them. This book definitely builds upon the first
4 books, where tidbits leading into this book were hidden. I can't wait
until the next book comes out!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted Mon Oct 03 00:00:00 EDT 2011
I read about 12 pages, but so far it's interesting.The only problem is that it's hard to follow.
1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Tue Feb 12 00:00:00 EST 2013
I hope there are more books to come!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Someone described Mo Hayder as "easily today’s best writer of visceral and elemental horror." I would say without any qualification, that's an absolute UNDERSTATEMENT.
Her writing style is so easy to ready and the tone, to me at least, is what I can only describe as a bit haunting and comes at me in a way that it's impossible to put her stories down. Her characters and their situations from page to page are so real, so life-like, so believable, that the story surrounds me and takes me in so deeply that I just want to crawl through my Nook and become part of that world and interact with those people.
This it the fifth of Mo Hayder's books that I have read -- consecutively, by the way (that's how addictive her writing and stories are for me) -- and I look forward to reading everything she's ever written and will continue to write.
Weewop
Posted Fri Jan 04 00:00:00 EST 2013
I was unaware this was part of a series however now that I know I need to read the others. I loved this book, it was my first by this author and was very impressed by the storyline, characters and suspense. Highly recommend
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Posted Tue Sep 18 00:00:00 EDT 2012
Great series, impatiently waiting for the next book to come out :)
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Posted Mon Sep 10 00:00:00 EDT 2012
Loved the Jack Caffery series I have bought them all. This one was a very good story, love the way she writes and would recommend it for anyone who likes thrillers, murder mysteries, etc.
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Posted Thu May 03 00:00:00 EDT 2012
So many twists and turns, the book keeps you wondering whats going to happen next
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Posted Tue Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2012
My mom and aunt read this book and both rated it 3 stars. It sounds confusing- and honestly, i would rather read one of Carl Hiaasen's novels.
Chomp
Flush
Hoot
Scat
Ever heard of them?
0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Overview
Praised as a "maestro of the sinister" by the New York Daily News—Mo Hayder delivers her most suspenseful novel to date. By turns thrilling and horrifying, Gone follows the investigation of a ...