Book Review: The Cutting by James Hayman

Suspense, superb writing, and a stellar plot combine to create an outstanding debut in James Hayman's The Cutting.

Detective Sergeant Michael McCabe left New York City to start over in Portland, Maine. Seeking to raise his daughter away from the violence of the city, McCabe settles into his new job, while trying to reconcile himself to the past: an ex-wife who left him for an investment banker and the death of his brother, a hero cop gone bad.

McCabe never expected to find such violence in Maine.

The mutilated body of a blonde high school soccer star is found in a scrap-metal yard. She has been viciously assaulted and her heart cut from her chest with expert precision. On the same day, a young, blonde, athletic businesswoman is abducted as she jogs through the city's west end. McCabe believes both crimes are the work of the same person, and that these crimes sound eerily familiar.

Can McCabe and his partner, Maggie Savage, put the pieces together that will allow them to rescue the missing woman and uncover a sadistic killer?

The Cutting is spectacular! Its gripping storyline, the way McCabe's personal and professional lives intersect, the slight bit of sexual tension between McCabe and his partner, and this unique mystery, all come together to give the reader an action-packed ride.

Hayman has written McCabe with that tough cop edge, but still gives him vulnerabilities to make him believable. In an unusual twist, McCabe is the single father to Casey, whose mother abandoned her when she walked out on McCabe for a rich investment banker. Suddenly Casey's mother reappears to foster a relationship with the girl and McCabe isn't quite sure he likes that too much.

Once you pick up The Cutting, you won't be able to put it down. You'll be racing against time along with McCabe and Savage to unravel this mystery.

Let's hope Hayman has many more McCabe novels in him, because you'll want to keep reading them just as much as I do!


Title: The Cutting
Author: James Hayman
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN-10: 0-312-53129-x
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-53129-4
SRP: $24.95

This review first appeared at The Book Connection.