Mo Hayder - The Treatment (2002)
The flawed hero of British author Mo Hayder's smashing debut novel Birdman is back, and even better in this, perhaps the most disturbingly realistic thriller I have ever read. It is midsummer in Brockwell Park, a pleasant residential area of south London. A husband and wife are found imprisoned in their own home. They are dehydrated, beaten, and the husband is close to death. But that is not all. Their young son, Rory, is missing, taken by the monster who chained his mother to the upstairs radiator.
When Jack Caffery of the MET's murder squad, is called in to investigate, the similarities of this case to the events in his past which haunt him prevent Jack from having the objective view of the crime which is necessary. When Jack was a child, his young brother, Ewan, inexplicably disappeared. His body was never found, and throughout his life Jack has remained convinced that the man who lived next-door to his family, one Ivan Pendrecki, is a pedophile, and furthermore that it is he who is responsible for his brother's disappearance. Jack is already flawed enough, but when a thread of hope is presented to him via the possibility that Ewan may still be alive, his obsession leads him into further darkness, and he is convinced that the trail will lead back to Pendrecki. In the meantime, Rory Peach is found dead in the woods behind his home, and the investigation intensifies further to find his killer. But, will they crack the case in time, or will Jack's obsession cost the lives of the next family, tied up in their home, waiting to die?
Birdman suffered from a desperate desire to be original, and it showed in the writing. But in The Treatment, Hayder has really honed her skills to absolute perfection. This is a stunning exploration into the dark side of human nature, and we are led through relentlessly by Hayder's tense and gripping prose. The subject, pedophilia, is tackled in a way that may be disturbing to some people, but I'm afraid that Hayder is only telling it how it is. This is a breathtaking novel, with a cast of superbly drawn characters who, for all their faults, you really care about. Her plotting is tight, and her depiction of British police procedure rings with authenticity.
Hayder can be infuriating when she chooses to tease the reader, as she so often does: Rory is nearly found alive, they almost walk in on the killer. These tantalizing devices make the book shimmer with despair and a kind of hopelessness. There is no happy ending here, I'm afraid. Despite the fact that this book is disturbing, you simply cannot stop turning those pages. You feel drawn into the darkness like a moth to a flame. If you ever thought British mysteries were "cozy," read this mind-blower and think again. It’s searing, it’s close to the bone, but it is superb.
Posted by Fiona Walker in Book Reviews | Permalink
