The Cutting by James Hayman

[runner]

I am half way through The Cutting by James Hayman and have to say what a fantastic read this is turning out to be. The crime genre is a very congested section of any shop with seemingly new authors trying to announce their presence on a daily basis. This is one book I picked up from the library and has prove the perfect mix of dialogue/action/sex/ with a cracking story to keep the reader alive...panting...and wanting more. I was looking forward to reading the follow up but see the The Chill of Night in paperback will not be released until March next year....I cannot download the kindle edition because I presume the publishers will release in conjunction with the paperback.

[runner]

My review....This is a book of 2 halves and the first in a series by James Hayman. The story is simple and well told,a number of young girls are being killed and it would appear that their hearts are being stolen, presumably harvested to be used in a later transplant auction. The first half is fast, taut and moves along at a great pace....the doubts begin to emerge when it becomes apparent that the killer is using the hearts to sell to the highest bidder...to harvest them. It is strange that Tess Gerristen has sanctioned the book especially as she wrote a very similar (and much better) story a few years ago titled strangely enough "Harvest" The second part of the book seems to fall apart, McCabe our chief detective has a young daughter who is 14 and naturally the reader presumes that she will at some point be captured by the killer and murdered as part of the "heart harvesting" operation...this does not happen...and it seems to me that the author used this as a red herring...although I do not understand why. Secondly the killer's id is known well before the book's conclusion...and so there are no real surprises at the end. It appears to me that Mr Hayman had a really good read for the first half and then it all ran out of steam....both plot and story telling...it's a pity because I did enjoy his writing style and hopefully the second in the series "The Chill of Night" will make good these mistakes.