December 20, 2010
A carjacking goes from bad to horrifying in Hayder's gripping fifth thriller featuring Bristol Det. Insp. Jack Caffery and Sgt. Phoebe "Flea" Marley (after Skin). When Rose Bradley's car is stolen with her 11-year-old daughter, Martha, inside, it appears to be a routine snatch-and-grab. It becomes clear, however, that the carjacker had his sights set on the girl, not the vehicle, when he begins taunting the police, who scramble to find clues to Martha's whereabouts. Jack soon discovers a pattern of similar kidnappings disguised as car thefts, with the level of violence ratcheted up in each case. As Jack tracks the kidnapper above ground, Flea's search takes her below ground and underwater into a decommissioned canal and tunnel, where she fights to save her own life and that of the kidnapped child. Hayder expertly brings to life the claustrophobia of Flea's dives and the emotional burden of the case on Jack.
October 17, 2011
A brisk western turns introspective in Vanderhaeghe’s (The Last Crossing) latest when a rich Canadian man’s son tries to make good as a rancher in the Montana Territory only to have the locals turn against him. Rather than work for the Canadian government, Wesley Case spurns his father’s wishes and uses the last of his military pay to buy a ranch outside Fort Benton, in 1876 a rough frontier town facing a looming Sioux uprising after Custer’s last stand. From his new home, Wesley is well positioned to relay military information between Major Walsh, his old Canadian commander, and Major Ilges, the head of Fort Benton. In time, he crosses paths with the charming, outspoken Ada Tarr, the bored wife of a crooked frontier lawyer, and comes across old foe Michael Dunne, a Canadian farm boy who made good by spying on Civil War collaborators. Michael makes his living trading information in Fort Benton—and also admires Ada—and greatly resents Wesley’s intrusion. The collision of lives on the harsh edge between the wild and the settled, slow to unspool, finally pays dividends as Wesley finds himself torn between the community he’s invested in and a world he outwardly spurns but uses to his advantage. This tension draws out a potentially tedious journey of paper-shuffle politics into a cohesive high-stakes drama.
September 2, 2013
In Hayderâs thriller, an apparent carjacking quickly reveals itself to involve the kidnapping of a child and possibly murder. Initially, the plot concentrates on homicide detective Jack Cafferyâs puzzling inability to make headway in his search for the man nicknamed the Jacker. But, without weakening its solid construction, the novel soon begins alternating its focus from Caffery to the reckless head of the departmentâs underwater search unit, Sgt. Phoebe âFleaâ Marley, who in her zeal to locate the Jackerâs lair, winds up trapped, helpless, and wounded in an abandoned tunnel. Hayder pushes both characters to their limits, and narrator Steven Crossley seems to relish the opportunity to add his own special twist to their emotions. His Caffery speaks with a precise British accent, displaying a range of moods, from depressed and distracted indifference, to frustration, confusion, and desperation. Marley, with her slangy cockney, gives Crossley even more of a workout. He provides her with a vocal swagger as she sets out to regain professional prestige by singlehandedly finding the kidnapped child. The narrator also gives life to the novelâs other highly emotional participantsâthe weary and resentful cops, the frantic parents, and the wily, demented Jacker. A Grove paperback.