"Ritual" Mo Hayder

"Shhhh!" Don't tell anyone, but I love snowy Saturday mornings. I don't have to work, I can put a Disney movie on for the kids (right now the're watching "Kung Fu Panda"), and I can do my own thing for an hour or two while Hubby works until 1 PM. For some reason he hates the "click-clickity" of the keyboard and it annoys him if I'm blogging while he's watching TV. So, I try to do it while he's not home because it's just easier that way. The things we do for love.

On Thursday night I finally had the chance to sit down long enough to finish off Mo Hayder's "Ritual". I honestly didn't know if this would be something that I would enjoy, the "suspense" genre isn't normally one of my favourite genres, but I truly loved it. "Ritual" begins with us meeting "Flea" (real name: Phoebe), a Police diver in Bristol. Acting on a tip, Flea has found a human hand in the bottom of the harbour. The twist on this is that there is no body, and it is later determined that the hand was removed from the body while the victim was still alive. We then meet Jack Caffery, deputy Senior Investigating Officer and a man with a dark, angry past and "Mossy", a drug addict who will become the future victim of this crime. Somehow this combination works, and Hayder spends the remainder of the book flipping between the stories of these three characters. Somehow in the end, even though it doesn't seem possible at first, the pieces all fall into place and the conclusion is stunning.

Well-written, fast-paced, and enjoyable, I would highly reccommend this book to anyone, even if this is a genre that you don't normally read. Hayder has a true skill, and I plan on checking out her future novels. One thing that I especially loved is that she didn't tie up all of the loose ends, so the book does not end up tied into a pretty little package. It leaves the reader with some sense of the unfinished.

What's Up Next: I have just started Dennis Lehane's "The Given Day". I'm only a chapter or two in so far, but I had better get cracking as this book is on a two-week loan from the library because there are other people waiting for it. I only have it until December 11th, so I'm going to go and read more now!