Review and Virtual Blog Tour for The Cutting by James Hayman

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Join James Hayman, author of the thriller, The Cutting (St. Martin’s, June ‘09) , as he virtually tours the blogosphere in October on his first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion!

Like McCabe, I’m a native New Yorker. He was born in the Bronx. I was born in Brooklyn. We both grew up in the city. He dropped out of NYU Film School and joined the NYPD, rising through the ranks to become the top homicide cop at the Midtown North Precinct. I graduated from Brown and joined a major New York ad agency, rising through the ranks to become creative director on accounts like the US Army, Procter & Gamble, and Lincoln/Mercury.

We both married beautiful brunettes. McCabe’s wife, Sandy dumped him to marry a rich investment banker who had “no interest in raising other people’s children.” My wife, Jeanne, though often given good reason to leave me in the lurch, has stuck it out through thick and thin and is still my wife. She is also my best friend, my most attentive reader and a perceptive critic.

Both McCabe and I eventually left New York for Portland, Maine. I arrived in August 2001, shortly before the 9/11 attacks, in search of the right place to begin a new career as a fiction writer. He came to town a year later, to escape a dark secret in his past and to find a safe place to raise his teenage daughter, Casey.

There are other similarities between us. We both love good Scotch whiskey, old movie trivia and the New York Giants. And we both live with and love women who are talented artists.

There are also quite a few differences. McCabe’s a lot braver than me. He’s a better shot. He likes boxing. He doesn’t throw up at autopsies. And he’s far more likely to take risks. McCabe’s favorite Portland bar, Tallulah’s, is, sadly, a figment of my imagination. My favorite Portland bars are all very real.

You can visit our website at www.jameshaymanthrillers.com.

Someone is Stealing the Hearts of Beautiful Young Women. NYPD homicide detective Mike McCabe left New York for Maine to escape his own dark past and to find a refuge from the violence of the big city for himself and his teenaged daughter, but on the fog-shrouded, cobblestone streets of Portland he finds far more than he bargained for.
On a warm September evening the mutilated body of Katie Dubois, a pretty high school soccer star, turns up, dumped in a Portland scrap yard. Her heart has been neatly and expertly cut from her body. The same day Lucinda Cassidy, a young Portland business-woman and competitive runner, disappears during her morning jog.
Soon other bodies turn up. All young, all blond, all athletes. Very quickly McCabe discovers he’s on the trail of no ordinary killer. Rather his prey is a brilliant, psychopathic surgeon who kills in a bizarre way to satisfy his own strange and frightening desires.
McCabe knows he has to move fast. He has less than one week to find the killer before Cassidy dies and Casey, McCabe’s own daughter is threatened.
He also knows the clock is ticking.

Standing here in a scrap yard in Portland, Maine, McCabe suddenly had the feeling he was back in New York. It wasn’t like he was imagining it. Or remembering it. It was like he was really there. He could hear the rush of the city. He could smell the stink of it. A hundred bloodied corpses paraded before his eyes. His right hand drew comfort from resting on the handle of his gun. Mike McCabe once again lured to the chase.

He knew with an absolute certainty that this was his calling. That it was here, among the killers and the killed, that he belonged. No matter how far he ran, no matter how well he hid, he’d never leave the violence or his fascination with it behind.

Read what reviewers have to say!

“Wow. I picked up this book looking for ‘intense’ and that’s what I got. Way beyond suspenseful – way past great – this is one of those books that has me talking to folks. Love Hayman’s style – including his dead on references to movies and characters. His own characters are fascinating and his story line kept me guessing til the very end. No disappointments – except that I have to wait a bit for book #2. Highly recommend this one!”

Linda Parks, Fireside Books, Forest City, NC

“An extraordinary debut and an exceptional thriller, THE CUTTING is razor-sharp, heartfelt and superbly written. James Hayman is a tremendous new voice in crime fiction.”

-Julia Spencer-Fleming, Edgar finalist and author of I SHALL NOT WANT

“Big-city wicked invades the Pine Tree State in James Hayman’s THE CUTTING. This is a stunning debut that gripped me from first page to last. A thriller of a thriller!”
-Tess Gerritsen, New York Times Best-Selling Author of THE KEEPSAKE

“In “The Cutting,” (Hayman) gives readers a suspenseful police procedural whirling around a character who has the brains, courage and human concern to be the reader’s hero from start to finish. All in all, if that sounds like a rave review, it’s because I intend this to be one. Rarely does a new novelist make a debut, in Maine or anywhere else, as polished, well-paced and plotted as this one. Even less often does a writer create characters as well-drawn and centered as Hayman gives us with his Portland Police Detective Sgt. Mike McCabe, three years into life in his new city.”
-Nancy Grape, Portland Press-Herald

“Hayman’s pacing is perfect. He sends the detective hurtling after the killer but also allows McCabe to stop just often enough for readers to learn how deeply damaged the man is. At his core, the policeman, like the victims for whom he seeks justice, is fragile. It is his stubborn tenacity, his young daughter and his artist girlfriend that keep him going….The Cutting is an unsettling thriller, not because Portland and the state have a history of madmen killing strangers on a rampage. What’s frightening is that Hayman makes it seem possible, even probable.”
-Judy Harrison, Bangor Daily News

“First-novelist Hayman ratchets up the tension in this engrossing account of a deviously motivated psychopathic serial killer. “
-Michele Leber, Booklist

“Bookstores have been looking for a writer of popular fiction who can reliably produce a bestseller. James Hayman…has invented a cop with sophisticated tastes. If your summer reading includes a psychological thriller, this one’s for you.”
-Mandy Twaddell, Providence Journal

“The Cutting..is a Big Go. A fun read, it’s suspenseful, intelligent and smooth, everything a good thriller should be. Detective Michael McCabe is a likable and intriguing character… once you meet McCabe, you’ll want to read about him again.”
-Amy Canfield, Paging Amy

“A real page-turning read. Readers will never tire of this kind of thriller as long as authors like Hayman keep spinning such gripping tales. I do hope this is the first in a series…McCabe’s backstory leaves plenty of room for more.”
-Becky Lejeune, www.BookBitch.com

James Hayman’s THE CUTTING VIRTUAL BLOG TOUR ‘09 will officially begin on Oct. 5 and end on Nov. 30. You can visit James’ blog stops at www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com during the months of October and November to find out more about this great book and talented author!

Review

Wow! This book by first time author Hayman was definitely a thrill ride from beginning to end. Definitely not a book that is easy to put down. The story is riveting and exciting and hopefully is the first in a long series of best sellers from Hayman. Anyone who loves thrillers will love The Cutting. The characters are intense, interesting and believable and keep the reader turning the page.