Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic (m) Hayder, M. 2011 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Newberg Public Library | MYSTERY HAYDER | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | MYS HAYDER | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Mo Hayder, internationally best-selling author of Skin and Gone , has firmly established her reputation as a master of gritty, gripping page-turners. Fast-paced and addictive, her latest, Hanging Hill , centers around a pair of estranged sisters, one a policeman, and the gruesome homicide of a teenage beauty which leads them deeper than they ever anticipated into an underground world of sex and violence.
One morning in picture-perfect Bath, England, a teenage girl's body is found on the towpath of a canal. Lorne Wood--beautiful, popular, and apparently the victim of a brutal murder. Why was she on the towpath late at night alone? Zoe Benedict--Harley-riding police detective, independent to a fault--is convinced the department head needs to look beyond the usual domestic motives to solve the case. Meanwhile Zoe's sister Sally--recently divorced and supporting a daughter who was friends with the dead girl--has begun working as a housekeeper for a rich entrepreneur who quickly begins to seem less eccentric than repugnant, and possibly dangerous. When Zoe's investigation uncovers evidence that Lorne's attempts to break into modeling had delivered her into the world of webcam porn, a crippling secret from Zoe's past seems determined to emerge.
Author Notes
Mo Hayder is the pen name for Clare Dunkel, a British Crime novelist. She was born, in 1962. After leaving school at 15, she worked as a barmaid, security guard, filmmaker, hostess in a Tokyo club, and taught English as a foreign language in Asia. Here first novel was Birdman (1999). The books that followed were The Treatment (2001), Tokyo (2004) also published in 2010 as The Devil in Nanking, Pigs Island (2006), Ritual (2008), Skin (2009), Hanging Hill (2011), Gone (2010) won the Edgar Award, Poppet (2013), and Wolf (2014) which is being adapted for the BBC. In 2011, she won the Crime Writers' Association Daggar in the Library award for an outstanding body of work. Clare Dunkel died from motor neurone disease on July 27, 2021. She was 59.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Zoe and Sally are two estranged sisters living in Bath, England. Sally is a mousy, recently divorced mother, while Zoe is a tough, career-minded detective inspector. But the two are drawn back together by a circuitous series of dangerous and deadly events that begin with the brutal murder of a teenage girl and will change their lives and relationship dramatically. Rosalyn Landon's calm, skillfully accented narration perfectly captures the mood of Hayder's thrilling mystery. But it's the narrator's portrayal of the characters that truly shines. Landor's rendition of the timorous Sally is perfect, as is her interpretation of the stronger but troubled Zoe. And Landor is just as adept in her layered portrayals of the teenagers, pompous thugs, witchy wives, and other supporting characters that populate the novel. An Atlantic Monthly hardcover. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Gone, 2010, etc.) has assembled an unusual cast for her latest crime novel. Her leads, Zo and Sally, live in Bath in the West of England; they are sisters, long estranged. Both have self-esteem issues. Big sister Zo, feeling unloved as a kid, took it out on Sally, once breaking her finger. A smart loner (her best friend is her Harley), Zo became a detective; but still self-hating, she often punctures her skin. Sally is the airhead, miserably aware of her shortcomings. Dumped by her husband, she is raising their teenage daughter on her own and cleaning houses to make ends meet. The novel begins with the dead body of Lorne, a pretty, popular 16-year-old, found beside a towpath, raped and murdered. Zo is assigned to the case, along with Ben, who she's been dating. After some fieldwork, attention shifts to the owner of a mansion Sally cleans, David Goldrab. He oversees a porn empire and has some connection to a top-ranking but corrupt civil servant; both men were involved in human trafficking in Kosovo. Goldrab is an entertaining, foul-mouthed villain, and some of the air goes out of the novel when he meets, all too soon, a violent end. His connection to Lorne is nonexistent, but her murder investigation gets back-burner treatment as Zo focuses on Goldrab's disappearance. There will be a second rape and a lightly sketched dismemberment, tame by Hayder standards. What's disconcerting is that Zo acts more like a PI than one link in a chain of command with bosses, even telling Sally, "I'm not going to the police." Yes, that's sister Sally, for by now the two have reconciled, and the spectacle of these sisters gaining strength and self-respect has become as important as the chills and thrills. The psychobabble and uncertain focus make this one of Hayder's less-impressive works.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Bath, England, is the site of Hayder's latest roller-coaster ride into the heart of darkness. With overtones of menace that link the tarot to serial murder, Hayder continues to skirt the edge of the supernatural within the context of a police procedural, defying the reader to prove that she doesn't really have anything hidden up her sleeve. Hanging Hill introduces a new character, down-to-earth detective inspector Zoe Benedict, who finds herself butting heads with a profiler who seems to be substituting pyschological mumbo jumbo for the process of evidence gathering. Zoe's stakes in the case are amped off the scale when she finds that her sister and daughter-in-law seem to be in the sadistic killer's line of fire. It's unclear whether the novel will launch a new series for Hayder complementing her acclaimed Walking Man novels (Gone, 2011) but certainly the fascinating Zoe would make a fine series lead. Hayder's acclaim in the genre (she is the winner of numerous awards, including, most recently, the 2011 Crime Writers' Association Dagger in the Library Award) stands only to grow in the wake of her latest triumph.--Swanson, Elliott Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Two estranged sisters living in Bath, England, have strong connections to the brutal rape and murder of teenager Lorne Wood. Zoe is one of the detectives investigating the case, and her tough-girl exterior hides a painful secret. Her sister Sally's daughter, Millie, was close friends with Lorne, and her family's financial woes are proving overwhelming for Sally. Add in a creepy porn star, a dash of blackmail, and some old skeletons in the closet, and you have a recipe for disaster. This rather gory thriller shows the desperate lengths people go to when pushed beyond their limits. Hayder (Gone; Skin) has created believably flawed characters and weaves their perspectives together as she carefully builds toward a dramatic and violent finish. VERDICT Best for fans of contemporary British police procedurals in the mood for a darker tone than Deborah Crombie or Elizabeth George. [See Prepub Alert, 8/8/11.]-Laurel Bliss, San Diego State Univ. Lib. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.