Die Behandlung

Phil in SF reviewed The Treatment by Mo Hayder (Jack Caffery, #2)

Excellent, but very very intense

4 stars

Jack Caffery, brilliant detective whose past includes his brother disappearing and likely killed by a pedophile next door, is put on a case where a child is missing and increasingly likely to be dead after a pedophile ties a family up and does unspeakable things to the family. In fact, there may even be overlap between the current case and the long ago case of his brother.

The story is intense and fucked up. The families of the child victims are somewhat unlikable, and Hayder writes too many characters to make the reader think they may also be pedophiles. So while it's a well-written police procedural, I am not going to keep reading the series. Child abuse is just too infused into every aspect of the story and I'd rather read something not so depraved.

Ulf Hundeiker reviewed Die Behandlung by Mo Hayder (Jack Caffery, #2)

Vorsicht brutal!

5 stars

Vorsicht, brutal, vor allem sexuelle Gewalt gegen Kinder! Protagonist ist kein strahlender Held.

Chris reviewed The Treatment by Mo Hayder

None

4 stars

There's a film called "Notting Hill" - well, you know there is. I call it "Portland, Oregon" because for all it tells you about its Notting Hill setting it might as well be set in Portland, OR. No black people in it either and as we all know Notting Hill is very much a Black area, or was before like so many parts of London it became viciously expensive.
Same goes for Brixton and it's between Brixton and nearby Brockwell Park that "The Treatment" is set. Apart from an excursion to a caravan-haunted Norfolk to interview a character who is unfortunately straight outta Viz. And Hayder rocks it. I'm biased because my family is from that area but still, she gets the occasionally dangerous Sarf London, criss-crossed by train lines, a not-quite-London hinterland that bleeds out into Surrey and where the taxi drivers won't go.
The story and the characters, …

There's a film called "Notting Hill" - well, you know there is. I call it "Portland, Oregon" because for all it tells you about its Notting Hill setting it might as well be set in Portland, OR. No black people in it either and as we all know Notting Hill is very much a Black area, or was before like so many parts of London it became viciously expensive.
Same goes for Brixton and it's between Brixton and nearby Brockwell Park that "The Treatment" is set. Apart from an excursion to a caravan-haunted Norfolk to interview a character who is unfortunately straight outta Viz. And Hayder rocks it. I'm biased because my family is from that area but still, she gets the occasionally dangerous Sarf London, criss-crossed by train lines, a not-quite-London hinterland that bleeds out into Surrey and where the taxi drivers won't go.
The story and the characters, aye? That too. Your lead character has to be flawed, does he not, as he is super-competent in many things (fools and kings) so there must be a night of electric silence within him. People have said they didn't like him but then again he's a cop and the point is not to like him. What is the issue with the shape of his girlfriend's eyes? I have frankley no idea.
I'd say something spoileriffic about the guy who collects cameras but I won't.
Why are there rats on the cover? There's a rat on mi cover what am ah gonna do
Read this. And as I want to do also, read the others, for Mo Hayder is not the frankley overrated Martina Cole, she's better.