Mo Hayder (1962–2021)
Author of Birdman
About the Author
Mo Hayder is the pen name for Clare Dunkel, a British Crime novelist. She was born, in 1962. After leaving school at 15, she worked as a barmaid, security guard, filmmaker, hostess in a Tokyo club, and taught English as a foreign language in Asia. Here first novel was Birdman (1999). The books that show more followed were The Treatment (2001), Tokyo (2004) also published in 2010 as The Devil in Nanking, Pigs Island (2006), Ritual (2008), Skin (2009), Hanging Hill (2011), Gone (2010) won the Edgar Award, Poppet (2013), and Wolf (2014) which is being adapted for the BBC. In 2011, she won the Crime Writers' Association Daggar in the Library award for an outstanding body of work. Clare Dunkel died from motor neurone disease on July 27, 2021. She was 59. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Mo Hayder at the 2007 "Salon du Livre"
Series
Works by Mo Hayder
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Hayder, Mo
- Legal name
- Dunkel, Clare
- Other names
- Hayder, Mo (pseudonym)
Sand, Theo (pseudonym)
Bastin, Clare Damaris (birth) - Birthdate
- 1962-01-02
- Date of death
- 2021-07-27
- Gender
- female
- Education
- American University (MA, film)
Bath Spa University (MA, creative writing) - Occupations
- barmaid
security guard
filmmaker
EFL teacher
hostess
author - Agent
- Selina Walker (editor|Century)
- Short biography
- Hayder verließ bereits mit 15 Jahren ihren Geburtsort Essex, um einige Jahre in London in Bars und Kneipen zu arbeiten. Nach ihrer Heirat zog sie nach Japan, wo sie u. a. als Hostess und Englisch-Lehrerin sowie in einem Nachtclub in Tokio arbeitete und Artikel für eine englische Zeitung verfasste. Nachdem sie weite Teile Asiens bereist hatte, absolvierte sie ein Studium an der American University in Washington DC und schloss dieses mit einem MA in Film ab. Daran schloss sie ein zweites Studium an der Bath Spa University an und machte dort den MA in Creative Writing.
Mo Hayder lebt heute mit ihrer Tochter Lotte-Genevieve als freie Schriftstellerin in Bath. - Cause of death
- motor neurone disease
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Essex, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Somerset, England, UK
- Map Location
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
I've said it before and I'll say it again - Mo Hayder scares the bejesus out of me.
I've been hooked on her Detective Inspector Jack Caffery series from Birdman, the first book. Wolf is the seventh book. I literally could. not. put. it. down. Every available minute for two days was spent on the edge of my seat.
Hayder masterfully preys upon our fears. Are we truly safe in our homes? Will our past come back to haunt us in ways we can't imagine? Can we ever really put a rational explanation show more to everything?
"When you're so scared that you'd do anything, anything at all, then we'll tell you what we want..."
I always stop to appreciate the covers of Hayder's book before I turn the first page. There's always a detail that hints at the dark story within. This time it's that splash of red on a picture of a bucolic country home. That - and the flies.
The Turrets is home to the Anchor-Ferrers family. The nearby grounds were home to a horrific crime fourteen years ago. When two policeman come to the door the family is fearful that the killer has been released from prison without their knowing - and that he's back in the neighbourhood.
A homeless man known to Jack as The Walking Man, finds a small dog with a cryptic 'help us' note tucked in his collar. Walking Man promises Jack information if he'll take the note seriously and look for the owners. Jack has been searching for answers to his brother's death for decades. In each book, a clue or a thread is exposed, leading Jack just a little bit closer to the resolution he seeks. In Wolf, Hayder gets us as close as we've ever been. I've loved the Jack Caffery character from the beginning. He's an enigma - flawed, fearless and full of secrets, but a dedicated cop - who plays by his own rules.
Hayder slowly and deliciously builds the tension - it is what might happen that has the reader metaphorically covering their eyes with a pillow. And just when we think we can look - she changes course, taking the narrative in frightening directions I didn't see coming. Hayder's plotting is terrifyingly brilliant. And the ending was perfectly disturbing. Hayder plumbs the depths of the human psyche in both her characters and her crimes. (Gentle readers, this one may not be for you.)
Wolf could be read as a stand alone. But to really come to appreciate this series, I would start with Birdman. Wolf is an absolutely and highly recommended read. Just make sure you lock the doors and turn on the lights. This is one of the best crime fiction series out there. show less
I've been hooked on her Detective Inspector Jack Caffery series from Birdman, the first book. Wolf is the seventh book. I literally could. not. put. it. down. Every available minute for two days was spent on the edge of my seat.
Hayder masterfully preys upon our fears. Are we truly safe in our homes? Will our past come back to haunt us in ways we can't imagine? Can we ever really put a rational explanation show more to everything?
"When you're so scared that you'd do anything, anything at all, then we'll tell you what we want..."
I always stop to appreciate the covers of Hayder's book before I turn the first page. There's always a detail that hints at the dark story within. This time it's that splash of red on a picture of a bucolic country home. That - and the flies.
The Turrets is home to the Anchor-Ferrers family. The nearby grounds were home to a horrific crime fourteen years ago. When two policeman come to the door the family is fearful that the killer has been released from prison without their knowing - and that he's back in the neighbourhood.
A homeless man known to Jack as The Walking Man, finds a small dog with a cryptic 'help us' note tucked in his collar. Walking Man promises Jack information if he'll take the note seriously and look for the owners. Jack has been searching for answers to his brother's death for decades. In each book, a clue or a thread is exposed, leading Jack just a little bit closer to the resolution he seeks. In Wolf, Hayder gets us as close as we've ever been. I've loved the Jack Caffery character from the beginning. He's an enigma - flawed, fearless and full of secrets, but a dedicated cop - who plays by his own rules.
Hayder slowly and deliciously builds the tension - it is what might happen that has the reader metaphorically covering their eyes with a pillow. And just when we think we can look - she changes course, taking the narrative in frightening directions I didn't see coming. Hayder's plotting is terrifyingly brilliant. And the ending was perfectly disturbing. Hayder plumbs the depths of the human psyche in both her characters and her crimes. (Gentle readers, this one may not be for you.)
Wolf could be read as a stand alone. But to really come to appreciate this series, I would start with Birdman. Wolf is an absolutely and highly recommended read. Just make sure you lock the doors and turn on the lights. This is one of the best crime fiction series out there. show less
Book review for ‘Wolf’ by Mo Hayder
I have to confess that Mo Hayder is one of my all-time favourite authors and Jack Caffrey is a character that I have fallen in love with over the years. Getting a preview copy of this new book was an absolute treat so a big thank-you to Net Galley and Random House.
I’m also very happy to say that this latest novel lives up to the high standard of those before. We are quickly introduced to the mysterious goings on at the Turrets, who are the strange show more policeman who turn up just as they are needed? What happened sixteen years ago? The story bounces between the family’s situation and Caffrey’s increasingly desperate attempts to discover what happened to his missing brother Ewan. This storyline has been running since the first in the series and yet it continues to fascinate me as a reader and in this book is even more poignant as we, the reader, know more than Caffrey does about Ewan’s fate.
However it is the scenes that take place in the house that really chill the soul. The viewpoint constantly moves from father to mother to daughter and, occasionally, to the perpetrators themselves. This creates unbearable tension as just as something is about to be revealed the viewpoint changes and the reader is forced to wait and madly turn pages in order to find out exactly what is going on. It’s a bit of a cliché but do not start this book if you have anything important to do because you really won’t be able to put it down it’s that suspenseful.
The book ends with a big twist (which I love) and Caffrey finally gets some information about Ewan. I can’t wait for the next book, Mo Hayder has created a character that I truly care about (hoping we see something of Flea as well). If you’ve read the others in the series you will not be disappointed and if you haven’t, don’t wait, start with the Birdman and enjoy! show less
I have to confess that Mo Hayder is one of my all-time favourite authors and Jack Caffrey is a character that I have fallen in love with over the years. Getting a preview copy of this new book was an absolute treat so a big thank-you to Net Galley and Random House.
I’m also very happy to say that this latest novel lives up to the high standard of those before. We are quickly introduced to the mysterious goings on at the Turrets, who are the strange show more policeman who turn up just as they are needed? What happened sixteen years ago? The story bounces between the family’s situation and Caffrey’s increasingly desperate attempts to discover what happened to his missing brother Ewan. This storyline has been running since the first in the series and yet it continues to fascinate me as a reader and in this book is even more poignant as we, the reader, know more than Caffrey does about Ewan’s fate.
However it is the scenes that take place in the house that really chill the soul. The viewpoint constantly moves from father to mother to daughter and, occasionally, to the perpetrators themselves. This creates unbearable tension as just as something is about to be revealed the viewpoint changes and the reader is forced to wait and madly turn pages in order to find out exactly what is going on. It’s a bit of a cliché but do not start this book if you have anything important to do because you really won’t be able to put it down it’s that suspenseful.
The book ends with a big twist (which I love) and Caffrey finally gets some information about Ewan. I can’t wait for the next book, Mo Hayder has created a character that I truly care about (hoping we see something of Flea as well). If you’ve read the others in the series you will not be disappointed and if you haven’t, don’t wait, start with the Birdman and enjoy! show less
Originally posted here
I was left pretty speechless by The Devil of Nanking. It was absolutely horrifying, I actually teared up at the end.
The story follows the first person perspective of a troubled young woman, Grey - who has travelled to Tokyo because she has heard that a university professor there, Shi Chongming, has a film of the 1937 Nanking massacre; an event in history that she has become obsessed with for mysterious reasons that become clear by the end. Chongming at first denies the show more existence of such a film but then he admits to Grey that he will show her the film if she finds out some information for him about the local Yakuza boss, Fuyuki. In addition, many chapters are told in flashback to Chongming's POV in 1937, Nanking where he lived through the massacre.
The creepy atmosphere was one of my favourite things about this book. The creepy, dilapidated Japanese house that Grey lives in felt so eery and haunted. The seedy hostess clubs and the dangerous, dark underbelly of Japan added to the creeping unease that something terrible is going to happen at any moment. The slow build up of tension was just fantastically done.
The climax of the book honestly just destroyed me, Mo Hayder really explored the blackest evil of history, I was really emotionally affected by it and I almost wish that I didn't have those images in my mind. Absolutely horrifying.
This is the perfect book for readers who want a atmospheric creepy story set in Tokyo. A perfect read for Halloween or the fall/winter season in general. show less
Skin was the first Mo Hayder novel where I realized she writes in doublets. Birdman and The Treatment belong together, while Ritual and Skin feel like a second matched set. The core characters remain the same, the emotional tone carries over, and the events happen so close together that the characters never really recover before the next disaster begins. Skin takes place only a week after Ritual, and you can feel that exhaustion throughout the novel.
This is also the first book where Flea show more Marley becomes central enough that your enjoyment may depend on how you feel about her. She makes several bad decisions that are difficult to defend for a police officer, and if you already dislike her character, this book could become frustrating very quickly. But if you do like Flea, or at least find her psychologically interesting, then Skin works as a study of a woman collapsing under pressure while trying to maintain control.
The mystery itself was interesting, though not my favorite of the series so far. I tend to prefer more convoluted and layered investigations, and this one felt comparatively straightforward. Still, Hayder’s strength is less about puzzle construction than atmosphere and emotional damage. Even when the mystery is simpler, the lingering sense of stress, guilt, and instability keeps the book compelling. show less
This is also the first book where Flea show more Marley becomes central enough that your enjoyment may depend on how you feel about her. She makes several bad decisions that are difficult to defend for a police officer, and if you already dislike her character, this book could become frustrating very quickly. But if you do like Flea, or at least find her psychologically interesting, then Skin works as a study of a woman collapsing under pressure while trying to maintain control.
The mystery itself was interesting, though not my favorite of the series so far. I tend to prefer more convoluted and layered investigations, and this one felt comparatively straightforward. Still, Hayder’s strength is less about puzzle construction than atmosphere and emotional damage. Even when the mystery is simpler, the lingering sense of stress, guilt, and instability keeps the book compelling. show less
Lists
Edgar Award (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 13
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 9,678
- Popularity
- #2,467
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 391
- ISBNs
- 522
- Languages
- 21
- Favorited
- 40
