Review - The Cutting by James Hayman

The Cutting by James Hayman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
336 pages

Published June 23rd 2009 by Minotaur Books 

Source: Publisher for Review

 

Synopsis:

'Detective Sergeant Michael McCabe moved from New York City to Portland, Maine, to escape a dark past: both the ex-wife who’d left him for an investment banker, and the tragic death of his brother, a hero cop gone bad. He sought to raise his young daughter away from the violence of the big city . . . so he’s unprepared for the horrific killer he discovers, whose bloody trail may lead to Portland’s social elite.

Early on a September evening, the mutilated body of a pretty teenaged girl, a high school soccer star, is found dumped in a scrap-metal yard. She had been viciously assaulted, but her heart had been cut out of her chest with surgical precision. The very same day a young businesswoman, also a blonde and an athlete, was abducted as she jogged through the streets of the city’s west end. McCabe suspects both crimes are the work of the same man---a killer who’s targeting the young---who is clearly well-versed in complex surgical procedures, and who may have struck before. Just as the investigation is beginning, McCabe’s ex-wife reemerges, suddenly determined to reclaim the daughter she heedlessly abandoned years earlier.

With the help of his straight-talking (and, at times, alluring) partner, Maggie Savage, McCabe begins a race against time to rescue the missing woman and unmask a sadistic killer---before more lives are lost.' 

My Thoughts:
The Cutting is the second James Hayman book I've read (I read Darkness First a little while ago) and I have to say that he's definitely up there as one of my favourite thriller authors.

The main character in this novel, Detective Sergeant Michael McCabe, is a real world character who has very real problems and is in no way your superhero detective who can do no wrong. This is one of the qualities I enjoy the most about this book as well as the fact that he's got a very unique gift in the way of a photographic memory.

Once I started The Cutting I struggled to put it down. Medical thrillers seem to scare me the most as there is always something very haunting when you think about how vulnerable we all are to those that are in such a trusting field as medicine. Once you learn the background to the reasons behind all of the kidnappings and murders in this book, it becomes quite chilling as I imagine it could easily be something that could possibly go on today and you'd never even know.

McCabe's relationship with his partner, Maggie Savage, is an interesting one that seems to have a few more layers to it than we initially get to know.

I really enjoy Hayman's writing style and even though his novels are psychological thriller based, they are very easy to read and enjoy without being too overly complicated or hard to connect with.

I'm definitely looking forward to reading the second in the series, The Chill of Night, next.

I have been reading The Cutting as part of the James Hayman Savage & McCabe series readalong.