Tome: The Ritual

Ritual by Mo Hayder

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Mo Hayder's return to the Jack Caffery series is a mixed bag. Definitely not on par with the hyper-gory Birdman or the disturbing The Treatment, it relocates Caffery to Bristol where along with a new soon-to-be recurring series character, police diver Flea Marley, he investigates the discovery of a severed human hand in the harbour.

The key problem is, the plot which is interesting though hardly outstanding hardly needs Caffery, who could have been substituted by any Detective. Marley's own baggage with regards to the drowning death of her parents and Caffery's encounter with a peripatetic vagabond known as the Walking Man, hardly adds anything to the story

The biggest cheat for fans of Birdman and The Treatment will be Hayder's jettisoning of a key sub-plot running through the first 2 Caffery books: that of the fate of Ewan Caffery, Jack's younger brother, kidnapped by paedophilic neighbour Pendericki.

Writing's still first-rate, and it's an ok enough time-pass, but hardly vintage Hayder. That honour still belongs to the masterful Tokyo.


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