REVIEW for The Cutting

Thank you to James Hayman for sending me a copy of his great book!

TITLE: The Cutting

AUTHOR: James Hayman

GENRE: Thriller

RATING: 4 Stars

Although I seem to have stayed a little from my love of thrillers (this was mainly due to the fact that I wasn't finding many good ones) I have to say that I am happy, happy to have discovered The Cutting. This book is absolutely thrilling (yes, pun intended).

Our main character Mike McCabe was a NYPD cop - he has seen it all and frankly, he is tired of it, add to this the fact that his personal life is a mess considering his wife has just walked out on him and their daughter, he decides to needs to move to a quieter and more civilized place - he thinks he has found this in Portland, Maine (which always makes me think of Stephen King-land!!). However, the horror seems to have found him again. A victim is found murdered, with their hearts surgically (and professionally done?) and now, a young woman is missing - McCabe knows that he is in a time crunch to find her - before this maniac removes her heart and leaves her for dead.

Of course, as Murphy's Law would have it, this is also the time where McCabe's "former" wife re-enters his life and demands custody of their daughter. There is alot going on in this novel and all of it is compulsively readable. I like that McCabe has lots of personal problems going on, while he is trying to deal with a maniac, it made him very down to earth and human to me - I hate it when I read a story about a detective that seems to walk on water somehow. This is a flawed man trying to find a maniac and the lines can get a little blurry at times - great stuff! The descriptions of the murders and the details of the condition of the victims is just enough to make me engrossed in the storyline without being totally grossed out.

The author is very good at pushing his story along at a good pace without rushing it too much or without slowing it down too much with useless details. I loved the way the author mingles his main character's life as center stage AT THE SAME time as the murder story.

This book is one of those books that I had a hard time putting down and kept saying "one more page". I loved it