This is the third book in the Jack Caffery series by Hayder. I read the first two books, Birdman and The Treatment a few years ago and remember them as quite horrific and dark novels involving some very sinister antagonists. I have also read Hayder's stand-alone novels, Pig Island and The Devil of Nanking. All of her works are quite dark and I was surprised when I first found out that Mo Hayder was a woman (she died earlier this year, July 2021).
Ritual is another dark suspense novel. It starts out with the discovery of a severed hand in Bristol Harbor by police diver, Flea Marley. But where is the body from which the hand came? Caffery is brought onto the case to try to find out. He had been recently transferred to Bristol from London after the events as described in the first two novels. Caffery's investigations leads him to a dark underworld involving blood rituals and superstitions derived from Africa to fight off evil spirits. In a side story, Flea has not recovered from losing her parents in a diving accident two years earlier. Their bodies were never recovered after a dive in a deep sinkhole called Bushman's Hole or Boesmansgat in South Africa. And Caffery is still obsessed with who abducted his brother when he was young. He meets a traveling vagabond called "The Walking Man" who may be able to help him deal with this.
Overall, another absorbing novel from Hayder. Lots of twists and turns to the story and I enjoyed the interplay between Caffery and Flea. Hopefully, she will be featured in the next novels in the series which I intend to read soon.
Ritual is another dark suspense novel. It starts out with the discovery of a severed hand in Bristol Harbor by police diver, Flea Marley. But where is the body from which the hand came? Caffery is brought onto the case to try to find out. He had been recently transferred to Bristol from London after the events as described in the first two novels. Caffery's investigations leads him to a dark underworld involving blood rituals and superstitions derived from Africa to fight off evil spirits. In a side story, Flea has not recovered from losing her parents in a diving accident two years earlier. Their bodies were never recovered after a dive in a deep sinkhole called Bushman's Hole or Boesmansgat in South Africa. And Caffery is still obsessed with who abducted his brother when he was young. He meets a traveling vagabond called "The Walking Man" who may be able to help him deal with this.
Overall, another absorbing novel from Hayder. Lots of twists and turns to the story and I enjoyed the interplay between Caffery and Flea. Hopefully, she will be featured in the next novels in the series which I intend to read soon.
