Book 13

While I was reading Heat Rises, my wife was also reading the same copy, and she would often beat me to the Nook (I had the ebook checked out from the library). Fortunately, due to a slightly uncontrollable library habit, I generally have several books checked out waiting to be read at any one time. One of these was Gone, by Mo Hayder, a British crime fiction writer.

Gone is apparently the fifth in a series about Detective Jack Caffery. I did not realize that when I read a review of the book that enticed me to read it and checked it out of the library. I'm usually a little compulsive about reading a series in order, but that compulsion did not kick in this time. The book worked well as a stand alone, although I can see where I might have missed out on some character development that carried over from previous volumes. There is one character, the Walking Man, a vagrant confidant of the detective, that seemed wildly out of place. I can only assume his presence would make more sense if one read the other books.

Despite this, Hayder has written a nicely paced mystery. Not only is the suspect unknown, but his true motive in carjacking cars with children in them is a mystery, too. A nice supporting cast, both police and victims, flesh out the story. It was a bit dark in places, but it kept me turning the pages.

My one complaint with the main character was with how he pieced all the clues together. The problem is he didn't. Other characters are shown working out the mystery, but Caffery sort of just magically knows all of the sudden who did it and why. There are other examples of action happening off scene, in particular a rescue I was looking forward to reading about, that I didn't like either. Perhaps it moved the book along, but it left me wondering, "What exactly happened there?"

Still, I wouldn't mind reading the other books in the series, even if I'm not rushing out to find them.

On another note, I learned not to read two mysteries at once. I often have bookmarks in two or three books at the same time, but they are generally from different genres. For example a history book and a science fiction book. But this time it was two mysteries. They were different enough that I didn't get too confused, although there were a couple of minor characters that I had to remind myself were in different books.