Birdman by Mo Hayder

Detective Inspector Jack Caffery has just caught his first murder in his new posting.  A young girl has been found buried on a construction site.  At first, it's believed it might be a medical student's prank gone wrong, as Jack is told the body has been autopsied.  However, this was no professional autopsy but one of butchery.  The corpse is made up heavily just like a doll, and the body was mutilated in addition to the autopsy.

Things get worse.  By the next day, four more bodies are found on the site.  Jack has definite ideas about the killer, but not everyone in the department shares his ideas.  There are those who want this to be an easy case, perhaps a drug deal gone wrong.  Instead, it is what every department fears, a case of tracking down a serial sexual sadist. 

Jack has personal issues to work through in addition to his professional ones.  He is haunted by his childhood and a trauma that occurred then.  He is currently attempting to extradite himself from a romantic relationship that isn't going anywhere, and he also finds himself attracted to a witness in the case.  Can he put aside his personal feelings and catch the killer before he strikes again?

Mo Hayder has written a fascinating murder mystery.  The details are grisly, and this book is not for the fainthearted.  Still, Caffery is a fascinating character, and the unfolding of the mystery will have the reader guessing over and over again as the story winds and twists into surprising locations.  The reader will finish this book ready for more of Caffery's story in later novels.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.