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Liked It “Hayder's writing style is mildly British. It's readable. Readable to scare the reader with some really bizarre and brutal scenarios in her plotline. The setting is Bristol, England. I've been to London, but no Bristol. Hayder's descriptive writing make you feel like you LIVE in Bristol. I also...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Ritual by Mo Hayder (Book Review)
Annette J Dunlea Irish Author wrote this review Tuesday, September 1 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Ritual by Mo Hayder is the first novel in her new Walking Man Series. It is a paperback published by Bantam Press and its ISBN is 0553820435. From the author who brought us The Birdman, Skin and The Treatment like the others it is a graphically scary novel not for the faint hearted. While I enjoyed it I felt it was not her best book. To be fair it is the first book in a new series and new characters and scenes are been introduced. This will be a good series. A severed hand is found in Bristol waters and the other hand is found buried under a restaurant. It is believed that the person may be alive. The hands belong to Mossy, a missing drug addict. Mo introduces us to African rituals and folklore but that is not the main story it is a straight forward crime novel. For a female she writes very graphically gruesome scenes and is a major crime thriller writer I look forward to the next in this series. Here is an extract of the book: “Just after lunch on pontoon tanks, then dump a little air from her suit so she was stabilized enough to get to the bottom and take a little time to feel the object.It was pitch dark down there, like having her face in mud, no point in trying to see what she was holding. With most river and harbour diving everything had to be done by touch, so she had to be patient, allow the thing to feed its shape from her fingers up her arm, download an image in her mind. She palpated it gently, closing her eyes, counting the fingers to reassure herself it was human, then worked out which digit was which: the ring finger first, bent away from her, and from that she could figure out which way the hand was lying – palm upward. Her thoughts RITUAL raced, as she tried to picture how the body would be – on its side probably. She gave the hand an experimental tug. Instead of there being a weight behind it, it floated free of the silt, coming away easily. At the place where a wrist should be there was just raw bone and gristle”. This book was reviewed by Annette Dunlea author of Always and Forever and The Honey Trap.
”“Hayder's writing style is mildly British. It's readable. Readable to scare the reader with some really bizarre and brutal scenarios in her plotline. The setting is Bristol, England. I've been to London, but no Bristol. Hayder's descriptive writing make you feel like you LIVE in Bristol. I also would recommend "Birdman" by the author. ”
Jamie wrote this review Tuesday, June 23 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“So this is the third DI Caffery novel and it did not hold what has been promised. I read Birdman and The Treatment and personally consider the latter one of the most gripping and shocking books I've ever read in this genre. However, Ritual doesn't hold up to the first two books.
Sleepy wrote this review Wednesday, July 23 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Surprisingly I couldn't get into it. The story is based on Muti killings, which are occasions of murder and mutilation associated with some traditional cultural practices, in Southern Africa. More correctly known as medicine murder are not human sacrifice in a religious sense, but rather involve the murder of someone in order to excise body parts for incorporation as ingredients into medicine and concoctions used in witchcraft.
Hayder made the protagonists characters quite insignificant and halfhearted which is sad. Caffrey had a complicated character before but this time he seems to be just inanimate. Still suffering and stuck in feelings of revenge for his lost brother he's still some sort of searching for him and seems to be lost.
Flea's in a similar situation, having lost her parents in a diving accident, they both find a connection to each other which isn't really significant to the plot or deeper mentioned.
However, Hayder got a bit back to her former writing through switching to the poor boys suffering before and after loosing his hands. The descriptions is intense, similar to those in The Treatment but far away from being that graphic and hurting.
All in all I am not happy with the whole story. I caught myself putting the book to the side in the midst of the ending where the book should have been at it's highlight, just to play a cheap game on my laptop.
”
“Mo Hayder has done it again! DI Jack Caffrey is back and he's transferred to Bristol where divers, including Flea Marley, have discovered a hand in the harbor. Then the other hand is discovered buried beneath a local restaurant. Marley's and Caffrey's research into the case leads them to the African practices and beliefs of Muti, where various parts of both animals and humans are used in ritualistic manners for everything from luck to protection. It's another amazing thriller from one of the best around. Although this is the third book to feature Caffrey, it can be read as a stand alone and is the first book in what Hayder calls the Walking Man series. ”
BeckyL wrote this review Sunday, March 30 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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