The use of shock and awe can be a powerful tool. The American's use it in war; be it dropping a nuclear bomb on Japan or subduing Iraq in days. In film shock and awe is used to make events have increased impact from Vader telling Luke 'I am your Father', to the revealing scene in 'The Crying Game'. Neither of these films would have worked quite as well without these memorable elements. Well shock and awe it seems can also be used in novel form and Mo Hayder's 'Birdman' is one of the first books that I have seen it used well. The dark crime novel is a genre packed full of grisly murders and depressing scenes. Most of them contain death after death after death until .  Read the complete review

There's a sadistic killer on the loose in Greenwich, London. At first, one young woman has been found murdered and dumped on wasteland, but she's not the only one. Another four are found shortly afterwards. They are all found to have been ritualistically murdered, raped and mutilated, each with a disturbing signature, revealed during post-mortem, linking them. It's up to Detective Inspector Jack Caffrey to investigate and catch the killer before any more women come to harm, but it's not going to be easy. Birdman is Mo Hayder's first novel and the first in her Jack Caffrey series of books. The Gardian newspaper called it a "first class shocker" and I ...  Read the complete review

In the authors humble opinion there are generally two types of good book (not including the bible of course!), on the one hand, you have the carefully crafted story, painting characters in tiny detail and almost always having something fairly philosophical to say about life; on the other hand the tense thriller the book that gathers pace as it progresses towards climax and is usually aimed at pointing out how screwed up modern society can make people. This is Mo Hayder's debut novel and it is a good one, Birdman fits into the latter of the above, a thriller with pace, a clever plot line and scores of characters well and truly screwed up. Now, I am an avid ...  Read the complete review

The Metropolitan police’s murder squad is called out to find five young women ritually murdered and dumped near the Millennium Dome. DI Jack Caffery is leading the hunt for the serial killer, but faces problems within the team and from his own past. Can he stop the killer before the body count gets any higher? For a first novel, Mo Hayder has written a quite startling work. She does not shy away from putting in gore – indeed, she seems to relish it. The book is not for the faint-hearted, as the descriptions are graphic and the killer is certainly a very sick person. The author throws in numerous twists and turns and on more than one ...  Read the complete review