Skin (Jack Caffery/Walking Man Series, 2)

What a read! Hayder's characters are well-drawn, and the character development keeps the story moving. Although the vivid crime descriptions are at times gory, they are in keeping with the dark crime scenario and bring the reader into the intense world of crime scene work. An excellent writer, want more from her!

There seems to be a spate of suicides in the Bristol area. Each is a young person, none of whom seemed likely candidates. Their friends and families are all surprised. Each has vertical knife marks on their forearms and are found near bodies of water, quarries and underwater caves. Each is missing a lock of hair. The police and coroner call each case suicide but Detective Jack Caffery is not sure. Something about the cases bother him; he feels a subterranean pull of evil that makes him wonder if there is a hunter who is responsible. Rescue diver Flea Marley also sees things that make her wonder. The two don't discuss the case however. Caffery isn't sure yet and is working in the dark, not even telling his supervisors what he is doing. Flea is involved in a major family crisis that no one can help with and that keeps her to herself until she can find a way forward. Is someone targeting vulnerable individuals? Can Caffery and Marley find the killer before he finds them? Mo Hayder has written a series of thrilling novels and mystery readers will be delighted to find another Jack Caffery novel. Flea Marley is a more recent addition to the storyline and it is unclear if she will be a recurring character or maybe become a love interest for Caffery. The writing is brooding and mysterious and fans will eagerly read to discover more clues about what makes Caffery tick. This book is recommended for mystery writers.

Police procedural: Lacks the overall development of a "story" - clipped sentences, little character development outside of stereotypes. Story line was not believable.

Have read all of Mo Hayder's books except two and they have been ordered and I'll be reading them shortly. I think this author is brilliant. The characters are flawed and sometimes scary but you just can't quit reading. The plots are always unusual, diabolical and again, scary. This particular book features a police inspector named Joe Caffery. Start at the beginning of the series and you will see this character develop. You may not come to love him but you will want to read more and more of the books that feature him.

I thoroughly enjoyed it but the pace was a little slow and the characters were developed and the separate but interwoven plot lines stormed to the stories climax. Lots of surprises as the bad guys were not revealed until late in the book. It keeps your interest by keeping you guessing who dun it? I enjoy Mo Hader, a great story teller.

AWESOME!!! Mo has done it again (AND AGAIN) Wow... she is the best author around. She keeps you on your toes and comes up with the darnedest stories. What a wonderful read!!! I love her books. Can't wait for the next one! You go girl!!!!!

Skin and the last book of the series The Ritual seem to have been written initially as one long book and then culled into two separate novels for publication. Skin continues the leitmotif of Jack Caffery dealing with the ghost of his missing brother Ewan. He’s now seeking answers during his campfire chats with the enigmatic Walking Man and being stalked by the tokoloshe that first appeared in the previous novel, which dovetails nicely with the sidebar of Sergeant Phoebe ‘Flea’ Marley, police diver and keeper of her own secrets and demons...Marley’s had her own run-ins with the Zulu water sprite in the quarries and along the quays of Bristol. The lack of closure at the end of The Ritual left me in want of more and with Skin I got it. Would love to see the Walking Man in future installments, he’s an impressive character. The actual killer, the 'skinner' a la the title was reduced almost to it's own subplot in the book, a MacGuffin even, which oddly didn't bother me a bit, I wanted more time at the fireside chats between Caffery and the Walking Man...Couldn’t put it down, a fabulous read.

Mo Hayder's writing is amazing. Her books are dark - be warned. However, all of her books contain real life issues, horrendous deeds that are in the news on a daily basis. Reading one of her books is like being in the mind of the real life monsters that read about and say to yourself "I hope I never meet that person." But, you will meet 'that person' in her books. Her characters are realistic, sometimes really obsessed with something, but that too is very realistic since everyone I know, including myself, can become obsessed with something from our past. I highly recommend any and all of her books, but if you don't like reading the graphic details of crimes, then Ms. Hayder is probably not the best writer for you.

...sinon impossible d'évoluer Mo Hayder et un gros regret c'est qu'elle ne soit plus pour écrire encore....

Jack Caffery stayed in the West Country for this extraordinary novel. The plot is convoluted and inventive, the characters flawed but understandably so, the detail of little-known topics totally believable. An exhausting but highly worthwhile read.

Another great Jack Caffery novel. A creepy cosmetic surgeon is doing vile things to his patients. A weird little creature that may or may not be human is following Caffery around. Caffery is dealing with a murder while trying to find a missing woman. Flea Marley, head of one of the police force’s dive teams, knows a thing or two about the missing woman but can’t help Caffery as she is trying to protect both herself and her brother. Flea gets help from the weird little creature in return for not telling anyone what or who it is. Plus Flea has a thing for Caffery and he has one for her, for a while. I hope eventually Mo Hayder puts these two together. Terrific stuff from Hayder. The plot unrolls chapter by chapter with real suspense. A little weirdness, voodoo kind of thing and plenty of the reality of hard slogging police work. Looking forward to Hayder’s next jack Caffery novel.

Die komplette Reihe mit Jack Caffery ist sehr zu empfehlen! Die gehören zu meinen Lieblingsbüchern.

Another installment in the series with our reliable and intuitive Dective Caffery. This book moved along at a nice pace and I found I wanted to keep reading long past time for lights out. The story picks up one week after the last case is solved (read Ritual ) and continues on with Jack Caffery and the newly introduced female sergeant, Flea Marley as they work to solve some recent suicides that they suspect are actually murders. Flea's personal life gets complicated very early in the book and she struggles to put things right. As far as her character, I'm not overly fond of Flea and some of her responses to problems I struggled to believe at times but she is certainly interesting and unpredictable. I'm looking forward to see how this character evolves. Throughout the story I was never able to guess how it was going to end and I enjoyed this story much more than Ritual. Skin stands alone as a thriller so you don't have to read prior books to understand it, but you'll enjoy it so much more, if you do: Birdman (awesome), The Treatment (fantastic), Pig Island (fantastic) and Ritual (good).