Greenwich, south-east London. The Mets crack murder squad, AMIP, is called out by nervous CID detectives to a grim discovery. Five bodies, all young women, all ritualistically murdered and dumped on wasteland near the Millenium Dome. When a post-mortem examination reveals a singular, horrific signature linking the victims, officers realize that they are on the trail of the most dangerous offender known to the force: a sexual serial killer. Detective Inspector Jack Caffery, young, driven, unshockable, finds himself facing both hostility within the force and echoes of his past in this, his first case with AMIP. He is tortured by the knowledge of a death long ago that he might have prevented. Now, as he employs every weapon that forensic science has to offer, he knows he has only limited time before the chaotic, sadistic killer strikes again. In an astonishing debut, Mo Hayder has written a novel of frightening and raw intensity that ranks alongside the very best in the genre.

‘[An] assured and excellent thriller… Caffery… is a likeable and credible hero, and Hayder tells the story in convincing but flesh-creeping detail – it is hard to believe that this is her first crime novel.’ Sunday Times

‘There’s a compelling quality about this book- its prose is a canny mix of the quasi-literary and the streetwise, it pushes all the right buttons [and] has a giddying excitement in its escalating horrors’ Nicci Gerrard, The Observer

‘Hayder’s atmospheric use of location really brings the novel alive… it is a genuinely thrilling and frightening book.’ The Bookseller

‘A British crime novel with a sentimental edge, and one of the best things I’ve read recently. Although this is Hayder’s first novel, she writes with the confidence of a professional of long standing. Here at last is a female voice in British crime who neither refers back to the golden age, nor believes that it is necessary for the female characters to be irritating…Bridget Jones clones.’ The Independent on Sunday

‘Mo Hayder’s first novel is better than The Silence of the Lambs’ The Daily Telegraph

‘Ms Hayder’s writing is crisp and tart…her book gripped the mind even as it quickened the pulse’ Richard Bernstein, Books of the Times

‘Hayder’s prose is daring, assured and graceful…[she] doesn’t shy away from breathtaking risks in her plotting… [which is] absolutely special… Hayder may currently be occupying a class all of her own.’ Jack Batten, The Toronto Star

‘promising newcomer Hayder crafts a blood-curdlingly creepy debut thriller…her graphic imagination knows no bounds.’ Publishers Weekly

‘BIRDMAN preys on the reader’s expectations expertly… Graphic, disturbing, splendidly readable.’ Kirkus Reviews

‘BIRDMAN is a frightening book. As the conclusion is acted out before us, we can scarcely breathe because of the cumulative effect. Mo Hayder draws the suspense out far longer than most writers would dare- and masterfully. If I had to sum this book up in a single word, it would be WHEW!’ Washington DC Post

‘an excellent plot, and a wonderful twist… Hayder has created in Jack Caffery a superb central character of whom it would be a crime not to hear more.’ Ottakar’s, Bookseller’s Choice

‘Hayder is impressively successful in appealing to a broad, multi- genre fan base. She displays a good working knowledge of forensics and English police procedures, and birdman’s plot has more twists than a surgeon’s knot.’ Mystery Guild

‘From a hot new talent, a tough commercial British thriller… [with] a complex and well-drawn detective and a particularly unpleasant serial killer’ The Rights Report