Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Feb 2011
416 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
November in the West Country. Evening is closing in as murder detective Jack Caffery arrives to interview the victim of a car-jacking. He's dealt with routine car-thefts before, but this one is different. This car was taken by force. And on the back seat was a passenger. An eleven-year-old girl. Who is still missing.Before long the jacker starts to communicate with the police: 'It's started,' he tells them. 'And it ain't going to stop just sudden, is it?' And Caffery knows that he's going to do it again. Soon the jacker will choose another car with another child on the back seat.Caffery's a good and instinctive cop; the best in the business, some say. But this time he knows something's badly wrong. Because the jacker seems to be ahead of the police – every step of the way…
Edgar Awards, 2012
"Hayder expertly brings to life the claustrophobia of Flea's dives and the emotional burden of the case on Jack." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. The meticulously crafted plot is heightened by Hayder's skillful evocation of mood as she summons the specter of a highly intelligent criminal who is taking great satisfaction from every parent's worst nightmare. A captivating thriller." - Booklist
"Readers who can tolerate some graphic descriptions of violence (or skim past them) will be rewarded with a complex, fast-paced, well-written mystery with interesting characters fighting personal and external demons." - Library Journal
"First-rate mystery that takes full advantage of the wintry, moonlit West Country and the unusual skills of its lady diver." - Kirkus Reviews
This information about Gone was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Margaret Lister
Clare Dunkel, who wrote under the pen name Mo Hayder, worked as a filmmaker, Tokyo nightclub hostess, and English language teacher in Asia. She is the author of 10 novels including her 1999 debut Birdman. She won many awards including the 2011 Crime Writers' Association Dagger in the Library award for outstanding body of work. She lived in England until her death from motor neuron disease in 2021.
The Book of Sand, the first in a planned new series set in an alternate universe is due to be published in 2022 under the name Theo Clare. Dunkel had taken four years to write the novel, and described herself as "so happy to be writing fiction set in an entirely imaginative universe of my own creation".
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
