Nothing warm or fuzzy in this story

I decided to give Mo Hayder another chance, after being less than thrilled with her novel The Birdman. Her next novel in the series, The Treatment, again features the tortured main character of DI Jack Caffery, and the events take place shortly after the conclusion of the last book. Unfortunately, I didn't find the characters any more endearing in this outing.

This book is hard to like given the main topic of the book (pedophilia) and with each character being more unlikeable that the last. In this story, entire families are held hostage by an insane villain. It's up to Caffery to figure out who the bad guy is, as well as attempt to find out who the next target family is. Caffery is also (as always) still wrestling with the disappearance of his older brother over 25 years ago. Naturally, he thinks one of the members of the child pornography ring has information about his missing brother.

Once again, we are asked to overlook some extreme and bizarrely illogical events in the story. There are some gripping events, but for the most part the situations and characters are just too unrealistic to make for a good mystery. I've read that the later Caffery books deal with "African black magic," so at least I'll have absolutely no desire to read those. I think Ms. Hayder and I can come to a parting of the ways right now.

Final verdict for The Treatment: Two Gherkins, for some suspenseful moments, but an overall frustrating story