EVERY PARENTS WORST NIGHTMARE (The Treatment - Mo Hayder)

Member Name: indigojade

Product:	The Treatment - Mo Hayder
Date:	08/08/02 (420 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Continutation of Birdman, You find out what happened to Caffery's brother

Disadvantages: sickening, poisonous book

I first came across Mo Hayder, author of The Treatment, in her first book - Birdman. I am a great fan of anything murder/mystery/thriller so I turned the pages of the book rapidly until I reached the bizarre ending. Although a pretty gruesome story, Birdman certainly whetted my appetite for Mo Hayder's further writings.

In The Treatment, we once again meet with Detective Inspector Jack Caffery of the AMIT squad (Area Major Investigations Pool) in the south London area. Caffery as well as heading the murder squad and trying to find the perpetrator committing the dreadful crimes is trying to unscramble his own life. His life as we find out in Birdman is blighted by a dreadful skeleton in his closet. As a young boy, he had a tiff with his brother - Ewan. Ewan ran off and since then has never been seen again. Caffery blames himself for Ewan's disappearance, as do his family. He still lives in his childhood home and keeps a shrine as it were to his brother. The main suspect for Ewan's disappearance is Ivan Penderecki - a known paedophile who lives over the train tracks at the back of Caffery's house. Despite intensive investigation by the police, no evidence has ever been found against him regarding the disappearance of Ewan.

This storyline is continued in The Treatment as just one more agony of Caffery - the conclusion, if you can call it that is certainly an interesting one and not beyond belief.


The book begins with the appalling discovery of a husband and wife in their home; both are badly dehydrated and beaten. The husband is tied to a radiator and the wife has been locked in the airing cupboard, having been left there for three days. Worse yet their 9-year-old son Rory is missing and a bloodied trainer is found in the expansive Brockwell Park to the rear of their home.

A huge search ensues using men, dogs and helicopters - nothing is found, just a hazy circle on the helicopter's screen that no one can fat
hom at all. Rory is eventually found in a place where you wouldn't imagine at all, to reveal whether he is dead or alive would spoil the plot line, so I will let you read it if you dare.

As the events and details of the investigation are unrolled before you, you will feel sickened beyond belief. It is a book that will have you rushing out to your nearest hardware store to buy the biggest and strongest bolts and locks you can buy, not to mention bars for the windows as well!


The subject of children being taken is always going to be an emotive one, but this book was plain devastating. Not just for the agony of the parents of the child, whose agony must be beyond belief in this book, but also for the things that have happened to the child.

The twists and turns in the story are almost more than you can bear to read, at the same time you find yourself turning the pages faster and faster to reach the ending. Hayders imagery is fantastic in parts - you really feel as though you are there. I had to stop reading this book at nighttime as I found I was feeling uncomfortable in my own home, checking the doors were securely locked and windows closed. Although her excellent imagery transports you to the scenes, at times you really wish it didn't.

If after reading this you are still curious about the book, then read it, although I really wouldn't recommend it. After finishing the book I went and gave James the biggest cuddle of his life and didn't want to let go. I shed many tears whilst reading this book and certainly would not read it again, I finished the book a few weeks ago and it has certainly left a monumental impression - so strong an impression that after reading it, I burnt it. Some of you may find this an extreme reaction - after all it is only a story, but I felt absolute outrage that this woman could write such an appalling story. I must admit, although I finished the book, I doubt very much that I would buy o
r read another Mo Hayder book as long as I live.

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