• The Cutting

  • A McCabe and Savage Thriller, Book 1
  • By: James Hayman
  • Narrated by: Stephen Mendel
  • Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (343 ratings)

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The Cutting  By  cover art

The Cutting

By: James Hayman
Narrated by: Stephen Mendel
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Publisher's summary

The first novel in the nationally best-selling McCabe and Savage series - perfect for fans of John Sandford and C. J. Box.

Someone is stealing the hearts of beautiful women....

Detective Mike McCabe moved from a top homicide job with the NYPD to Portland, Maine, to leave his failed marriage and suspicions of wrongdoing behind, and to find a more peaceful life for himself and his 13-year-old daughter.

But the small New England city is not nearly as safe as he thought.

On a warm September night, a missing high school athlete is found dead in a scrap-metal yard, her heart removed from her body with surgical precision. As outrage over the killing spreads, a young businesswoman disappears while out on a morning jog.

McCabe is certain both crimes are the work of one man - a murderer skilled in cardiac surgery who is using his scalpel to target young women. With the clock ticking, McCabe and his partner, Maggie Savage, find themselves in a desperate race against time to find and rescue the missing woman before she becomes the next victim of the sadistic killer's blade.

©2009 James Hayman (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about The Cutting

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    151
  • 4 Stars
    133
  • 3 Stars
    39
  • 2 Stars
    11
  • 1 Stars
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Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
    112
  • 3 Stars
    37
  • 2 Stars
    12
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Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    141
  • 4 Stars
    107
  • 3 Stars
    43
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    3

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Is It The Story? Or Its Telling? Hmmmm...

This isn't a really clever, 0r new plot. It's filled with the sort of furniture that mystery readers expect. Uh-huh. But it's told by James Hayman so easily, you know, the way terrific golfers work around a legendary course. Sure we've seen the same holes, and even the same lies... Yet, leading pros face, then make shots that leave us appreciating every one.

Anyway, that's what Hayman can do... And besides, just visiting one of those courses is fun. I liked "The Cutting" that way. It's a commercial performed well by Stephen Mendel. Yep, I'll look for Hayman to let Mike McCabe and Maggie Savage grow in this series.

The guy can tell a story.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A very different serial killer novel

The Cutting is Book 1 of the 4 book McCabe and Savage detective series by James Hayman. I earlier posted reviews here at Audible for Books 4 and 2. Book 2 is the best of the three books, but The Cutting is the most interesting. The novel is about young athletic people, mostly women, being kidnapped and having their hearts cut out with the skill of a surgeon while they are still alive. I'm not going to describe the cases further because it would ruin the story for the listener.

Stephen Mendel narrates all four novels in the series. He is excellent.

I recommend this series and look forward to listening to Book 3 which is the highest rated.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Okay For A First Book

If I was grading this book I'd give it a good solid C though in my opinion it ran a couple of hours longer than necessary. The lead detective Mike McCabe is an interesting character and his new partner Maggie Savage will take a larger role in future books if the book jackets are indicative she will. There was a large buildup for the return of McCabe's ex-wife to see their daughter, then that storyline just fizzled out. Still, this selection is promising and I will give another audio in the series a try.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Mainely Killers

I might have enjoyed The Cutting if the author had spent more effort developing the main characters McCabe and Savage and less time describing the grisly murders.

McCabe had potential to be an endearing male hero - dedicated single father & brave public servant. However he took crazy risks which a seasoned police officer would not do. Very little background about Savage was given, so she stayed McCabe's trusted partner with no personality of her own.

I thought the murder mystery was too easy to figure out and there were no lighter moments to balance out the graphic violence. Don't care enough to get the next book of series.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

What an interesting thriller!

James Hayman is a brand new discovery for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series and I'm ordering the second. With these kinds of books a lot rides on whether you like the lead detectives and I most definitely did. The writing was very good. People really came to life. I don't want to get into the plot (I hate spoilers), but it certainly held my interest and kept me guessing. The setting in Maine, a beautiful state, is a bonus. I'm so happy about finding this series.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Average Start, but Could be a Good Series

This is James Hayman's debut of a new police procedural series. I felt only moderate interest for the story and characters -- which I realize is not a glowing review. Yet, there was enough of a promise of good writing that I think this author will improve tremendously with some experience. I can't help but notice that the reviews get much better with following stories in this series. I will definitely give it another try -- but my expectations will be much higher.

I feel there wasn't so much story and character development that it would be OK to go directly to book 2 and skip over the first book in the series.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Couldn't listen to the narrator

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A narrator with some emotion in his voice.

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator sounded like he was new to English. Every syllable was pronounced.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The story was interesting enough.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Nice surprise!

At first I didn't like the narration, and was afraid this was going to be your run of the mill police procedural. However, it evolved into an engaging tale, with likable characters and a good plot. Held my attention all the way through. Really enjoyed this listen.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

I've read better

I couldn't wait for it to be over, I struggled to get to the end. The storyline was great how ever there was a lot of discription on insignificant points of the story and not enough discription on the points that was supposed to make it a thriller. I wasn't to happy with the narration, there wasn't enough inflection between the characters

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Good start for series.

Enjoyed narrator: to me, essential to enjoy any novel. Plot kept me interested even though I thought it was simplistic in nature. McCabe and Maggie need more fleshing out without dwelling on McCabe's personal life overly much. I will read book 2 hoping to find more emphasis put on developing the plot and not so much on McCabe's personal life. I have read all the Bosch books avidly and feel there was a desire in The Cutting to model the McCabe character in the same manner. A worthy model for writing; however, Bosch's personal life never took over the storyline from the first novel. Complex character studies need time and more storylines to realize character familiarity for me.

Interesting, with enough promise to read book 2.

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1 person found this helpful