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HANGING HILL
by Mo Hayder
Bantam, April 2011
432 pages
12.99 GBP
ISBN: 059306383X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Lorne Wood, a bright, happy teenager with her heart set on a career in modelling is found brutally murdered by the bank of a canal in Bath. She has been sexually assaulted and the police find that her killer has left a cryptic message behind, written on her naked body with lipstick. The forensic psychologist brought in to help the police believes the girl has been killed by an unknown boyfriend, but Detective Inspector Zoe Benedict isn't so sure. Her investigations into Lorne's death take her into the nastier side of the porn industry and it looks like Zoe's own past is about to come back to haunt her.

The investigation also brings her back into contact with her sister, Sally, whom Zoe hasn't had any contact with for years. Sally, divorced, desperately short of money and trying to bring up her own teenaged daughter, always felt in her sister's shadow, and is now working for a man she loathes. Sally finds herself drawn inexorably into events that soon spiral totally out of control, forcing her to do things she would once never even have contemplated in order to save her daughter and herself.

This is a story of two very different women in extraordinary circumstances and provides a haunting study of contrast that gets off to an intriguing start and never slackens its pace. Sally's struggle to provide for herself and her daughter will resonate with anyone who has ever had to say no to expensive school holidays, taking whatever jobs come along to pay the bills, no matter how grim. Zoe is outwardly more successful and controlled but still very much shaped by the events of her own childhood, which led to the long estrangement from her sister.

This book shows how thin the line can be between being in control of your own life and then suddenly seeing it take an abrupt leap off the top of a precipice. It raises questions about how far any of us would be prepared to go to protect ourselves and our families and at times it makes very uncomfortable reading. Hayder's characters are complex and her plotting is excellent. The book gallops at speed to a tense and very clever climax. It was wonderful to read a book where for once the final pages unravel in an almost unparalleled example of show not tell. There was none of the contrived and often tedious conversation between two characters designed solely to explain the plot to the readers. Other authors really should take note of how to write a powerful ending that doesn't rely on dull exposition. This is a book that I rate very highly indeed.

§ Linda Wilson is a writer, and retired solicitor, with an interest in archaeology and cave art, who now divides her time between England and France.

Reviewed by Linda Wilson, March 2011

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