Another Must Read From My Collection!

I know I've talked about her before, but I was searching on the internet and saw that even from over the pond, a blurb from my review of Hayder's Ritual made it to her site! Yay! Considering the fact that Hayder is one of my absolute favorites, this is pretty cool stuff!

This little book left was my introduction to Hayder - official since she had already been recommended to me. 

We got in this ARC along with a couple of others and I eyed this baby all through a meeting with our Loss Prevention dude at BN. It was actually like my first day, or week, or month at the new store and I think it was the first ARC I happened to see there. I can't for the life of me remember what else was sitting on that table, but this one intrigued me.

The Devil of Nanking is about a woman named Grey who travels to Japan to look for a piece of film from the 1937 Nanking Massacre. The film itself is only rumored to exist, but shows something so gruesome that for years people have told Grey she made it up. Grey has been institutionalized, for what we don't know until the very end of the book. She contacts a scholar she believes has this footage and he agrees to hand it over on one condition, Grey must find something for him first. Grey gets work in a men's club in Japan in an attempt to gain access to a local mob leader who has what the scholar wants. 

I promise you this is the ultimate in creepy, suspenseful, up-all-night reads! I have recommended it to numerous people, some of whom have come back and told me that this was the most disturbing book they'd ever read, and they loved it! It's gruesome and gory and everything that's missing from really great scary reads. As I've said before, though, none of it is gratuitous. 

Since then, I have become a severely impatient Hayder fan who just cannot wait for the American release. I ordered both Pig Island and Ritual from mystery bookstores who stock UK editions, so that I could get my Hayder fix. If you haven't read her yet, I envy you as I am now impatiently waiting for a book that will be at least a year in the making! 

Devil and Pig are both stand-alones. The remaining three titles all feature DI Jack Caffery, a damaged hero if ever there was one. First comes Birdman then Treatment (which I think was the most disturbing for me by far) and finally Ritual (can also be read as a stand-alone) which hits shelves in the states in September, but for the extra cost you can get it from High Crimes or The Poisoned Pen. 

Happy reading!