Birdman

SUMMARY: Your worst nightmare is his dream come true.... A relentless debut novel filled with cutting-edge forensic and investigative detail, Birdman marks the arrival of a uniquely talented writer. Detective Jack Caffery--young, driven, and seemingly unshockable--catches a career-making or career-breaking homicide in his first case as lead investigator with London's crack murder squad. A young woman's body has been discovered, dumped on wasteland near the Millennium Dome site in Greenwich, England. It's the most brutal degradation of the human form that the squad has ever uncovered. Caffery's well-deserved reputation is that of the most stoic of detectives, but his initial inspection of the corpse will forever sear his psyche. One by one, four more corpses are discovered only steps away from the first. Five bodies, all young women, all ritualistically murdered with cunning precision. And when a postmortem examination reveals a singular, macabre signature linking the victims, Caffery realizes that he's facing the most dangerous offender known to the force: a sexual serial killer. In the murky recesses of his own mind, Caffery harbors the haunting legacy of a loved one's slaying. What baffles him is that not a single missing person's report has been filed for any of the five young women. How has the Birdman chosen these seemingly perfect victims? Now, as he employs every weapon forensic science can offer, Caffery knows that time is running out before the killer strikes again, and that he must put away his tortured past in order to safeguard the Birdman's next prey. With refined craft and beguiling imagination, Mo Hayder is certain to skip the hearts of the most demanding readers of crime fiction. Just After Lunch On A Tuesday In April, Nine Feet Under Water, Police Diver Flea Marley Closes Her Gloved Fingers Around A Human Hand. The Fact That There's No Body Attached Is Disturbing Enough. Yet More Disturbing Is The Discovery, A Day Later, Of The Matching Hand. Both Have Been Recently Amputated, And The Indications Are That The Victim Was Still Alive When They Were Removed. Di Jack Caffery Has Been Newly Seconded To The Major Crime Investigation Unit In Bristol. He And Flea Soon Establish That The Hands Belong To A Boy Who Has Recently Disappeared. Their Search For Him - And For His Abductor - Lead Them Into The Darkest Recesses Of Bristol's Underworld, Where Drug Addiction Is Rife, Where Street-kids Sell Themselves For A Hit, And Where An Ancient Evil Lurks; An Evil That Feeds Off The Blood - And Flesh - Of Others ... Tonya Hailey, ein zehnjähriges Mädchen, wurde von zwei betrunkenen Männern brutal vergewaltigt und mißbraucht. Wenige Tage später erschießt Tonyas Vater Carl Lee Hailey die beiden Täter im Gerichtsgebäude, in dem sie zu einer ersten Anhörung vorgeführt wurden. Das Gerichtsverfahren, daß gegen ihn eingeleitet wird, gerät zum Sensationsprozeß. Denn: die beiden Gewaltverbrecher sind Weiße; Carl Lee ist ein Schwarzer. Und der Ort der Handlung ist die Kleinstadt Clanton im amerikanischen Bundesstaat Mississippi, eine Gegend, in der ein Schwarzer noch heute damit rechnen muß, Nigger genannt zu werden. John Grisham schildert diesen Mordprozeß nicht nur aus der Perspektive des Gerichtssaals; er führt den Leser hinter die Kulissen, er deckt die inneren und äußeren Verflechtungen auf, die den Prozeßverlauf bestimmen The hands of a young boy who has recently disappeared have been discovered. The search for him - and his abductor - lead DI Jack Caffery and police diver Flea Marley into the darkest recesses of Bristol's underworld, where drug addiction is rife, where street kids sell themselves for a hit, and where an ancient evil lurks