The Cutting

A McCabe and Savage Thriller, Book 1

By: James Hayman

Narrated by: Stephen Mendel

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

Good 👍

I live in ME, so of course it's cool to listen to. I picked this book because a coworker left a couple of books in the 'free pile' that are later in the series. I'm very picky about how I spend my credits, but was happy with this one. It's interesting, engaging, but doesn't require TOO m

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

The Cutting

I loved the voice of the reader he did an excellent job. The story line was captivating and it kept you wondering what would happen next.

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.

Great book love the McCabe series.

love it, could not put it down. can't wait to begin the next one in the McCabe series

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.

Great thriller

I loved this thriller. Cops, bad guys just my type of book. I did not like the narrator. Didn’t like his voices or cadence or anything. Sometimes annoying. Will try book 2 audio and see if better

the cutting

yikes! I so enjoyed the authors ability to make the detectives focus on his job...while allowing me to see the other facets of his life play into the human drama. Already bought book two.

2nd time around

I enjoyed this just as much the 2nd time as I did the first time!

Decent story

The story was ok, but I didn't care for the narration. The narrator was ok, but when he was doing dialog between characters, it was not good. If there's a second book, I'd probably listen to it though.