Name: Birdman
Rating: 3.523809523809524 (21 reviews)
ISBN: 9780440236160

Mo Hayder

Detective Inspector Jack Caffery must confront the demons of his own past while searching for the psychopathic killer responsible for the brutal murders and mutilations of five young women, all of whom had worked at a strip club.

Birdman

Greenwich, south-east London Detective Inspector Jack Caffery - young, driven, unshockable - is called to one of the most gruesome crime scenes he has ever seen. Five young women have been ritualistically murdered and dumped on wasteland near the Dome. Subsequent post-mortems reveal a singular, horrific signature linking the victims. Soon Caffery realises that he is on the trail of that most dangerous offender: a serial killer. Beset by animosity within the police force, haunted by the memory of a very personal death long ago, Caffery employs every weapon forensic science can offer to hunt him down. Because he knows that it is only a matter of time before this sadistic killer strikes again ...

This book kept me intrigued. However, it was a bit predictable. Still kept me entertained.

Lori 

Sarah Chauvidon

Aubrey Hicks

** spoiler alert **
           My April Fool's joke on myself, read this before didn't really enjoy it - read it again because I had forgotten I'd read it (that tells you most of what you need to know) ... still didn't really enjoy it. The character Jack Caffery has much promise, enough that I'll give the second book a shot, but promise doesn't make a good book.

Birdman is a flawed book, the emphasis on the horror, the shock, the depravity but without any real sense of character development, or character for that matter. Caffery as a character has promise, but his revelation at the end seemed so pat. So many years and years holding onto finding his brother's killer, and then all of the sudden he's decided he's able to move on. Blerg.

It felt like it had all the horror and grotesqueness of Thomas Harris without the solid character to back it up. We spend a lot of time with the killers, but our knowledge of their motivation or history is spotty and poorly drawn. Sadly it's the female characters, especially, that are extremely one dimensional. 

The last thing I'll say about this is that the investigation is also relatively sparse, built on Caffery's hunches mostly. Bad racist cop does bad racist things. Good, intuitive cop does good things and saves the girl who gets herself in trouble by not playing it safe.

Mo Hayder will get one more shot from me ... but only because I sense underneath this cliched novel something that could be good.

Alfredo santos

Although it's your typical serial killer story, it has great twists, good story, very graphic "scenes" and an interesting ending!.

Santosh Singh

Too dark. Picked up after some good reviews of this author. But this is quite ordinary stuff.

Mand

Danny Pallett

Dennis Jacob Rosenfeld

Christine W

Sven

Lisanne 

With the forensic acumen ofnbsp;nbsp; Patricia Cornwell and the atmosphere of Lynda La Plante's Prime Suspect series, Birdman - already an international sensation prior to publication - introduces a troubled homicide detective battling the demons of his past while facing the psychopath of the century. In the chilling opening to Birdman, the bodies of five women are found, ritualistically mutilated and dumped on wasteland in Greenwich, England. When post-mortem examinations reveal a single, horrific signature linking the victims - a tiny bird sewn into each chest - the police realize they are on the trail of a serial killer with a terrifying mind. Detective Inspector Jack Caffery, young,driven, unshockable, finds himself facing both hostilities within the force and his own memory of a lethal failure, as he struggles to unravel the most macabre murders he's ever seen. Now, as he employs every weapon science can offer, he knows he has little time before the sadistic killer strikes again. But he has so little evidence. All he has are five mutilated corpses and five dead little birds. Mo Hayder - withnbsp;nbsp;a keen psychological insight, brilliant forensic and procedural detail, and a psychically wounded but charismatic lead investigator - has written a first novel of raw intensity and deep understanding that will thrill the hearts of the most demanding readers of crime fiction.

Birdman

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