Oliver is a retired engineer who worked in the arms trade; he lives with his wife Matilda and daughter Lucia. Fourteen years ago there was a brutal murder in the area, the murderer surrendered himself to police and was sent to prison. One day two police officers arrive at the house reporting a murder: is history repeating itself? The family are held hostage and Oliver blames himself. Meanwhile a police officer is tasked with finding the owner of a dog that a homeless man has found. In exchange for finding the owner the homeless man will give him information about his brother who disappeared at the age of nine. The dog belongs to the captive family: the question is; will the officer rescue the family in time? He is driven by the need to know what happened to his brother and has no way of knowing the gravity of the situation. This novel is fast paced and left me guessing about what was going to happen next. I was hooked from the beginning and the story twisted and turned. The story flowed well and evolved in a way that was unexpected but still believable. I would recommend this book to others.

I delved into this book having enjoyed a previous Jack Caffery thriller. I was happy to re-enter into the world of this jaded and obsessive detective; he is perhaps stereotypical of the flawed policeman but none the less likeable. The first chapter is written from the perspective of 5 year old Amy, who chose not to tell her parents something because she didn't want to make them cross. This instantly made me think of how many times we, as adults, employ the same tactics of avoiding a difficult issue because we thought the consequences may be unpleasant or difficult for us. The book has plenty of other themes that are thought provoking and could be used as bases for good book club discussions, e.g. even bad characters have good in them or good characters bad, family dynamics, and miscarriages of justice. I felt the book got off to a slow start but Hayder ratcheted up the tension by gradual drip feeding the reader with information about each character with chapters written from different perspectives. The tension increases as the predators became the prey, the fear was more psychological rather than the violent blood and gore that I anticipated at the start of the book, which for me made it more disturbing. I did guess very near the beginning who was the real evil character but this did not detract from my enjoyment, I enjoyed the chapters that contained Jack and the enigmatic walking man the best as I found them to be the most interesting characters. A good solid crime novel, that I would happily recommend but that I feel just doesn't have the wow factor.

I really enjoyed this book. I was unsure whether it was my cup of tea as it is not my usual choice of genre. However, I was pleasantly surprised as I became more and more desperate to continue reading after each twist of the story.

This detective thriller is a good quick read and is the first by this author that I’ve read. I don’t usually go for books labelled as “terrifying”, “haunting” and “disturbing” so this made a change. I found that I could cope with the terror aspects of the book and there were a fair deal of twists and turns to make the plot interesting and I wanted to know what transpired. Without giving too much of the plot away, it is about DI Jack Caffery’s search for answers about his brother’s disappearance at the same time as a story about a home invasion with scenes of death and physical and psychological torture – so not for the faint-hearted. As much as I enjoyed it, like many thrillers of this type, I would not feel the need to read it again in the future: it’s fun while it lasted but didn’t fascinate me enough to want to go back to it later on inI life. It’s well-written but not gernally my cup of tea. I’d recommend this book to anyone who likes serial killer-type stories with psychological fear thrown in. A good read for sitting by the pool or on the beach on holiday.

The last Jack Caffery book written in 2014 and since then not a word has been heard from the author? There are certain trends that run through this series that add a little sparkle the first being the walking man. A type of reclusive wealthy vagrant, permanently moving around the lowlands of Somerset, and in Wolf he befriends a small dog with the words “help us” around his collar. Caffery becomes involved but only if in return the walking man can help trace his younger brother Ewan who vanished aged 9 never to be seen again. The other rather odd feature is the appearance yet again of human entrails which Mz Hayder appears to have a fixation with. A wealthy scientist, his wife and daughter are being held hostage the motive behind the kidnapping is unclear but may have a connection to the production of a smart torpedo able to seek out and destroy with precise accuracy. A somewhat disappointing read, the series looking a little tired and certainly lacking the sparkle that police diver Flea Marley contributed to earlier books…..Come back Mo and revive Jack and Flea!