A paedophile chained up an eight-year-old boy’s parents, then took the boy and killed him. DI Jack Caffery finds the case par­tic­u­lar­ly stressful: his brother was abducted and never found when they were boys. His girlfriend is falling apart too.

Part thriller, part psy­cho­log­i­cal study, part police procedural. Hayder ratchets up the tension as the internal and external pressures on Caffery grow.

Rec­om­mend­ed.