In a tumultuous year for me personally and for the world, it was a diamond dark treat to have a new Mo Hayder book – BONEHEAD – published posthumously.
I’ve loved all of Mo’s standalone novels just as I adore her broody, brilliant Jack Caffery series – and BONEHEAD didn’t disappoint. It has some classic Mo tropes. There’s a speculative edge with its urban ghost story of the female Bonehead. Twists that lead the book into unexpected dark alleyways. Nuanced characters who stay with you long after you reach the final page. An ending that feels like an icy finger tracing your spine. A wonderful sense of place and atmosphere with the English village Eastonbirt.
Some graphic scenes that some readers might feel need trigger warnings but Mo’s fans know her books will enter dark places. Believe me, it’s worth the journey into the shadows. BONEHEAD feels wonderfully gothic in places as well as being a police procedural. The writing is excellent. Mo packs so much into a few sentences. A foreword by Karin Slaughter expresses eloquently how Mo was respected by so many writers around the world, and her influence on women writing crime.
Without giving away spoilers, BONEHEAD centres around an urban legend that has frightened teenagers in Eastonbirt for years. The Bonehead, rumoured to be a local gypsy prostitute in the last century, was lured to her death by one of her johns and thrown into a ravine. Her face was eaten by rodents but her body mummified; the john returns frequently to have sex with the corpse. Stay with me. Her spirit haunts the area, luring locals to their death.
A coach bringing teenagers home from a school reunion crashes. Seven are killed and three permanently disabled. One teenager, Alex Mullins, believes she saw the Bonehead standing over her at the time of the crash. Alex becomes a police officer in London but returns to Eastonbirt a couple of years later, unable to let go of what she saw. She tries to track down her surviving school friends to solve the mystery.
I loved every word of BONEHEAD. I was up way past midnight finishing it in an emotional mess. OK, I did skip the dog scene parts as I just can’t go there… I tried to eke it out knowing it’s the final Mo Hayder – unless another shows up in the attic, or if the remaining drafts of her speculative novels (written as Theo Clare) are released.
I’ve written about Clare’s death before and how it affected me HERE. Mo will always be for me the kindest, fascinating, courageous, talented and beautiful-inside-and-out soul. We lost her too young at 59, but her razor-sharp intelligent, extraordinary stories remain. BONEHEAD is a worthy addition to her already impressive legacy. I just wish there was more.
Mo Hayder aka Clare Dunkel born 02 January, 1962 died 27 July, 2021
