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| Birdman | 
 enlarge | Author: Mo Hayder
Publisher: Bantam Books
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £6.98 (100%)
New (2) from £2.55
Avg. Customer Rating:  61 reviews
Sales Rank: 173309
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 395
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 4.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0553812653
EAN: 9780553812657
ASIN: 0553812653
Publication Date: January 1, 2001
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: good/very good condition
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Amazon.co.uk Review
This crackling psychological thriller introduces police detective Jack Caffery, on the hunt for a serial killer nicknamed "The Millennium Ripper" by the British tabloids after the bodies of five prostitutes are unearthed beneath the rubble of a Greenwich landfill. All the victims were raped and their bodies horrendously mutilated--but not until after they were killed by a dose of heroin injected directly into the brain stem. What stuns Caffery even more than the post-mortem savagery is the one detail of the murders the public doesn't know; the hearts of the women were replaced with birds that were still alive when they were sewn into the victims' chests. Caffery himself is a tortured man, still burdened by guilt over the decades- old murder of his younger brother and frustrated because he cannot bring the man he knows to have been responsible to the bar of justice. When the Millennium Ripper confesses to the prostitute killings just before taking his own life, Caffery faces his own limitations and begins to make peace with his past. But then another prostitute is found dead, her body savaged in the same way, a bird where her heart was, and Caffery realises that his past may never truly be put to rest. A solid page turner, this gripping debut by a young Englishwoman introduces a complex and fascinating protagonist destined for another appearance. Meanwhile, Birdman will enthral readers who just can't get enough of Hannibal Lechter. -- Patrick O'Kelley
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| Customer Reviews: Read 56 more reviews...
Birdman September 5, 2008
My friend lent me her copy when I was younger and I read it cover to cover in a weekend. A fine example of a thriller!
 Lust for Death April 11, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
Who would imagine that an attractive young lady could have such a sickeningly horrific imagination? She's a wolf in sheep's clothing, is Mo, that's for sure. This is her debut novel, I've discovered it six or more years after it was created but I read the first few pages at the very same time as the height of the investigation into a real-life serial killing in Britain that at first glance shares frighteningly similar bullet-point details as those in this fictional tale. I'm referring to the `Suffolk Strangler' who in the latter part of 2006 murdered five prostitutes and dumped their naked bodies in south-east England. All five women were drug addicts. So it was kind of spooky to read BIRDMAN as these facts were revealed on the news, because very early on in this story the naked bodies of five prostitutes are found in south-east England, all of them later found to be drug addicts. Was the Suffolk Strangler inspired by this book?
It's very unlikely. As more is revealed about the Birdman, and why he is so called, I cannot imagine that anyone, no matter how devoid of sanity, could have carried out such pre-meditated butchery. In fact the story appears to be drawing to a close when only half of the pages have been read when we suddenly discover that, somehow, things actually take a turn for the worse and we are then treated to a second half that involves further descriptions of how low a human being can descend in their sexual indulgences and the exploitation it involves.
Compared to the crime thrillers I have read, Birdman does push one or two boundaries of horror a little further than most, although this is not to say that there have been others unknown to me that have not ventured further still. It's probably as far as I want to venture myself, however. Thankfully there's a lot more to this tale than a capacity to induce nightmares; we are presented with an interesting and credible central character in the form of DI Jack Caffery, who has for all of his adult life borne the weight of the disappearance of his elder brother when they were both young boys. Jack is convinced that his brother Ewan was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a paedophile but there has never been anything to prove this, despite the assumed killer, now approaching 70, living at the end of Jack's garden following several spells in prison for sex crimes against children. Jack's obsession with his brother is always at the front of his mind (and will take centre stage in the sequel to this novel) together with the intimately drawn relationship with his live-in partner Veronica. Indeed quite apart from the central plot which involves the less-than-mainstream issue of necrophilia, the author successfully manages to include the sometimes taboo topics of racism and cancer. In the former case it centres on the assumption of another detective that the Birdman must be black, while the subject of cancer is tackled in a slightly unusual way that never appears overly stereotypical or insensitive. I found that all of the `side issues' that affect the personal life of the central character to be wholly convincing and skilfully woven into the story such that they were at all times relevant. What might have been classified as `the love interest bit' that so many publishers demand of a writer is in this case a `not-in-love' interest and was the more fascinating for it.
Having had a few days to reflect upon the story before writing this review, I find it hard to think of any weaknesses in its pace, structure, or authenticity. The author had me guessing for the majority of the time, making me ask myself this simple question: "What's going on here?" - sorry if that sounds a bit like Dixon of Dock Green (without the 'allo' 'allo 'allo prefix) but it really was something that I found myself asking on many occasions and I found it most entertaining. In the end though I give it four stars (four-and-a-half if I could) because five should only be allocated to truly special books, ones that really stand out from the rest. Birdman is unquestionably very good if not excellent, but it does ultimately fall into the classification of the serial killer genre, of which there are so many these days that almost nothing stands out. Having said that, Mo Hayder is clearly a very intelligent and imaginative writer, this is a fantastic debut and the thought that she will get better with experience is an enticing one. I'm halfway through The Treatment - the sequel to Birdman - and the signs are that she is indeed improving. You must read Birdman FIRST by the way - otherwise there are some spoilers in the sequel that will reduce the impact of this first novel.
wow what debut novel stunning March 3, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
brilliantly developed characters,very scary well worth reading
A damn good read! November 21, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Totally gripping, shocking and frightening - a terrific book!Edge of your seat stuff - not for the faint hearted!
Life through a different lense...... June 15, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Shocking, horrific, twisted, gripping and fabulous...Prepare to take off your rose tinted glasses and look at life through the Smirnoff bottle !...Im getting myself a mug of hot sweet tea to help me recover before I excitedly launch myself into the next book in the series.....
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