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McCabe & Savage Thriller #1
L'écorcheur de Portland
The first novel in the nationally bestselling McCabe and Savage series – perfect for fans of John Sandford and CJ Box.
Someone is stealing the hearts of beautiful women...
Detective Mike McCabe moved from a top homicide job with the NYPD to Portland, Maine to leave his failed marriage and suspicions of wrongdoing behind, and to find a more peaceful life for himself and his 13 year old daughter.
But the small New England city is not nearly as safe as he thought.
On a warm September night, a missing high-school athlete is found dead in a scrap metal yard, her heart removed from her body with surgical precision. As outrage over the killing spreads, a young business woman disappears while out on a morning jog.
McCabe is certain both crimes are the work of one man—a murderer skilled in cardiac surgery who is using his scalpel to target young women. With the clock ticking, McCabe and his partner Maggie Savage find themselves in a desperate race against time to find and rescue the missing woman before she becomes the next victim of the sadistic killer’s blade.
"A stunning debut that gripped me for first page to last. A thriller of a thriller!"
--New York Times bestselling author, Tess Gerritsen
Someone is stealing the hearts of beautiful women...
Detective Mike McCabe moved from a top homicide job with the NYPD to Portland, Maine to leave his failed marriage and suspicions of wrongdoing behind, and to find a more peaceful life for himself and his 13 year old daughter.
But the small New England city is not nearly as safe as he thought.
On a warm September night, a missing high-school athlete is found dead in a scrap metal yard, her heart removed from her body with surgical precision. As outrage over the killing spreads, a young business woman disappears while out on a morning jog.
McCabe is certain both crimes are the work of one man—a murderer skilled in cardiac surgery who is using his scalpel to target young women. With the clock ticking, McCabe and his partner Maggie Savage find themselves in a desperate race against time to find and rescue the missing woman before she becomes the next victim of the sadistic killer’s blade.
"A stunning debut that gripped me for first page to last. A thriller of a thriller!"
--New York Times bestselling author, Tess Gerritsen
491 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
633 people are currently reading
2644 people want to read
About the author
James Hayman
13 books373 followersLike one of the heroes of my thrillers, Detective Sergeant Mike McCabe, I’m a native New Yorker. McCabe was born in the Bronx. I was born in Brooklyn. And we both grew up and spent much of our working lives in the New York City before eventually moving to Portland, Maine. However that’s where the similarities end.
McCabe, after spending a couple of years at NYU Film School, dropped out and decided to join the family business and become a cop first for the NYPD and then for the Portland PD.
For my part, I graduated from Brown University without having any idea whatsoever of what I wanted to do. All I knew was that the one salable skill I thought I possessed was the ability of dreaming things up and writing them down. After looking around I realized the only companies I could think of that would pay me to do both were on Madison Avenue. I joined a major New York advertising agency as a cub copywriter. Over the next few years I drifted to a couple of other agencies and finally settled in as a senior creative director at the agency I considered the best of the lot.
I thoroughly enjoyed the ad business and was good at it. I was well paid and spent my days dreaming up sometimes weird, sometimes funny, sometimes dopey ideas for mostly TV ad campaigns.
But before I knew it, more than 30 years had passed, my hair had turned from dark brown to silvery gray and I began to realize that Madison Avenue, like the Texas/Mexico border in Cormac McCarthy’s great thriller, was No Country for Old Men. My wife and I decided to pull up stakes and move full-time to a house we’d built right on the ocean on an island a mile and a half from the city of Portland.
Up in Maine I spent a couple of years writing freelance marketing pieces. But in 2005 I decided that if I didn’t start writing the suspense thriller I’d been itching to write for years, I probably never would. My first effort which I called The Cutting told the tale of an villainous surgeon who killed people to steal their hearts for use in illegal transplants. It took me nearly two years to write. But I stuck with it and when I’d finally finished with writing, polishing, editing and reediting I started looking for an agent. Wanting to shoot for the stars, I sent the manuscript and a cover letter to one of the top agents in the business, Meg Ruley of the Jane Rotrosen Agency in New York. Meg represented such top best selling thriller writers as Tess Gerritsen, Lisa Gardner and Michael Palmer among others. Sending the book to Meg first was kind of a Hail Mary play on my part.
Hail Mary’s rarely work so a little more than a week later I was stunned when Meg called me in the UK where my wife and I were vacationing and after telling me she how much she liked the book, she asked “Have you sent this to any other agents?”
“Nope. None,” I replied. “You were the first.”
“Well don’t send it anyone else,” she said. “I’d like to represent you. That is if you’re interested.”
I’m not sure how I kept my cool but after no more than a few stutters and stammers, I did manage to let her know that yes, indeed, I was very interested in having her represent me.
Meg quickly sold The Cutting to major publishers in the both the US and seven other countries and I was off and running. Over the next seven years, I followed up on the success of that first book by writing five more McCabe/Savage thrillers: The Chill of Night, Darkness First, The Girl in the Glass, and The Girl on the Bridge, which collectively sold over half a million copies and made a bunch of best seller lists including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and my home town paper, the Portland Press Herald. My latest McCabe/Savage thriller, A Fatal Obsession, is the first of the series set outside of Maine, partly in New York City, partly in rural Connecticut. My publisher, Harper Collins, is bringing it out on August 21st both in paperback and e-book form.
McCabe, after spending a couple of years at NYU Film School, dropped out and decided to join the family business and become a cop first for the NYPD and then for the Portland PD.
For my part, I graduated from Brown University without having any idea whatsoever of what I wanted to do. All I knew was that the one salable skill I thought I possessed was the ability of dreaming things up and writing them down. After looking around I realized the only companies I could think of that would pay me to do both were on Madison Avenue. I joined a major New York advertising agency as a cub copywriter. Over the next few years I drifted to a couple of other agencies and finally settled in as a senior creative director at the agency I considered the best of the lot.
I thoroughly enjoyed the ad business and was good at it. I was well paid and spent my days dreaming up sometimes weird, sometimes funny, sometimes dopey ideas for mostly TV ad campaigns.
But before I knew it, more than 30 years had passed, my hair had turned from dark brown to silvery gray and I began to realize that Madison Avenue, like the Texas/Mexico border in Cormac McCarthy’s great thriller, was No Country for Old Men. My wife and I decided to pull up stakes and move full-time to a house we’d built right on the ocean on an island a mile and a half from the city of Portland.
Up in Maine I spent a couple of years writing freelance marketing pieces. But in 2005 I decided that if I didn’t start writing the suspense thriller I’d been itching to write for years, I probably never would. My first effort which I called The Cutting told the tale of an villainous surgeon who killed people to steal their hearts for use in illegal transplants. It took me nearly two years to write. But I stuck with it and when I’d finally finished with writing, polishing, editing and reediting I started looking for an agent. Wanting to shoot for the stars, I sent the manuscript and a cover letter to one of the top agents in the business, Meg Ruley of the Jane Rotrosen Agency in New York. Meg represented such top best selling thriller writers as Tess Gerritsen, Lisa Gardner and Michael Palmer among others. Sending the book to Meg first was kind of a Hail Mary play on my part.
Hail Mary’s rarely work so a little more than a week later I was stunned when Meg called me in the UK where my wife and I were vacationing and after telling me she how much she liked the book, she asked “Have you sent this to any other agents?”
“Nope. None,” I replied. “You were the first.”
“Well don’t send it anyone else,” she said. “I’d like to represent you. That is if you’re interested.”
I’m not sure how I kept my cool but after no more than a few stutters and stammers, I did manage to let her know that yes, indeed, I was very interested in having her represent me.
Meg quickly sold The Cutting to major publishers in the both the US and seven other countries and I was off and running. Over the next seven years, I followed up on the success of that first book by writing five more McCabe/Savage thrillers: The Chill of Night, Darkness First, The Girl in the Glass, and The Girl on the Bridge, which collectively sold over half a million copies and made a bunch of best seller lists including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and my home town paper, the Portland Press Herald. My latest McCabe/Savage thriller, A Fatal Obsession, is the first of the series set outside of Maine, partly in New York City, partly in rural Connecticut. My publisher, Harper Collins, is bringing it out on August 21st both in paperback and e-book form.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 371 reviews
August 20, 2016
More of a 3.5 star read, but I'm bumping it up for 2 reasons. The first is that it has setup a good series with a lot of back story that was well done. The other is that it was very similar to L.J. Sellers' Detective Jackson series which hurt it, but it looks as if this was published a year before The Sex Club. Instead of Eugene, OR, this takes place in Portland, ME. The MC in both is the lead detective who is divorced with custody of a teenage daughter & a girl friend named Kira! That's a LOT in common & didn't help it at all, but I don't think I should ding the earlier book for it just because I read it second.
It was a fairly twisty mystery, although some was obvious & it was just a matter of waiting for the characters to catch up. McCabe is a good, dedicated detective with enough going on in his personal & professional life to make him quite sympathetic. He drinks Glenfidditch at one point, though. That's a mark against him. Why anyone would touch a single malt scotch that has been abused by aging in a sherry cask is beyond me, especially since he drinks Dewar's for a blend rather than Johnny Walker or Pinch. (No, I don't drink any more, but I used to.)
The supporting characters are good & most are pretty memorable. The bad guys certainly were. There were a couple of good ones, although there wasn't a lot of depth to them. They could have been handled a little better.
Overall, pretty good & I'll listen to more. This series is more of a beach read than Connelly or McKinty. Not a bad thing since the overall tone is much happier, not as gritty.
It was a fairly twisty mystery, although some was obvious & it was just a matter of waiting for the characters to catch up. McCabe is a good, dedicated detective with enough going on in his personal & professional life to make him quite sympathetic. He drinks Glenfidditch at one point, though. That's a mark against him. Why anyone would touch a single malt scotch that has been abused by aging in a sherry cask is beyond me, especially since he drinks Dewar's for a blend rather than Johnny Walker or Pinch. (No, I don't drink any more, but I used to.)
The supporting characters are good & most are pretty memorable. The bad guys certainly were. There were a couple of good ones, although there wasn't a lot of depth to them. They could have been handled a little better.
Overall, pretty good & I'll listen to more. This series is more of a beach read than Connelly or McKinty. Not a bad thing since the overall tone is much happier, not as gritty.
September 6, 2017
The Cutting is book one of the McCabe & Savage Thriller. One hot night in Portland Detective Sergeant Michael McCabe was out to dinner with Kyra when his partner Detective Maggie Savage contact him about finding the body of a missing teenager. The readers of The Cutting will go on a rollercoaster ride with McCabe and Maggie trying to locate the killer before another person dies.
I accidentally found this series by participating in reading challenges, and I fell in love with James Hayman books and especially his two main characters McCabe and Savage. I like that James Hayman made his leading characters male and female detective team. James Hayman certainly knows how to take his readers on a rollercoaster ride to find a killer. I like the way, James Hayman entwine personal stories of his characters. I enjoy James Hayman portrayal of his characters and the way he entwines them throughout The book.
Reading the Cutting, I started to think about the problems that men have when relationships fail, and children are involved. Readers of The Cutting will learn about the different law enforcement procedures in Portland, Maine. Also, will learn about illegal organ transplants and what they do to gather vital organs.
I recommend this book
I accidentally found this series by participating in reading challenges, and I fell in love with James Hayman books and especially his two main characters McCabe and Savage. I like that James Hayman made his leading characters male and female detective team. James Hayman certainly knows how to take his readers on a rollercoaster ride to find a killer. I like the way, James Hayman entwine personal stories of his characters. I enjoy James Hayman portrayal of his characters and the way he entwines them throughout The book.
Reading the Cutting, I started to think about the problems that men have when relationships fail, and children are involved. Readers of The Cutting will learn about the different law enforcement procedures in Portland, Maine. Also, will learn about illegal organ transplants and what they do to gather vital organs.
I recommend this book
May 10, 2021
What an ending!! Wow. These detectives that try to do things on their own have my heart in my throat. The bad guy was oh so bad. Great story! I’ll definitely be reading more in the series. Probably should call it 4.5 stars.
January 14, 2011
James Hayman’s “The Cutting”, published by Penguin in the United Kingdom, is the latest crime thriller to land on my desk in 2011. Given that this is Hayman’s debut novel I approached the book with an air of excitement, eager to discover a new leading detective and a new novelist – adding to the fact that McCabe is a detective from Portland - I wasn’t disappointed!
After spending over twenty years as a senior creative director at one of New York’s largest advertising agencies, Hayman, who currently lives in Portland Maine, utilises his knowledge of the area in this wonderfully evocative thriller.
It’s hard to comprehend that this is his first novel; such is the fluidity of his narrative and intelligent police procedural throughout. An incredibly fast paced thriller, not only did this story have heart (and yes a play on words!) it had a lot of soul. Page by page I felt as if I was discovering more about Hayman’s interests through the parting wisdom of his lead character Michael McCabe.
Leaving the New York police department following an acrimonious divorce and the fatal shooting of his brother and a small time hoodlum, Detective Michael McCabe, an intelligent and enigmatic character, is keen to start anew with his daughter Casey. Leaving the violence of the big city the pair move to Portland, far away from an ex-wife who wants nothing to do with her daughter – the pair move on.
Three years on and McCabe and his daughter are comfortable in their loving relationship – I really enjoyed this softness to the story and his fears of protecting Casey plays a small part in keeping the story ticking along nicely.
1971 and a young boy takes a rabbit to a secret cave, carefully opening a sharpened knife he proceeds to take great delight in killing the animal, the blade entering the animal’s neck as it shook violently. Experiencing an indescribable feeling throughout his body, the euphoria of the rabbit’s beating heart still fresh in his memory, the boy wants to taste death again.
2005, a September evening, a homeless man discovers the mutilated body of a beautiful blonde teenager (Katie Dubois) in a scrap-metal yard. McCabe and his partner Maggie are called to the scene and are struck by the brutality of the murder – the young girl, missing for a week, is missing a heart.
Full review on my blog:- http://www.milorambles.com/2011/01/14...
After spending over twenty years as a senior creative director at one of New York’s largest advertising agencies, Hayman, who currently lives in Portland Maine, utilises his knowledge of the area in this wonderfully evocative thriller.
It’s hard to comprehend that this is his first novel; such is the fluidity of his narrative and intelligent police procedural throughout. An incredibly fast paced thriller, not only did this story have heart (and yes a play on words!) it had a lot of soul. Page by page I felt as if I was discovering more about Hayman’s interests through the parting wisdom of his lead character Michael McCabe.
Leaving the New York police department following an acrimonious divorce and the fatal shooting of his brother and a small time hoodlum, Detective Michael McCabe, an intelligent and enigmatic character, is keen to start anew with his daughter Casey. Leaving the violence of the big city the pair move to Portland, far away from an ex-wife who wants nothing to do with her daughter – the pair move on.
Three years on and McCabe and his daughter are comfortable in their loving relationship – I really enjoyed this softness to the story and his fears of protecting Casey plays a small part in keeping the story ticking along nicely.
1971 and a young boy takes a rabbit to a secret cave, carefully opening a sharpened knife he proceeds to take great delight in killing the animal, the blade entering the animal’s neck as it shook violently. Experiencing an indescribable feeling throughout his body, the euphoria of the rabbit’s beating heart still fresh in his memory, the boy wants to taste death again.
2005, a September evening, a homeless man discovers the mutilated body of a beautiful blonde teenager (Katie Dubois) in a scrap-metal yard. McCabe and his partner Maggie are called to the scene and are struck by the brutality of the murder – the young girl, missing for a week, is missing a heart.
Full review on my blog:- http://www.milorambles.com/2011/01/14...
November 25, 2018
This was the author's debut book and I was really impressed. It was an edge of your seat police procedural and was hard to put down. I definitely want to continue reading this series.
My only negative would be I like more of an epilogue. For me I had some questions that seemed unanswered and although some are ones that may follow into book#2, some were related to this plot. I like to know what happened to a few more "bad" guys.
My only negative would be I like more of an epilogue. For me I had some questions that seemed unanswered and although some are ones that may follow into book#2, some were related to this plot. I like to know what happened to a few more "bad" guys.
March 25, 2020
I am giving a big applause to this one. I was really entertained. It was twisty, and had the right amount of speed and action, just like I want to have a really good thriller going. This was my first Hayman and it was his debut novel. That book was sitting on my tbr for a while, there is still waiting a other of him and I am sure I def want to read this either soon. Loved the characters special McCabe. For me a page tuner could but it down barely. 4.5 🌿 I recommend it!
August 1, 2010
Since the book takes place in my backyard, I was curious to read it. As a first novel, I enjoyed the writing and found the character development (at least the main characters) well done. It's clear the author was influenced by many popular mystery/crime writers and this can be seen in his characters and the plot (Is it me or is it a prerequisite that the male protagonist be attractive and have a sexy significant other who is always ready for some action between the sheets and has fabulous taste in food and drink and/or is a classical music/literature fan?) The action moved well and while I did figure out the killer early on, it was still enjoyable to continue reading to see how it would be revealed. I understand a second book is being written and I look forward to reading that to find out what happens with the characters.
July 7, 2016
In the end it was just an OK mystery for me. I did finish it, but it was really slow. They mystery wasn't that surprising, even with the little twist toward the end. I did like McCabe's character. He is a detective that I would normally be interested in following. Hopefully the later books have a faster pace. I didn't care for his partner, Maggie. She was just an odd fit for him. There was also that weird interaction with McCabe later in the book that didn't make any sense. Why would she kiss him? It just seemed out of place and unnecessary. Anyway, I might look for the next book if it's on audio. Although, I wasn't a fan of the reader. He made a lot of the characters seem like emotionless shouters.
March 28, 2014
A fabulous read I so enjoyed this novel my first by James Hayman. When young women are being abducted and their bodies dumped with their hearts cut out Decetive McCabe and partner Maggie Savage are on the job in a race against time to try and save Lucinda Cassidy who recently was also abducted. This novel was fast paced, action packed with plenty of twists and turns and all the characters were intriguing. very well written I'm going to love this series❤❤❤
April 26, 2018
My first McCabe and Savage book and it will definitely not be my last! Excellent suspense/thriller!
August 10, 2019
Need a bit of time to digest this one I think 🤔 💭
November 20, 2021
It's entertaining enough but nothing groundbreaking. Some parts felt pretty slow while the ending felt too rushed for me. This is the McCabe and Savage series, referring to Michael McCabe and his partner Maggie Savage, but this is definitely more focused on the McCabe side of that equation. Maggie was barely a part of this story
Their partnership definitely felt a bit stereotypical with the grizzled male cop and the sensitive woman partner who throws up at the sight of a body. There are some other issues with this story too that age it a bit. This book came out in 2009 and there is some outdated stuff with regards to sexuality, there's one scene with a lot of body shaming, and a few other off-handed remarks I didn't love. Nothing so bad as to make me stop reading but just stuff that showed the book's age a bit.
I did like McCabe's relationship with his daughter but the plot with him and his ex-wife is so drawn out and then she never actually comes into the story.
I also didn't think there were enough twists to throw me off who the murderer was, which made the story feel really drawn out. I felt like I knew who the killer was really early and then you're just reading about the police work that goes into getting evidence for that conclusion. That may be accurate to how it works but it's boring to read about.
Some of the writing from the victim's perspective was genuinely creepy but some of the other perspectives felt useless .
I would consider continuing with this series because it's entertaining enough but I would like to see how the relationship between McCabe and Savage evolves and if some issues I have get fixed in later books. If they don't I'll probably give up on this series.
Their partnership definitely felt a bit stereotypical with the grizzled male cop and the sensitive woman partner who throws up at the sight of a body. There are some other issues with this story too that age it a bit. This book came out in 2009 and there is some outdated stuff with regards to sexuality, there's one scene with a lot of body shaming, and a few other off-handed remarks I didn't love. Nothing so bad as to make me stop reading but just stuff that showed the book's age a bit.
I did like McCabe's relationship with his daughter but the plot with him and his ex-wife is so drawn out and then she never actually comes into the story.
I also didn't think there were enough twists to throw me off who the murderer was, which made the story feel really drawn out. I felt like I knew who the killer was really early and then you're just reading about the police work that goes into getting evidence for that conclusion. That may be accurate to how it works but it's boring to read about.
Some of the writing from the victim's perspective was genuinely creepy but some of the other perspectives felt useless .
I would consider continuing with this series because it's entertaining enough but I would like to see how the relationship between McCabe and Savage evolves and if some issues I have get fixed in later books. If they don't I'll probably give up on this series.
May 15, 2010
Detective Sergeant Michael McCabe left New York City to start over in Portland, Maine. Seeking to raise his daughter away from the violence of the city, McCabe settles into his new job, while trying to reconcile himself to the past: an ex-wife who left him for an investment banker and the death of his brother, a hero cop gone bad.
McCabe never expected to find such violence in Maine.
The mutilated body of a blonde high school soccer star is found in a scrap-metal yard. She has been viciously assaulted and her heart cut from her chest with expert precision. On the same day, a young, blonde, athletic businesswoman is abducted as she jogs through the city's west end. McCabe believes both crimes are the work of the same person, and that these crimes sound eerily familiar.
Can McCabe and his partner, Maggie Savage, put the pieces together that will allow them to rescue the missing woman and uncover a sadistic killer?
The Cutting is spectacular! Its gripping storyline, the way McCabe's personal and professional lives intersect, the slight bit of sexual tension between McCabe and his partner, and this unique mystery, all come together to give the reader an action-packed ride.
Hayman has written McCabe with that tough cop edge, but still gives him vulnerabilities to make him believable. In an unusual twist, McCabe is the single father to Casey, whose mother abandoned her when she walked out on McCabe for a rich investment banker. Suddenly Casey's mother reappears to foster a relationship with the girl, and McCabe isn't quite sure he likes that too much.
Once you pick up The Cutting, you won't be able to put it down. You'll be racing against time along with McCabe and Savage to unravel this mystery.
Let's hope Hayman has many more McCabe novels in him, because you'll want to keep reading them just as much as I do
McCabe never expected to find such violence in Maine.
The mutilated body of a blonde high school soccer star is found in a scrap-metal yard. She has been viciously assaulted and her heart cut from her chest with expert precision. On the same day, a young, blonde, athletic businesswoman is abducted as she jogs through the city's west end. McCabe believes both crimes are the work of the same person, and that these crimes sound eerily familiar.
Can McCabe and his partner, Maggie Savage, put the pieces together that will allow them to rescue the missing woman and uncover a sadistic killer?
The Cutting is spectacular! Its gripping storyline, the way McCabe's personal and professional lives intersect, the slight bit of sexual tension between McCabe and his partner, and this unique mystery, all come together to give the reader an action-packed ride.
Hayman has written McCabe with that tough cop edge, but still gives him vulnerabilities to make him believable. In an unusual twist, McCabe is the single father to Casey, whose mother abandoned her when she walked out on McCabe for a rich investment banker. Suddenly Casey's mother reappears to foster a relationship with the girl, and McCabe isn't quite sure he likes that too much.
Once you pick up The Cutting, you won't be able to put it down. You'll be racing against time along with McCabe and Savage to unravel this mystery.
Let's hope Hayman has many more McCabe novels in him, because you'll want to keep reading them just as much as I do
May 31, 2023
It was pretty hard for me to get into the story, but after about a 100 pages I was in. From the beginning there were many different names and it took me until the end of the book to be able to assign them all (more or less).
The story was good and the idea wasn't a bad one, but I just did not like the author's writing style. Women were mainly described as hot and horny and there were really bad comments about their physique that totally crossed the line for me and made me absolutely angry. There were also sex scenes that normally wouldn't bother me, but the way the (male) author wrote them I found really inappropriate and repulsive.
I finished the book pretty quickly, but my anger towards the author steadily increased.
Maybe I'll read the second part of the series just to see if the writing style has changed, but I think it's very unlikely.
The story was good and the idea wasn't a bad one, but I just did not like the author's writing style. Women were mainly described as hot and horny and there were really bad comments about their physique that totally crossed the line for me and made me absolutely angry. There were also sex scenes that normally wouldn't bother me, but the way the (male) author wrote them I found really inappropriate and repulsive.
I finished the book pretty quickly, but my anger towards the author steadily increased.
Maybe I'll read the second part of the series just to see if the writing style has changed, but I think it's very unlikely.
June 4, 2019
I’m confused why these books are titled McCabe & Savage when Savage is such a secondary character. I kept expecting more background of her character or for her to become a bigger part of the story. Hopefully that happens in the next book.
I mostly enjoyed this book. The storyline was kind of creepy and there was a small twist. I liked the setting as well.
I found McCabe to be slightly robotic and annoying at times. The writing was cheesy in parts (“Meet me there. I’m going to try to lose the bad guy.” // “You know me. I never forget a face.”) which made it hard to read.
I mostly enjoyed this book. The storyline was kind of creepy and there was a small twist. I liked the setting as well.
I found McCabe to be slightly robotic and annoying at times. The writing was cheesy in parts (“Meet me there. I’m going to try to lose the bad guy.” // “You know me. I never forget a face.”) which made it hard to read.
February 4, 2016
Just Wonderful!
Beautifully written, great characters, great crime/mystery. Written intelligently, for people with intelligence, which I always appreciate in genre fiction. I HIGHLY recommend this book, the first in a series, and will be well into the second book by the time anyone reads this review. Onward!
Beautifully written, great characters, great crime/mystery. Written intelligently, for people with intelligence, which I always appreciate in genre fiction. I HIGHLY recommend this book, the first in a series, and will be well into the second book by the time anyone reads this review. Onward!
October 1, 2015
Not bad, but not great either. I figured out the entire "mystery" during the first 25% of the book.
February 4, 2017
I felt like the author discussed how the women looked in more detail than the men. And he didn't like heavy women. Annoyed me.
June 17, 2020
For myself, in the tradition of Michael Connolly, I discover a author who relates a tale of crime and murder, the equal of any.
Looking forward to his next book. Each one stands alone.
Looking forward to his next book. Each one stands alone.
March 25, 2010
As an avid reader of several genres, including mystery and suspense, I can honestly rank The Cutting up there with some of the best. While I was reading, such names as Michael Palmer, Linwood Barclay and Harlan Coben often came to mind. This is not to say that James Hayman does not express his own unique writing voice, because he certainly does that. The similarities came, for me, in the form of the intensity, medical suspense, short chapters that lead the reader to not being able to put the book down, but think "It's a short chapter, I can read just one more." Which of course is impossible with the way the author leaves the reader hanging at the end of each chapter.
When the body of a missing young high school girl shows up,displaying indications of a brutal and devastating death, as well as a missing heart, homicide detective Mike McCabe knows that he is not facing an ordinary killer. Then when other bodies begin showing up, the same horrific signs of death, McCabe realizes that they have a serial killer on their hands, a serial killer who always leaves his victims behind without their heart. To add to the pressure of finding the killer, another young, healthy and beautiful woman has gone missing. If all other indications are correct, the missing woman has approximately one week to live and time is quickly seeping away. With no solid leads, McCabe knows he must quickly put the pieces together to discover who is performing these horrendous murders and why. Just when he thinks he has something figured out, a twist occurs, throwing everything out of balance and sending McCabe back to square one. To make matters worse, McCabe has a beautiful, young teenage daughter and fears that the killer may set his sights on her, which sends his pulse racing in terror. He must do everything in his power to find the killer and do so quickly before the body count increases any further.
The Cutting, impressively, is James Hayman's debut novel and one that is sure to send readers craving for more. I do have to admit that I had figured out the killer approximately half way through the book. However, I was still entranced, wanting to know exactly how the entire process played out. Mr. Hayman does an excellent job breathing life into his characters and really allowing the reader to get to know them and care about them. I was amazed how he was able to draw me in from the beginning, by personalizing and really bringing to life Lucy, who is the girl that goes missing and is being searched for before she becomes yet another victim. Such simplistic actions as the fact that Lucy was looking forward to purchasing an Ipod for her nephew and then, before she knows it, her life is forever changed, really made me feel compassion for this character.
In addition, The Cutting is a very smooth and well put together story. There was one spot that comes to mind that seems like it was left a bit open. When the body of the young high school girl is discovered, she is found as though she had been posed a certain way, as though a sign of the killer making a statement. However, there was really no follow through on this, but rather just dropped. I also kept waiting for a shocking twist at the end, but instead was met with a very clean and clear ending. Not that that is bad, by any means, just my own personal feelings.
I cannot wait to see what James Hayman comes out with next. The Cutting is a superb debut novel that I honestly raced through in a mere two days - including one incredibly late night! This is a book, that once you start, you will find it very difficult to put down!!
When the body of a missing young high school girl shows up,displaying indications of a brutal and devastating death, as well as a missing heart, homicide detective Mike McCabe knows that he is not facing an ordinary killer. Then when other bodies begin showing up, the same horrific signs of death, McCabe realizes that they have a serial killer on their hands, a serial killer who always leaves his victims behind without their heart. To add to the pressure of finding the killer, another young, healthy and beautiful woman has gone missing. If all other indications are correct, the missing woman has approximately one week to live and time is quickly seeping away. With no solid leads, McCabe knows he must quickly put the pieces together to discover who is performing these horrendous murders and why. Just when he thinks he has something figured out, a twist occurs, throwing everything out of balance and sending McCabe back to square one. To make matters worse, McCabe has a beautiful, young teenage daughter and fears that the killer may set his sights on her, which sends his pulse racing in terror. He must do everything in his power to find the killer and do so quickly before the body count increases any further.
The Cutting, impressively, is James Hayman's debut novel and one that is sure to send readers craving for more. I do have to admit that I had figured out the killer approximately half way through the book. However, I was still entranced, wanting to know exactly how the entire process played out. Mr. Hayman does an excellent job breathing life into his characters and really allowing the reader to get to know them and care about them. I was amazed how he was able to draw me in from the beginning, by personalizing and really bringing to life Lucy, who is the girl that goes missing and is being searched for before she becomes yet another victim. Such simplistic actions as the fact that Lucy was looking forward to purchasing an Ipod for her nephew and then, before she knows it, her life is forever changed, really made me feel compassion for this character.
In addition, The Cutting is a very smooth and well put together story. There was one spot that comes to mind that seems like it was left a bit open. When the body of the young high school girl is discovered, she is found as though she had been posed a certain way, as though a sign of the killer making a statement. However, there was really no follow through on this, but rather just dropped. I also kept waiting for a shocking twist at the end, but instead was met with a very clean and clear ending. Not that that is bad, by any means, just my own personal feelings.
I cannot wait to see what James Hayman comes out with next. The Cutting is a superb debut novel that I honestly raced through in a mere two days - including one incredibly late night! This is a book, that once you start, you will find it very difficult to put down!!
November 20, 2011
My review....This is a book of 2 halves and the first in a series by James Hayman. The story is simple and well told,a number of young girls are being killed and it would appear that their hearts are being stolen, presumably harvested to be used in a later transplant auction. The first half is fast, taut and moves along at a great pace....the doubts begin to emerge when it becomes apparent that the killer is using the hearts to sell to the highest bidder...to harvest them. It is strange that Tess Gerristen has sanctioned the book especially as she wrote a very similar (and much better) story a few years ago titled strangely enough "Harvest" The second part of the book seems to fall apart, McCabe our chief detective has a young daughter who is 14 and naturally the reader presumes that she will at some point be captured by the killer and murdered as part of the "heart harvesting" operation...this does not happen...and it seems to me that the author used this as a red herring...although I do not understand why. Secondly the killer's id is known well before the book's conclusion...and so there are no real surprises at the end. It appears to me that Mr Hayman had a really good read for the first half and then it all ran out of steam....both plot and story telling...it's a pity because I did enjoy his writing style and hopefully the second in the series "The Chill of Night" will make good these mistakes.
October 28, 2014
A great little thriller, and the start of a very promising mystery series. The fact that it's published my Penguin (not the norm for a book of this type) really surprised me, but after reading it, I understand why. "The Cutting", is more than just your typical mystery/thriller, its literature! The characters were well drawn out, and fully realized. I look forward to the other books in the series. Highly recommended!
July 5, 2017
A pretty basic police procedural, the crime part of this book was fine. My problem was with McCabe's relationship with women - we're really supposed to think that all these women around him are attracted to him? Things with Kyra seem painfully superficial. And most of the female characters were two dimensional.
I may try a book from later in the series, to see if things have evolved. Parts of the book were very good, I just didn't like the way he wrote women.
I may try a book from later in the series, to see if things have evolved. Parts of the book were very good, I just didn't like the way he wrote women.
April 14, 2016
A VERY COMPLEX CRIME DRAMA AND REALLY EXCITING. I WAS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT ALL THAT WAS GOING, ON BY THE END I FOUND I HAD SOME RIGHT AND SOME WRONG. NOW FOR ME THAT MADE IT A VERY GOOD BOOK. I LIKED IT SO MUCH I HAVE THE NEXT TWO ON MY KINDLE CAROUSEL JUST WAITING FOR ME. I CAN READ AT MY LEISURE AND THEY CAN ALL BE READ AS STAND ALONES. YEAH!! ;D
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November 1, 2020Michael McCabe e a equipa são chamados a investigar quando o corpo de uma adolescente atleta que estava desaparecida é encontrado numa sucata. O homicídio apresenta contornos macabros: o coração da jovem foi cirurgicamente removido.
Nesse mesmo dia uma jovem mulher de negócios é raptada. Estarão os dois eventos relacionados?
McCabe e a equipa entram, assim, numa corrida contra o tempo para descobrir a identidade do assassino e resgatar a mulher desaparecida antes que seja demasiado tarde.
A sinopse deste livro chamou-me logo à atenção pela ironia (por assim dizer) do sentido literal da frase "Don't let him steal your heart". É um bom conselho!
Nunca tinha lido nada do autor e fiquei com muita curiosidade para descobrir a identidade e motivação deste assassino capaz de cometer um crime tão "frio".
Gostei da forma como James Hayman descreve vários acontecimentos, sem se coibir em entrar em pormenores.
Gostei de conhecer McCabe e de descobrir aspectos do seu passado. O detective demonstrou ser um personagem muito interessante, com algumas características muito sui generis. Mesmo não tendo conseguido concordar com algumas das suas atitudes, foi um personagem que me agradou. Fiquei com curiosidade em continuar a acompanhar a sua vida pessoal e a de colegas da equipa.
Agora, relativamente ao enredo: considerei alguns aspectos um pouco previsíveis e a motivação do assassino não me satisfez. Sei que me referir em termos de me sentir ou não satisfeita e de gostar ou não do que motiva um assassino pode soar um pouco estranho... Mas a realidade é esta: a motivação do assassino ficou muito aquém das minhas expectativas e este facto influenciou em demasia a minha apreciação global do "The cutting". Acabou por se tornar um livro que, infelizmente, não me convenceu a 100%...
Ressalvo que, por todos os aspectos positivos que referi inicialmente, fiquei com curiosidade em ler mais obras do autor.
11-17/10/20
Nesse mesmo dia uma jovem mulher de negócios é raptada. Estarão os dois eventos relacionados?
McCabe e a equipa entram, assim, numa corrida contra o tempo para descobrir a identidade do assassino e resgatar a mulher desaparecida antes que seja demasiado tarde.
A sinopse deste livro chamou-me logo à atenção pela ironia (por assim dizer) do sentido literal da frase "Don't let him steal your heart". É um bom conselho!
Nunca tinha lido nada do autor e fiquei com muita curiosidade para descobrir a identidade e motivação deste assassino capaz de cometer um crime tão "frio".
Gostei da forma como James Hayman descreve vários acontecimentos, sem se coibir em entrar em pormenores.
Gostei de conhecer McCabe e de descobrir aspectos do seu passado. O detective demonstrou ser um personagem muito interessante, com algumas características muito sui generis. Mesmo não tendo conseguido concordar com algumas das suas atitudes, foi um personagem que me agradou. Fiquei com curiosidade em continuar a acompanhar a sua vida pessoal e a de colegas da equipa.
Agora, relativamente ao enredo: considerei alguns aspectos um pouco previsíveis e a motivação do assassino não me satisfez. Sei que me referir em termos de me sentir ou não satisfeita e de gostar ou não do que motiva um assassino pode soar um pouco estranho... Mas a realidade é esta: a motivação do assassino ficou muito aquém das minhas expectativas e este facto influenciou em demasia a minha apreciação global do "The cutting". Acabou por se tornar um livro que, infelizmente, não me convenceu a 100%...
Ressalvo que, por todos os aspectos positivos que referi inicialmente, fiquei com curiosidade em ler mais obras do autor.
11-17/10/20
October 10, 2018
Very involving, suspenseful yet disturbing first story from Hayman and his detective McCabe and assistant Savage. Hayman does a very good job juggling the main story, about a killer that harvests hearts from healthy individuals and transplants them into sick people for money. We learn quite a lot about McCabe and his personal life along the way. This gives the reader some background and motivations for the main character, and entices us to want to learn more in subsequent books.
I must admit that I winced a few times while reading this book, as I found some of the graphic descriptions to be a bit much. OTOH, it did add to the authenticity of the killings and accentuated the importance of catching the killer, so to speak.
The buildup to the finale was quite good but I found that actual conclusion to be a bit quick and underwhelming. Overall, this is a very good start to a series that I intend to follow.
I must admit that I winced a few times while reading this book, as I found some of the graphic descriptions to be a bit much. OTOH, it did add to the authenticity of the killings and accentuated the importance of catching the killer, so to speak.
The buildup to the finale was quite good but I found that actual conclusion to be a bit quick and underwhelming. Overall, this is a very good start to a series that I intend to follow.
February 4, 2021
While at work, I have been on a suspense audiobook binge. I recently discovered James Hayman. I like how his novels are multi-layered. While the reader suspects the identity of the killer in this one, it isn't so easy to figure out if they had an accomplice until the end.
December 12, 2023
Von Anfang an war es eher ein "durchquälen", bin mit den Charakteren nicht warm geworden und auch mit dem Rest nicht. Das ewige Vergleichen mit irgendwelchen Filmstars nervte, genauso wie dieses "Wabbelbauch" als Name/Spitzname für eine Kellnerin ..
June 29, 2024
Solid murder mystery. Couple moments with the writing style or commentary were a little cringey.
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January 24, 2025Mike McCabe; young girls are murdered; hearts are removed
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