Publisher: Bantam Press
Publication Date: March 2013
Format: Tradesize paperback, 384 pgs
Source: Personal Library
| poppet / [ˈpɒp.ɪt] | |
| — n | |
| 1. | a term of affection for a small child or sweetheart. |
| 2. | a small human figure used in sorcery or witchcraft. |
Anyone who follow my blog would know that I am a huge fan of Mo Hayder. Whenever she has a new release, I'd rush out to get it and read it the moment I receive it. No kidding. So when I knew her latest Jack Caffery thriller, Poppet, is out, I was so excited that I don't even mind the image of the cover, no matter how creepy it looks.
If you have read Mo Hayder's Jack Caffery's series, you'd know that Jack is a brilliant detective of the Bristol Major Crime Investigation Team. What I like about him is his overwhelmed determination in solving the crimes, even though he can be stubborn and don't play by the rules at times. He has his flaws and he knew it but that doesn't diminish my admiration of him; as I feel this has made him to appear more real and human rather than a perfect superhero.
In this latest 6th Jack Caffery Series, Mo Hayder brings her readers to Beechway High Secure Unit, a psychiatric hospital. One of the things I like about reading settings that took place in an asylum is one could never expect what would happen in there. The patients are not reliable and plus the high secured and confidentiality state of the place, you just wouldn't know who to believe. Back to Beechway, a hallucination spread like a virus as some of the patients believe The Maude is back. The Maude is believed to be a little figure which dressed in a nightgown and it'd straddle on one's chest. The terror then heightened to a point when a series of unexplained episodes of self-harm among the ward's patients and especially after the death of a patient. Overnight shift staff began to call in sick and this made AJ LeGrande, the senior nursing coordinator at Beechway very perplexed and not to mention curious.
On the other end, Jack Caffery is looking at a missing person case. Jacqui Kitson is pressing the police to search for her daughter, Misty, a model who disappeared some time ago. It is not that Jack is incompetent, in fact he knew some of the facts about Misty's disappearance but he has chose to keep it silent as he is trying to protect someone. However, that feeling has slowly gnawed at his conscience and now he wants to convince that person to own up.
Jack later is assigned to the Beechway's case after the psychiatric hospital had released a patient in error. According to the records, Isaac Handel brutally killed his parents when he was younger and they are worried what he would do outside given his unstable (and murderous) condition. Suddenly, the hysteria at the hospital doesn't seem to be simple any more and they are wondering if it is supernatural or simply a person's deed.
Mo Hayder is a master in crafting chilling and well-plotted thrillers and I'm glad to say Poppet is no exceptional. In this thriller, she continues her trademark in creating an intense and haunting story of what happened in Beechway's asylum and how Jack resolved the case as well as his struggles in dealing with the case of Misty's disappearance. Though the asylum case is closed, I can't wait to find out what happens to Misty's disappearance case as there is a hint of something is going to happen at the ending. I hope Mo Hayder will write quickly and have her next book release soon!
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