Mo Hayder – Cannonball Read 17

Trudging through Drudgery

The Ritual by Mo Hayder

Magnus by Arjen Lubach

November 30, 2022 by Zirza Leave a Comment

The Ritual (Mo Hayder) ***½ When it comes to thrillers and crime fiction, I’m stuck in a quandary in the sense that I usually like the idea better than the execution. My main problem is that so many books within the genre seem so badly written: the characters are flat, the prose is hokey and the authors always seem to want to outdo each other by coming up with either the goriest or the most outlandish plots. There are plenty of exceptions, of course, but […]

Worth your time, but maybe not the lingering headache

The Treatment by Mo Hayder

May 30, 2022 by Zirza Leave a Comment

Crime fiction is an odd thing. Visit your average thriller-horror-Facebook group and you’ll regularly find people looking for books that portray the extremes of human behaviour. “The sicker the better”, as they put it. Weirdly, The Treatment by Mo Hayder is not one that pops up very often – possibly because it’s about 20 years old – but in all honesty, this book is intense. We didn’t believe in Trigger Warnings in 2022 but this book could do with a couple of them. On a […]

Come for the gratuitous torture porn. Stay for the randy sex scenes.

Birdman by Mo Hayder

May 6, 2022 by Zirza Leave a Comment

Weirdly enough, Goodreads gave me Calvin and Hobbes in their other-readers-also-enjoyed-selection. And I get it. There is never a bad time for Calvin and Hobbes, but I definitely need some eye bleach after this one. London, 1999. During construction work on an empty lot, the dead body of a woman is found. Her body is severely decomposed and it takes the police a while to identify her. More bodies are found. They all belong to strippers, prostitutes, drug addicts – people who are loved by […]

Time to take a break from serial killers, I think

American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan

Birdman (Jack Caffery #1) by Mo Hayder

January 29, 2020 by badkittyuno Leave a Comment

(3 stars) American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan This book has a really high (4.1!) rating on Goodreads but I think I’m a little burned out on serial killer books right now. This book was interesting enough, but my main takeaway was the incompetence of the lead prosecutor in the case (or at least how the author perceived that). So I spent most of the book feeling frustrated with the good guys rather than […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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