Gone (Jack Caffery Thrillers)

I LUV this series. Another in the Jack Caffery series set in England. This time someone is carjacking vehicles with kids in them. Two girls are missing and the villain is always three steps ahead of the police. Caffery is at a loss as to how the families are connected. Meanwhile Sgt. Flea Marley of

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the underwater rescue team has a hunch about where the girls might be. She has chaos in her personal life as, in the opening, she is checking to make sure the woman her brother had killed in a hit and run in a previous book is safely hidden. Caffery knows about the woman but thinks it was Flea who killed her. The most fascinating character is back -- the Walking Man, who was introduced a couple books ago. Hayder’s series is a thriller chock full of gritty police work and heart-pounding tension. My only confusion came in trying to visualize the tunnels where Flea was searching for the girls. I couldn’t wrap my brain around how she was able to get into the barge but the kidnapper couldn’t nor which way was up. But it didn’t take away from the story. Caffery and Marley are destined to be together, two souls who seem to have a psychic connection too. A very enjoyable series from across the pond.

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This Mo Hayder book is a fast-paced, top-notch thriller. This has to be one of the best Jack Caffrey novels, although I loved them all. Mo Hayder is just brilliant at what she writes.

Back Cover Blurb:
Night is falling as murder detective Jack Caffrey arrives to interview the distraught victim of a

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car-jacking.
What he hears horrifies him. The car was taken by force, and on the back seat was a passenger. An eleven-year-old girl. Who is still missing.
Before long the jacker starts to communicate with the police. And Caffrey becomes certain that he is planning to take another car. And another child.
Who is the car-jacker? How is he choosing his targets? And - most urgent of all - can Caffrey find the child?
Before its too late......

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This book had me on the edge of my seat as it raced towards its conclusion. There aren't many books that have done that to me recently.

I have read an earlier title in the series recently (RITUAL) and I remember being gobsmacked by BIRDMAN long before I began blogging. Now I'm going to go looking

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for the two that I have missed reading, THE TREATMENT and SKIN.

Detective Inspector Jack Caffery of Bristol's Major Crime Investigation Unit is an impressive very believable character. He has spent 18 years with the Murder Squad and his investigations are marked with thoroughness. Unfortunately those who work for him don't always think outside the square. There are two other interesting characters in the series: police diver Sergeant Flea Marley and a vagrant whom the locals call the Walking Man. Caffery and the Walking Man are connected because both have a close relative who disappeared when young.

The kidnapping of a child is always a traumatic subject and we see the cases in GONE both from the police point of view as they desperately search for clues, and from the parent's points of view as they try to come to terms with what has happened. There's a little touch of the paranormal in a couple of places, but who knows where inspiration and intuition comes from?

This was an excellent read, one of my best so far this year.

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What is it about crime writers that they just do not seem to be able to keep me the reader entertained for the complete read??? I have read all Mo Hayder's books and even enjoyed the stand alone's ie Pig Island...but here in this read we have a real dilemma..:(( The first 300 pages is enjoyable and

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the plot/storyline is a little different...and our two heroes Caffery and Flea are once again on the case. I particularly enjoy "The Walking Man" which in essence is a "sounding board" for Caffery, a man who lives by his wits under the skys and although he and Caffery share a related/sad past for the most part The Walking Man is a way for Caffery to take stock and introduces a nice touch for the reader...we should all have a walking man to bounce our ideas off. Living in Bristol I enjoy the setting for this series with the mystical surroundings of Somerset playing a major part...however this all falls apart if the story becomes somewhat pedestrian and predictable. Someone is kidnapping young children..why?..when it becomes known the answer is somewhat bizarre...who is doing this?...someone with insider information...any amateur reader/detective will soon have worked the solution out by page 300..and then there is the question of Flea??? What exactly is her role in this story, she is a police diver by trade....and well does what she is best at...eh..diving...why...not sure?? She's gets into a little trouble and blow me down the killer tracks her down..will our hero Caffery rescue in time!! Of course he will, this is a series, and so we plod along for some 200 pages...killer dies...Flea lives...what a surprise!! Dear author please try not to bore us the reader, this book was too long by some 200 pages, fine if the story merits it but if not it is a real struggle to finish...but finish I did. I started off giving this latest Hayder book 5 stars....but it became so utterly predictable by the final page I was tempted to award one star...however on reflection and given that I have great respect for the author I decided to award two stars...but come on Miss Hayder if there is no further life in this series and the storylines become even more boring and bizarre...perhaps it is time for Caffery and Flea to do themselves a favour and both retire.....

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Gone begins like your average thriller with a car jacking and a kidnapping tied together in one. But this isn't your average kidnapping as the kidnapper seems to know exactly what the police are thinking before they can come up with any solid leads. Time is ticking...can Jack Caffery find the young

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girl before it is too late???

Gone is a gripping thriller that slowly grabs the reader and pulls them in tightly. By the end of the book I was hard pressed to put it down...I couldn't wait to see how it was all going to end. I gave a vague description of the summary because I didn't want to give too much away. The story begins with a young girl being inadvertently kidnapped when the car she is sitting in is stolen. But the carjacking is anything by random and questions instantly begin to rise as the lead detective begins to investigate. I really enjoyed how there were two different detectives working different angles of the kidnapping throughout the book. It was interesting because there was all of this back story and history between the two of them and it led me to so many questions that lent even more mystery to the story. I never knew what to expect next. I could never even guess what was going to happen. There were just so many questions while I was reading and I really enjoyed that. I actually didn't realize that this book is part of a series. It didn't detract from my enjoyment at all. I'm eager after reading this book to go back and start at the beginning to see how it all began. I'm hoping to learn more about Jack and some of the other characters in the book. Especially the mysterious, transient man that Jack looks to for answers. I was left with lots of questions in regards to him. This book ended up being more than I expected it to be, and I'm really glad that I took the time to read it!

Overall, I found this book to be quite an enjoyable read and I can't wait to continue on with this series. It started off slowly but easily swept me into its' pages. I really enjoyed the fact that it was part of a series but that I couldn't tell the difference. I would recommend this book to any fan of a good thriller or mystery. Recommended!

Bottom Line: A creepy thriller that will have you guessing the entire time!

Disclosure: I checked this book out from my local library. It is part of my attempt to read all of the 2012 Edgar Nominees. So far I have enjoyed each one that I have read!

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sporadically thrilling; I didn't quite get why he did it

Gone won the 2012 Edgar for best novel. The excellence of Mo Hayder's writing and in particular her strong characters explain and justify this honour. It is a good book, but it does not have a prizeworthy plot. Gone suffers from the same 'upping of the ante' that have made recent movie plots so eye

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rollingly over the top. The villain in Gone has every contingency planned and calibrated to the nanodetail and this strains the reader's patience. Hayder also falls into the trying trap of having her good guys make next to no progress in the case until the absolute last minute, which diminishes the reader's connection to these otherwise convincing characters - not a good strategy for cultivating a return readership. And for the 'walking man' motif to have legs, he is going to have to make more than cameo appearances.

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This one was a bit too predictable. More like 2.5 stars

Taking a break from my other books to read Mo Hayder's Edgar winner!

In any given lifetime an individual can only be friends with some many killers - accidental or purposeful. And, I believe 3 is over the limit. Flea Marley's good friend was a serial killer in Ritual, her brother an accidental killer in Skin, and now her co-worker and budding friend in Gone. I have

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fallen head over heels for the Caffery series and particularly the Flea Marley run, but the serial killer in your own backyard reveal has reached the saturation point. The setup was intriguing, clever and everyday frightening, as young children are being seemingly randomly abducted. For me, although Gone won the Edgar, it was the weakest in a very strong series. Caffery and Flea are separated for the majority of the book, which may build tension, but remains a downer. I don't mind knowing "who did it" at the halfway point, just disappointed that it was again someone Flea had a personal connection. Next murder, the investigation should begin with interviews of all Fleas friends.

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All of the reviews by other authors that they print on the cover are right. Mo Hayder is sooo good!

I did figure out who the bad guy was, but that didn't spoil it at all. I hope Jack and Flea sort themselves out soon though.

I am a rest fan of many of hayer's books, but I must agree while good, this one is far from her best.

Like usual, Mo Hayder's book are very good. The mystery is well twisted and you don't start expecting a turn in event until a few pages before. This book is probably one of the scariest of all of them as you are taken nearly through without any idea on how it might finish

Gone by Mo Hayder
5 Stars

This is Mo Hayder's fifth novel featuring Jack Caffery. It won the 2012 Edgar Award for Best Mystery. Gone follows “Skin” and begins six months after the end of that story.

Caffery is a senior member of Bristol's elite major crimes investigation unit and Phoebe "Flea"

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Marley is the supervisor of the police underwater search unit. They both seem to be hiding secrets from each other and their budding mutual interest has turned chilly. This only adds to the emotional conflicts simmering just below the surface of an increasingly disturbing case.

The story begins with a car jacking. A woman is putting groceries in the trunk of her car when she's suddenly pushed aside by a man in a Santa Claus mask. He pulls open the driver's door, gets in and speeds away. She panics and screams because her daughter is still in the back seat. Caffery is trying to convince himself that this will end when the carjacker discovers the child in the back seat and drops her off at the side of the road.

At first the kidnapping is thought to be accidental, but then Flea manages to connect the latest incident to two previous cases with striking similarities. Caffery knows in cases like this the longer the child is missing the more negative the outcome. It soon becomes clear this criminal is very clever. He begins to taunt the police and it's obvious he's ahead of them at every step.

Gone is a gripping thriller that really pulled me in. I couldn't wait to seen how it was all going to end. My recommendation for anyone reading this is to start with Ritual, then Skin and finally Gone. The secret that Jack and Flea keep from each other is revealed in this novel. It's explained very well and doesn't detract from the general enjoyment of the story, but if you don't want the continuing story to be spoiled I wouldn't start with this one.

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When a woman's car is stopped from a grocery store parking garage, Jack Caffery assumes it's nothing beyond a routine carjacking. But as the hours tick by and his investigation morphs into a nightmare, he realizes the sickening truth: the thief wasn't after the car, but the 11-year-old girl in the

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backseat. With the girls family desperate for news, Caffery dredges up memories of an unsolved case from years before. Meanwhile, Sergeant Flea Marley pursues her own theory, and what she finds in an abandoned, half-flooded tunnel in the countryside could put her in grave danger.

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Gone by Mo Hayder is the 5th book in her Jack Caffery police procedural series and in this one the author concentrates more on the immediate story rather than continually digging back into Jack’s past. What originally appears to be a case of car jacking becomes something far more dreadful as it

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becomes clear that the actual object the jacker wants is the child in the back seat of the car. Even when thwarted, this guy doesn’t give up but continues to harass the family and still executes his original goal of taking another child. Jack feels that he has come up against one of the most clever persons that he has yet hunted. Police diver Flea Marley makes a strong appearance in the story as she joins in the hunt and follows her own path.

Dealing as it does with missing children, this was an edge-of-your-seat thriller. This author specializes in fast paced and extremely dark stories and Gone certainly fits her wheel-house although overall I felt there was less gore than she usually goes for. As there are always threads and back stories that follow on through the books, this is one series that really needs to be read in order, but be warned, this author does not shy away from blending terror and horror with extreme violence. I should note that I docked off some points in my rating because of a couple of things. Firstly Flea Marley’s solo exploration of an old tunnel just didn’t ring true and also, one of the author’s red herrings really needed further clarification.

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Ordered this from Amazon UK, since I couldn't wait around until it is finally published in the US, and it was another one-sitting read. Unlike -Ritual-, somewhat more like -Skin- (though much stronger), this is a 'normal' psychological thriller: it's taut with suspense, offers a great cat-and-mouse

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game with plenty of misdirection, and keeps you close to the victims. I can't say you won't guess who the bad guy is, but Hayder is so deft with the plot that you should have a niggling doubt or three until the final piece drops into place. To me, that's the perfect balance.

No idea if there will be another title in the series, but it seems a few strings left loose along the way could lead out. On the other hand, this could easily be the loose-threads finale of the arc.

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This is the fifth book in the Jack Caffery series and the seventh book by Mo Hayder. I absolutely love Hayder. She treads where other authors are too scared to go. She writes about the real sick freaks of the world whether it’s a paedophile, necrophiliac, African witch doctor or just a plain old

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sicko, she will give them their 5 seconds of fame. The shock and horror of her books is what makes her one of the best female writers of our time. Hayder has a real talent for taking you out of your comfort zone and scaring the hell out of you. Because this is a series and because I want you to read the set, I’m not going to give anything away here!

I’ll admit that this book is probably the least gory and less scary book of the series, but it’s still a classic Caffery. It has the usual characters that pull the story together along with the required amount of twists in the plot to make you keep guessing about the ‘bad guy’ until the end. I kept thinking I knew who the bad guy was, then I’d change my mind again because I just couldn’t quite work out why it would be this person. Then at the end it just slotted into place. The one thing that did surprise me was the relatively happy ending, so unlike Hayder! It made me worry that this could be the end of Caffery, but Hayder has just announced another book to follow next year. Wahoo!!

Favourite Quote: ” The Walking Man’s daughter had been raped five times before she was murdered by an itinerant offender on probation, Craig Evans. …….The Walking Man, who in those days had been a successful business man, had taken his revenge. Now Evans lived in a chair in a long-term care facility near his family in Worcestershire. The Walking Man had been precise about the injuries he inflicted. Evans no longer had eyes to watch children nor a penis to rape them with.” Page 62, Chapter 10.

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This was okay, but I can say it was the least enjoyable book in the series for me so far. In a way, I feel like the first two books (Birdman, The Treatment) don't even belong in the same series as they're so dramatically different in that they feature solely Jack Caffery, and contain themes that

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are more horroresque than police procedural. Then along comes Ritual the third book and a new character Flea and the whole vibe of the books shifts from dark and horroresque to pretty pedestrian, although well written, UK police procedural.

In Gone we have kidnappings occurring and Caffery is roped in to find the kids, Flea plays a large part sticking her nose in and pushing boundaries, however I can't say the writing of her character makes me feel much for her. She's so weak and timid when it comes to her brother, yet apparently a strong character in other ways, which seem to contradict the earlier character traits. I think the most annoying thing in this book was the bait & switch, it's portrayed that a particular person, Peter Moon, is responsible for the crimes, the evidence is laid out, then he just disappears from the book as it moves on and this part is never resolved as to if there was any involvement on his behalf or it was all a set up. Rather strange for an author who usually writes so well.

Then the ending for all the build up is rather lacklustre, in finishing my main thought was 'is that all?'. If you're a fan of Hayder you'll likely be entertained but if you're new to the series and author have a read of Birdman/The Treatment first - they're excellent.

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I'd probably have given this a 3.5 star if the option was there. I did enjoy the book in general, but there were just a few niggles for me.

Firstly, I thought it went on just a little bit too long. By the time we knew who the kidnapper was, I felt it took a while to wrap up, and it seemed to carry

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on when the emotional climax had passed some time previously. Aside that, my main quibble was that I thought some of the plot points hung on the ineptitude of the police force.

I'm sure in real life this happens all the time, and I do not for a minute doubt the author's research, but for me personally, there were a few incidences that I lost a little bit of my suspension of disbelief, as I had guessed a plot point before it came due to somethings the officers seemed to not have considered, but this were very few, and in the main did not put me off from what was an enjoyable read.

Hayder's prose is generally excellent, and her characters sufficiently complex to keep a reader's interest. I was more drawn to Flea, the female Underwater officer, than I was Caffrey, whose own character didn't feel too deep in this one, but then I expect we learn more about throughout Hayder's other Caffrey books.

The Walking Man was both an intriguing character and handy narrative tool and Hayder used him brilliantly to alter and manage the pace of the book, and give Caffrey time and space to reflect and ponder. Really good stuff.

If you like realistic and superbly written police fiction, I think you'll really like this one.

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I thought an overly long book which took time to get going and in my view the "Walking Man" section didn't add anything to the plot, which at its core was quite clever. The Underwater Support Unit sergeant didn't ring true to me and her back story wasn't relevant to the plot really. The

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protagonist's ability to locate and exploit the hiding place he used seemed unlikely from what we learnt of him. The "red herring" suspect being exploited by the real villain was a little too convenient. Good use of real locations including Sapperton Tunnel.though.

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