The Girl on the Bridge

March 20, 2017
In Hayman’s disappointing fifth thriller to feature Portland, Maine, detectives Michael McCabe and Maggie Savage (after 2015’s The Girl in the Glass), a sadistic killer appears to be targeting the perpetrators of a rape. When McCabe is contacted by Rachel Thorne, who claims her husband, Josh, has gone missing while on a business trip, he and Savage are skeptical, but when she shows them a picture of her husband tied to a bed with a sign that says “Rapists Get What Rapists Deserve,” they’re compelled to act. During the investigation, they discover Josh’s connection to Hannah Reindel, who was raped by a group of athletes 12 years earlier when she was a college student and recently committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. Hannah’s husband is a suspect, but McCabe and Savage are dubious. Red herrings lace the melodramatic narrative, which is frequently bogged down by unnecessary procedural details. In addition, the tendency of male characters to comment on women’s looks undermines the author’s effort to sensitively portray the trauma and aftermath of rape. Agents: Meg Ruley and Rebecca Scherer, Jane Rotrosen Agency.

Starred review from April 15, 2017
Turning someone else's terror, pain, and even death into diverting entertainment is at the core of the mystery writer's craft, and here Hayman offers a stunning lesson in how to do it. His novel begins with a gang rape at a university frat house and goes on to a suicide. Then mutilation and murder, and before he's finished, there's at least one head blown apart. Things are kept afloat by Hayman's two series detectives, Michael McCabe and Maggie Savage of the Portland, Maine, police. They're smart, they're fiercely articulate, and their dogged investigation turns the novel into a procedural of the highest order. Horrible things happened, but justice is on the way. Or, as one suspect says, pure revenge. The cops spend time interviewing those with scores to settlethe victim's husband, a betrayed wife or twowith each seemingly routine inquiry adding to the suspense and puzzlement. Everything goes right here: pacing, mood, and lean, elegant writing. And by the time readers learn the killer's identity and motive, they'll be happy to kill the scumbag, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)