Birdman - Hardcover

Hayder, Mo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 038549694X ISBN 13: 9780385496940

Publisher: Doubleday, 1999

Synopsis

Detective Inspector Jack Caffery must confront the demons of his own past while searching for the psychopathic killer responsible for the brutal murders and mutilations of five young women, all of whom had worked at a strip club near a local medical school.

About this title

Review:

This crackling psychological thriller introduces police detective Jack Caffery, on the hunt for a serial killer nicknamed "The Millennium Ripper" by the British tabloids after the bodies of five prostitutes are unearthed beneath the rubble of a Greenwich landfill. All the victims were raped and their bodies horrendously mutilated--but not until after they were killed by a dose of heroin injected directly into the brain stem. What stuns Caffery even more than the post-mortem savagery is the one detail of the murders the public doesn't know; the hearts of the women were replaced with birds that were still alive when they were sewn into the victims' chests. Caffery himself is a tortured man, still burdened by guilt over the decades- old murder of his younger brother and frustrated because he cannot bring the man he knows to have been responsible to the bar of justice. When the Millennium Ripper confesses to the prostitute killings just before taking his own life, Caffery faces his own limitations and begins to make peace with his past. But then another prostitute is found dead, her body savaged in the same way, a bird where her heart was, and Caffery realises that his past may never truly be put to rest. A solid page turner, this gripping debut by a young Englishwoman introduces a complex and fascinating protagonist destined for another appearance. Meanwhile, Birdman will enthral readers who just can't get enough of Hannibal Lechter. -- Patrick O'Kelley

Review:

"Not for the faint-hearted... what sets Birdman apart is Hayder's talent" (Sunday Express)

"A first-class shocker... a frightening mix of forensics, thrills, analytical police work and poetic images... a young writer in touch with her dark side and a major new talent" (Guardian)

"Wickedly constructed... Her cast of suspects is the most spooky since Dickens... The detail, if you can stomach it, is fascinating" (Daily Telegraph)

"Hayder's vibrant narrative and crunchy characterisation propel the book along to its denouement with fearsome velocity" (The Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 038549694X
• ISBN 13: 9780385496940
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 327