Teaser Tuesdays: The Cutting by James Hayman

"Where Spencer's legs met, there was now only an open wound. On the wall above the bed, written in Spencer's blood, a line from the English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

~Page 293

Title: The Cutting

Author: James Hayman

ISBN: 978-0312531294

Publisher: Minotaur books/2009

Pages: 336

Detective Sergeant Michael McCabe from the NYPD, has just moved into Portland, Maine. He is trying to get away from his messy and dark past. His wife has left him and his brother has been killed. He thinks he can raise his young daughter there in a relatively peaceful place. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

What he finds in Portland is horrific. Someone is killing young women, meticulously removing their hearts. That person is very well versed in the precise surgical procedure. Then another young woman goes missing. He knows that unless he finds her soon, she too would end up dead, her heart removed. But he doesn't have any profile of the killer.

When he gets around to find the killer, he finds that there is lot more in there other than just murders. Too much money too involved. He has to know why/how. With Maggie Savage on his side, he gets around to it. Meanwhile his ex-wife comes back to claim the daughter she left behind.

AS a crime fiction, it is at par with the best of it. Hayman has created a great character in McCabe and Also Maggie, who is a perfect foil. The description of the crime committed keeps us engrossed. I liked the pace of the novel. It has a nail biting finish. As a debut, it is one of the best. What more can one ask from a crime fiction?

Thanks to the author for my copy of The Cutting.