by Mo Hayder
First published 2015
The Walking Man discovers a stray dog carrying a desperate message: "HELP US" scrawled on paper and tied to its collar. He brings this troubling find to Detective Inspector Jack Caffery, who initially resists getting involved. But the Walking Man offers something Caffery cannot ignore: fresh details about his brother's childhood disappearance. Ten miles away, the wealthy Anchor-Ferrers family faces a nightmare in their isolated country home. What began as a home invasion spirals into something far more twisted and personal. The family endures increasingly bizarre torment, forced to question whether they were selected at random or targeted for a specific reason. As Caffery investigates the cryptic plea, the Anchor-Ferrers fight for survival against captors whose motives remain hidden. The detective must uncover the connection between the wandering dog and the family's ordeal while confronting painful truths about his own past.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: detective, missing-person, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Anchor-Ferrers
416 pages · Paperback · Grove Press
Content warnings: kidnapping, violence