‘The Treatment’ by Mo Hayder

Published by Bantam Press,
2001.
ISBN: 978-0-593-04542-4 (HB)

Called to a house on the edge of London’s Brockwell Park, DI Jack Caffrey finds a husband and wife, the Peaches, bound and gagged and dehydrated. Since they had been attacked three days earlier neither had seen their seven-year-old son Rory, Jack is convinced that Rory is still in the park which is directly to the back of the house, but despite extensive police searching there is no sign of Rory.

As Jack investigates certain inconsistencies come to light which brings into question the exact circumstances of Rory’s disappearances. Frustrated at the complete lack of any information as to Rory’s whereabouts, sharpens the perpetual pain that Jack lives with over the loss of his brother Ewan, who also disappeared when he was seven years old.

Faced with an investigation with similarities to the disappearances of his own brother, Jack is in danger of losing his objectivity. Although, unlike Rory’s case, Jack is certain it is the convicted paedophile, Ivan Penderecki who kidnapped his brother, and who still lives in the same house opposite.

Runing in tandem with this investigation, is Jack’s relationship with Rebecca, who first appeared in Birdman. Rebecca has still to come to terms with her own demons, whilst trying to understand Jack’s. Also, Jack’s conviction that the abductor will strike again, and will Jack break Ivan and find out at last what happened to his brother.  

There is a strong sense of time running out in this book. The jacket blurb says it is, horrifying, unforgettable, intense, a novel that touches a raw nerve of out darkest imaginings. I could not sum it up better. One of those books you just cannot put down.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Mo Hayder  (Clare Dunkel) (January1962- July 2021) was born Clare Damaris Bastin, pen names Mo Hayder and Theo Clare. She left school at fifteen, and worked as a barmaid, security guard, film-maker, an actress and model under the name of Candy Davis, a hostess in a Tokyo club, educational administrator and a teacher of English. She was awarded an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University. She is the author of ten novels. She died at the age of 59 after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease. She is survived by her daughter, Lotte, and her husband, Bob.

http://www.mohayder.net/