What do You think about Ritual (2008)?
This is the third Jack Caffrey book and by far less violent then the other two. Jack is still tormented by his brother's disappearance some 30 years ago, but angrier. He is investigating a mutilation case where only two hands are found. The story gets really interesting because not only does he have to find out who the hands belong to, but also who did it. It was a little disappointing to see that Jack has become even more negative and aggressive. I am looking forward to reading more Jack Caffrey books with hopes that his darkness keeps on getting deconstructed.
—Gord James
I'm sorry to say that Ritual was a disappointment for me.Mo Hayder hit two grand slams with Birdman and The Treatment. These were two crime thrillers that stood out from such a thickly saturated genre. Quite the feat for a new writer on the scene.My gushing reviews on these:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...What made these great was how successful she was at engaging the readerin not only the storyline of the crimes at hand, but the personal struggles of the main protagonist, Jack Caffrey. Running in parallel, these aspects of those novels had me glued to the pages. My care meter was running into the red for the poor victims, for Caffrey, and for what happened to Caffrey's brother.My expectations with Ritual ran as high as they did with The Treatment.But what I got was not so much progression with Caffrey, but an introduction to a couple of new characters, which I guess now will continue for further novels. And the case? Well, nowhere near as shocking as what had happened in the previous two novels.So I went from two novels that equally hooked me with two running storylines to one that struggled to hold my interest on both fronts.I'm rating this one two stars, because that indicates "it was ok". If the first two books hadn't been so outstanding, I would stop the series here. But Caffrey's character was the most interesting inspector I'd come across, so I'm giving Mo a mulligan here. But I'll be giving Skin the 50 page rule when I get to it.
—Bill
Three years have passed since the events in The Treatment, and Jack has moved to Bristol for a change. He still doesn't know what we, the readers, know concerning his missing brother Ewan, but Jack no longers feels magnetized to the places Ewan could be. None of this stops him from being the miserable creature he is, and he is quickly turning into a Class-A jerk. We are introduced to new characters, namely Sgt. "Flea" Marley, a professional diver who seems to be in charge of this case while battling her own demons from the past. This case begins with the discovery of two severed hands and no sign of a corpse...and from that point on, things get very convoluted. I had a hard time getting into this book; the first two chapters read like scuba diving instructions, and the African/witchdoctor theme was really not my thing. Then pile on some more storylines..."Flea's" angst over her parents' deaths, her angst over her simple brother, Jack's angst about Ewan, his angst over his ex, Jack and the Walking Man...etc.I also had a hard time keeping up with the characters...many of the African names looked similar and I had to backtrack several times to remember who they all were and what roles they played. I miss the old Caffery, but have hopes he can turn his life around. Despite my nitpicking, Ritual was still pretty good due to Mo Hayder's excellent prose. On to book 4. :)
—Sarah
