Pretty good premise on the make-up of the hero detective, but I couldn’t quite deal with the Gothic excess of violence . Your mileage might vary.Our thirtysomething detective on the London police, Jack Caffery. Is damaged goods. Like a lot of tough guys in crime noir, our man has a troubled past. Caffery lost a brother as a pre-teen kid and obsesses for decades on the likely guilt of his creepy neighbor in his permanent disappearance. Instead of working like Kryptonite, the experience instead appears to give him a special push to get justice out of the universe. Still, it’s no wonder he has relationship troubles. The police procedural parts on the uncovering of the evidence of a fiendish serial killer who preys on prostitutes has some good momentum at the beginning. Lots of effective atmospherics. Shades of Jack the Ripper. And the twanging of imagination over what the killer does with the bodies in connection to the birds in the book’s title. Our Jack pursues the johns against a lot of resistance. Less capable members of the team pursue pimps and drug dealers. But it’s hard for Caffery to concentrate on his case while he is in the middle of the demise of his relationship with a manipulative girlfriend, and he is starting to get romantically inspired by one of his female interview subjects, a bohemian artist who hangs out with the women in the target pool. I liked Caffery as a character whose messy personal life adds to his commitment to work. A familiar pattern for me and many others on this planet, so there is some fascination for me to see how it works out. But this book goes over the top with how much time we spend in the mind of a psychotic serial killer and sexual sadist. This has some horrific initial impact and a righteous impetus for us to see him caught. I am just a bit tired of the apparent one-upsmanship over who can create the most twisted killer. I had my thrills with Buffalo Biill and Hannibal in “Silence of the Lambs” and some of Patterson’s best monsters. Coming from a female writer, the toying with violence pornography I suppose is intended to render a take-home message over the inevitable jadedness that emerges over time for the reader. But I don’t get enlightenment or pathos like I do from reading about, say, the trials of Christ, soldiers at war, or people in a holocaust. I think I can see the higher purpose in the revelations about evil in books by the likes of Vachss and James Lee Burke. This one makes me wonder about the meaning of the term “gratuitous violence”. It also leaves me curious about the foundations of attraction to the broad genre of Gothic horror, which this seems to partake of.
I have been meaning to read this series for a long time and finally made a start. It’s always exciting when you start a new series and this one certainly got my attention. Jack Caffery is certainly a great lead and his very clear and troubling issues actually made him more likeable. He is called into a murder scene which I was expecting to be like numerous others I’ve read about. One thing that was very apparent from the start right through to the end is that this book is not for the faint hearted.Mo Hayder has a certain way with the descriptive, gruesome and at times stomach turning scenes. The book certainly leans towards the more graphic type of crime novels I read, or maybe it was that the crimes themselves are rather dark and disturbing. That aside, the story was well paced, albeit there were a few clichéd moments. I got stuck into it really easily and found myself ploughing through nearly one half of the book in one sitting.There were quite a few shock value moments which I mostly didn’t see coming and overall the book has a really dark and creepy feel to it. It’s made all the more enjoyable seeing Caffery do some real police work which includes making some cock-ups. I can see why this series has been such a hit with people and as soon as I was coming to the end of the book I wanted to go straight onto book 2. Sadly with other books taking preference it will have to wait. However, I can see me catching up in no time if the follow up books are anything like this one. I’m certainly looking forward to getting stuck in!
No matter where I lay this book, it immediately improved the visual aspects of that space. True, even when it lay half hazard amid the detritus of day to day. And it is not only the visual aspects that appeal; there is a feeling of what? present. And you’re drawn back, again, considering. This book doesn’t just reside here, it rocks, it rolls, it rules. Great and clever cover art!Which brings us to the story and it’s a good one. Meet British, Detective Inspector Jack Caffery. He is young, driven and methodical but he is also haunted by the long ago disappearance of his brother Ewan as a child. In the opening, the dead bodies of five women are found, dumped in a wasteland, near the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, England. They have all been horribly, brutally mutilated and carry a singular, macabre signature. Not even one of these women has been reported missing, suggesting the killer has taken some care in selecting his victims.Hayder pulls no punches here as she takes you on a slow and sinister creep ride into the world of a sexual sadist, through the corridors of crime most foul. Warning though, this one is not for the faint of heart. I confess I was reminded of Harris’s Hannibal Lecter as I read this, none the less it is written well enough to stand on its own. This marks the first Mo Hayder novel I have read. It will not be the last.
—Arah-Lynda
Ok, so Mo Hayder's got a sick and twisted mind. Only that can explain these dark and bloody stories she writes.But I'm not complaining, far from it! Birdman, disgusting as it is, is an addictive story. I couldn't leave it when I needed to, and kept thinking about it when I wasn't reading. I kept thinking who could be the terrifying psychopath who was killing those women in such gross ways. And when I (and, I guess, all the readers) thought I had it all figured out, the story takes an interesting turn and..Well, you'd better read it if you want to know. ;)The only thing I didn't like that much, meaning these five stars are more like four and a half rounded up, was the police jargon that was use. That and the police ranks' initials, all things I know nothing about. So I spent some parts of the book without really knowing what they were talking about, and that made me enjoy the story a little less.Despite this, it is a great book. I definitely recommend it.
—Cat
First impressions-I didn't have a connection with any of the characters, really. There were a couple that I found irritating, and looked forward to their demise, but there was no closure as far as that was concerned. The main character didn't really do it for me. Yes, he had a loss in his past, but that secondary story didn't intrigue me. He had a crappy girlfriend, but that didn't draw any sympathy from me. Dump her, move on. The first half of the book kind of dragged for me. It was procedural. And I know real life police procedure is not quick and exciting like TV, but this is not real life either. I kinda wanted to be entertained, drawn in to the characters and the story. Consequently I struggled through the first half. Secondary impressions-I like horror and gore as much as the next guy. I read a lot of it in many different forms. The dead things and mutilation in this book didn't shock me. I suppose it should have, I might need to take a closer look at myself, though. I actually found it welcomed because the first half had been a bit of a drag. I think if some of the detail that was painstakingly put in to those scenes and characters had been put into the other characters it would have overall been a better experience for me. Lasting impressions-Generally I liked the writing. It was gritty and dark. I can see why some people really liked the book. Overall I liked it, but didn't love it. I'll probably read more Mo Hayder, but unlike many new-to-me authors I find that I like, I'm not going to binge read the series. Eventually...possibly.
—E.
