nasty book (The Treatment - Mo Hayder)

Member Name: pje

Product:	The Treatment - Mo Hayder
Date:	30/09/01 (639 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gripping - you don't want to read on but you can't stop yourself.

Disadvantages: It's sickeningly horrible.

Now here's a challenge. How do I write about this book without
giving away too much of the plot. But not just the plot of this one, without giving away too much about it's predecessor - Birdman.
Hmmm, let's see...

Jack Caffrey is a detective inspector in his mid-30's. His younger
brother (Ewan) disappeared in 1974, Jack believes that he was
abducted by Ivan Penderecki, a known paedophile living nearby.
(Jack still lives in what used to be the family home.)

He works for the murder squad, now known as AMIT (Area Major
Investigations Pool). When we left him at the end of Birdman
[those of us that dared to read it that is] Jack Caffrey had... erm,
no I can't tell you that, can I? You really should read Birdman first, but only if you have a very strong stomach.

The Treatment opens with the discovery of the Peach family,
who have been held hostage in their own home for several days
without food or water. Alek was hit on the head and tied up, while his wife Carmel was left handcuffed in the airing cupboard. Their nine-year-old son Rory is missing.

The story that unfolds is not pleasant.

Their house backs onto Brockwell Park - a large, heavily wooded,
area between Dulwich and Brixton. The park is sealed off after
one of Rory's shoes is found there, and Caffrey is convinced that
the boy, alive or dead, must be in there somewhere. But it's dark, and they can't find him...

Rory is found, but to tell you any more than that would be giving
away too much, and anyway you really don't want to know.
Seriously - I mean that. It is very upsetting - worse than the
worst nightmare you can imagine, especially if you have kids.
You won't feel safe in your own home if you read this book.

Local children believe that a kid-eating troll lives in the woods,
and it transpires that there was a similar incide
nt years earlier.
Oh, and people who have read Birdman may want to know that
we do find out what happened to Caffrey's brother - but it's not
what you expect.

I discovered Mo Hayder after reading an opinion about Birdman
here on dooyoo. I won't name the guilty party, but if he were to
get a scalping, it would serve him right...

The Treatment is an unimaginably horrendous, unputdownable
book, but you may want to keep a sickbag handy - and you may
find that unputdownable too. You have been warned.

If being revolted by a gripping thriller is your bag then tuck in.
Personally I don't think I want to read another book like this
as long as I live!

[Note the ratings: It gets five stars, but I don't recommended it.
No comment on whether it is "entertaining".]
______________________________________________ ______

Summary: