Customer Reviews

The Treatment : A Novel

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The rather demure-looking Mo Hayder writes somewhere on the cusp between crime fiction and grand-guignol horror, and has produced one of the most hideously grotesque novels I have ever read.

As a scarily plausible insight into the mind of a sadistic, psychotic paedophile, it is undeniably, a very competent achievement.

As entertaining fiction though .... well I'm not so sure. I felt no satisfaction in actually finishing the book, which made me feel like some guilty voyeur at the scene of something extremely nasty.

This is unremittingly grim stuff. If you like a happy or even a satisfying ending, I would give this a wide berth.

Horror buffs, even the most jaded, should certainly find something in here to melt their butter.

Me? I felt like I needed a bath afterwards.

Beware!

I read The Birdman last summer. I loved it. So much so that I actually ordered The Treatment from England as sson as it came out. And I just reread the American printing.

To sum this book up quickly would use the words dark, twisted, and wonderful. Not for the easily freaked out, but if you don't mind dark books you will love it.

Jack Caffery is back, and still haunted by his little brother's disapearance from years ago. A case he is working now stirs it up more than any other has. He doubts his objectivity, his relationship with his coworkers and his girl freind as a result.

Mo Hayder sets a pace with her reading that won't let you go. I honestly read this in one sitting. If you read Birdman and liked it, you will love this. If it helps, I find it kind of a cross between Ian Rankin's Rebus, and John Connoly's Charlie Parker books.

Jon

This is the second book by Mo Hayder about Detective Inspector Jack Caffery. I think an early warning is due that, if you have not read 'Birdman,' you need to do so before opening 'The Treatment.' The stories overlap themes and characters extensively. This isn't a bad thing, and if you don't like 'Birdman', you will definitely not like 'The Treatment' one bit. The reverse, of course, is equally true.

Caffery is in the midst of a troubled relationship with Rebecca Morant, the artist he rescued in 'Birdman' and still deeply haunted by the memory of his brother Ewan, who disappeared some 20 years before. Jack knows who kidnapped Ewan, but has never been able to find enough proof. To this day Caffery has no idea if Ewan is alive or dead.

The horror starts with the discovery of the Peach family, has been held captive in their house and their son molested. When the police arrive at the scene the pedophile has made his escape, with Rory Peach in hand. He seems to vanish in the night. The hopeless hunt for Rory brings up all of Caffery's feelings about Ewan. Driven by his own guilt he is always in danger of taking one step too far.

Caffery comes to believe that another family is being victimized even though the police believe they have a suspect. This puts him at odds with Rebecca and with Chief Inspector Daniella Souness. However, he is determined to follow every path, discovering not only a web of pedophiles but clues to Ewan's disappearance as well. This story does not let up to the very end, with every turn something new and grim turns up.

Hayder's characters are spectacular. She manages to let you into the heads of many without ever disturbing the narrative viewpoint enough to lose focus. Plot, action, setting and character, the vital ingredients are all there. Be warned that this is rough ride - take my advice and don't start it at night.

British author Mo Hayder transfixed chiller fans with a stunning portrait of a psychopathic killer in her popular debut novel, "Birdman" (1999).

With "The Treatment" she turns her attention to pedophilia, and recounts villainy in stark forensic detail.

Jack Caffery, the jaded, street-wise detective from Hayder's previous work, returns to investigate a heinous crime which very much reminds him of an event in his own childhood.

It is a warm, beautiful summer in South London when a young couple, Alek and Carmel Peach, are found bound and near death in their home. They have been savagely beaten, but even more frightening is the disappearance of their young son, Rory.

Caffery pulls out all stops in his attempt to find the missing boy. The detective is torn as past memories and the present crime seem to converge in his mind.

When the child's butchered body is discovered, South London is turned upside down in an effort to locate the sadist capable of such an offense.

Grisly at times? Yes. Suspense filled and impossible to put down? Also yes. "The Treatment," a bestseller in England, will surely win more fans for Hayder in the colonies.

- Gail Cooke

A few years ago, Mo Hayder shocked readers with her truly amazing debut effort Birdman. Her follow-up, The Treatment, reteams the reader with Jack Caffery, a London DI who once again finds himself on the trail of a sadistic killer. Only this time, the murders hit a little too close to home.

A man kidnaps an entire family and then performs horrible acts on them. Jack needs to find the killer before he takes over another family. But at the same time, Jack has to face his past. When he was younger, his older brother disappeared and was presumably kidnapped by one of Jack's neighbours. When this man dies, Jack is thrown back into his past and forced to come face to face with the demons that have been haunting him ever since his brother disappeared.

This is a very realistic thriller that will shock, excite and trouble you all at once. It is amazingly well written and it is very powerful in its realistic portrayal of human emotions and of violence. Though the book is often gory, the violence is written with tact and skill; the book has enough darkness to shock the reader but never repulses him. The plot is very intricate and full of believable twists and turns. You'll never be able to guess what's coming next.

Mo Hayder is the brightest new voice in the mystery/thriller field. I cannot wait to read her next book. There is no doubt in my mind that The Treatment will be the best mysetery of the year.

This book is simply one of the best thrillers i have ever read.

Mo Hayder is just so good at what she does it's amazing.

Her characterisations are immaculate, her characters believeable, her plots disturbingly realistic, etc etc.

Her writing is superbly dark.

The plot of this novel is very disturbing, very chilling. Even i winced once or twice at the motivations of the killer, and what he was making his victims do. And it's so realistic. That is perhaps why it is so disturbing. there is no "well, this is only fictio" factor. Everything struck home so well, she has the police procedure right down to the last detail, the psychology is spot on, the characters so so human and utterly believable.

Hayder is great at teasing the reader, at dangling the proverbial carrot in front their noses. It is full of near misses and what if's. The police "come close" to finding Rory Peach alive, they "almost" manage to save Ewan Caffery, the killer is "nearly" caught. However, she knows when not to overuse a plot device, and keeps it to the minimun, and ups the tension and hopelessness of the story with it.

Jack Caffery is a great character, very flawed, obsessed with his brothers disappearance so many years ago and the man next door who is convinced kidnapped and killed him. At the end of the last book, we saw him slip over the edge and willingly kill the serial killer, and manage to pass it off as an accident, but this time round he's back, and striving to make his life ok, and get rid of those demons by finding out once and for all what happened to his brother.

It is a great side-plot to the main storyline. One day a family are taken capture. The mother is chained up to a radiator, while the father and son are held somewhere else. At the end of the ordeal, he is about to let them go, when he is disturbed, so he quickly takes the boy and runs out into the woods at the back of the house. The hunt is on to find the boy, Rory Peach. While his father is haunted by what the killer made him do to his son. Soon, though, the police will find Rory, but not the way they would have hoped...

This is a stunning thriller, and i cannot praise it highly enough. It speeds along at breakneck pace with twists and turns, and a stunning conclusion. There are two plots running side by side, and each is hauntingly realistic.

Mo Hayder is Britain's brightest young talent. definitely one to watch. Better than any American-produced thriller i've read, this year or last. (which is saying something.)

This is an excellent fast-paced mystery, extremely well-written and well-plotted. Hayder switches viewpoints from one person to another flawlessly and the many twists and turns keep the reader guessing to the end. I also read Birdman by the same author, which was a good book, but with The Treatment Hayder has really hit her stride! Highly recommended.

This is an excellently written book by Mo Hayder. A trifle slow in taking off but wow! I suggest reading Birdman first though, also by Ms. Hayder as the two books are connected; however only in background nothing that would effect the story line.

I like detective novels, even serial killer detective novels, and I don't generally think of myself as faint-hearted. But I have to say that _The Treatment_ made me feel rather faint-hearted. Or faint, anyhow.

Jack Cafferty investigates a case which has disturbing echos to a case from his personal history. The kidnap of an entire family and the ordeal suffered by the boy taken from the house of the family lead Cafferty into the underworld of pedophiles, pornography, and killers.

Well-written, but the scenes with the children are really quite awful and I sometimes had the uncomfortable feeling that the book came dangerously close to exploitation-- the descriptions were quite explicit, honestly too explicit for my tastes. Still, probably a question of taste, but be aware what you're in for when you pick up the book.

I've been reading and watching mysteries/horror/thrillers since I was 10 (I'm now 32) and I'm pretty desensitized to some of the gore and wackiness in these books (please don't interpret as bragging). So for me, I've found that many books which are supposed to be "emotional rollercoasters" are actually fairly run-of-the-mill. This book ain't like those. This book is a punch in the gut. My jaw was hanging loose in shock through the last one third or so of the book. I finished the book 5 days ago, and I'm still thinking about it, turning it around in my head, thinking about how it relates to my own life. It's hard for me to get my head around it. I appreciate that the author was able to elicit that kind of response from me, so it's a great book for that reason. But other reviewers are correct, the huge emotional response is not a pretty one, so be ready for that. The ending is tidy, in a sense, but not really what you expect. Fortunately, I don't see how the book could have ended any other way, and I appreciate that the ending wasn't overly "Hollywood". Oh, and I haven't read The Birdman first, and was still very much able to appreciate this book. Am planning on going back and reading the first book now.