It’s been quite some time since I read any of this series. I didn’t really care much for the Thomas Thorne character...but the title of this one intrigued me so thought I give Thomas another try. The story centers around a serial killer, who, while in prison confesses to another murder many years previously. The victim was a young boy whose mother has longed to find his body. I found it a bit unbelievable that a prisoner convicted of murder would have been transported such a great distance by boat and by car and with only one police official and so little security. To make matters worse there was a second prisoner along for the ride. The motive for the kidnapping along with everyone’s identities are carefully concealed giving the reader only brief flashes...but these brief flashes certainly raise very interesting questions about how and why this crime fits into the overall plot. It is not until the very end of the story that everything finally becomes heartbreakingly clear. ( )

The Bones Beneath. A Tom Thorne Novel. Mark Billingham. 2014. This is the first book I have read in this series, and it is a later one. Since I read it as I was getting ready for surgery, I really didn’t do it justice. A notorious murderer, a vicious pOlachopath who is in prison, has said he’ll show the authorities the location the body of a young boy that he killed years ago. The body is located on the property now-close reform school on a remote island off of Wales. He has demanded that Thorne, who actually arrested him, be one of the accompanying officers. Thorne and a troupe of police officers, correction officers, and crime-scene investigators go to the island. You know the prisoner is going to escape and that is a big part of the suspense. I think I may go back and read the first novel is the series as I think he has possibilities ( )

4.5 stars.

Mark Billingham's The Bones Beneath is another compelling mystery starring Tom Thorne. This twelfth novel in the series is not a typical whodunnit with Thorne attempting to solve a crime. Instead, it is more of a psychological thriller with Thorne matching wits with Stuart Nicklin, the convicted serial killer he helped put behind bars years earlier.

Thorne is still in the hospital recovering from wounds he received in the previous novel in the series, The Dying Hours, when DCI Russell Brigstocke comes bearing both good and bad news. The good news is that Thorne is going to be reinstated with the Murder Squad. The bad news? Thorne is tasked with accompanying Nicklin to the remote island to recover the remains of Simon Milner, the teen Nicklin murdered over twenty years earlier. Thorne is immediately suspicious of Nicklin's motives and he is equally puzzled by Nicklin's insistence that fellow inmate Jeffrey Batchelor accompany them but Brigstocke insists on co-operating with Nicklin's demands. Thorne keeps a close eye on the prisoners but it soon becomes clear that Nicklin has set into motion a diabolical plan that will force Thorne to make an unimaginable decision.


The tension in the novel remains high as the contingent begins their precarious journey from the prison to the isolated island. Thorne is continually on guard during necessary stops along the way and the forced overnight stays in a small coastal town. The voyage to and from the island is dependent on the capricious weather and the schedule of the local ferry. The search for Milner's grave is hampered by bureaucratic obstacles and Nicklin's manipulative tactics.

The events leading up to Milner's murder are interspersed with the unfolding drama of uncovering his remains. His youthful enthusiasm and endearing naiveté make his subsequent death all the more shocking and poignant. But this effectively reveals how the coldhearted and ruthless Nicklin is and gives the reader incredible insight into the evil lurking inside him.

The reader's attention is immediately captured by an intriguing and incredibly puzzling prologue where an unknown person is kidnapped. Glimpses of the victim are shown throughout the story, but the motive for the kidnapping along with everyone's identities are carefully concealed. These brief flashes certainly raise very interesting questions about how and why this crime fits into the overall plot, but it is not until the very end of the story that everything finally becomes heartbreakingly clear.

The Bones Beneath is an absolutely brilliantly executed novel that is incredibly suspenseful. The island is the perfect setting for this dramatic and compelling mystery. Mark Billingham brings the riveting story to a jaw dropping conclusion with a spectacular and unexpected plot twist that is absolutely impossible to predict. ( )

From Amazon:

The Bones Beneath, the twelfth novel in the internationally bestselling Tom Thorne series shows Thorne facing perhaps the most dangerous killer he has ever put away, Stuart Nicklin. When Nicklin announces that he wishes to reveal the whereabouts of one of his earliest victims and that he wants the cop who caught him to be there when he does it, it becomes clear that Thorne’s life is about to become seriously unpleasant. Thorne is forced to accompany Nicklin to a remote island off the Welsh coast which is cut off from the mainland in every sense. Shrouded in myth and legend, it is said to be the resting place of 20,000 saints and as Thorne and his team search for bones that are somewhat more recent, it becomes clear that Nicklin’s motives are far from altruistic. The twisted scheme of a dangerous and manipulative psychopath will result in many more victims and will leave Tom Thorne with the most terrible choice he has ever had to make.

My Thoughts:

Well...for those readers of the Thorne books will see that not only does Tom Thorne not get fired after the fiasco of his action in The Dying Hours, but he actually gets promoted...or rather, reinstated back to his position as Detective Inspector. We find Thorne in a new environment. Away from the London-based books and into the Welsh countryside which was fascinating...at least to an American...even if the names were unpronounceable. The island is the perfect setting for this dramatic and compelling mystery with a conclusion that was filled with unexpected plot twist that was absolutely impossible to predict. Was it the best of this author's work I have ever read? No. But well worth the time. ( )

Tom Thorne is a London cop - and all of the books in the series, London is always there in the background, giving life and character to the stories. This novel turns out to be different.

After the previous book, Tom is reinstated as Detective Inspector and reunited with his old team. But at the same time he receives a weird task - which puts all other consequences of the previous book on hold and gets him out from London. Which he would have hated even of it was not because of Stuart Nicklin.

Thorne's nemesis, Stuart Nicklin, decides to admit to an old murder and offers to show where the body is - but only if Thorne takes him to Bardsey Island, a place he had escaped from once in his youth. Bardsey Island, off the coast of Wales, is one of the most remote islands in UK - one I had never heard of. Billingham added some information about the island and of course inside of the story, some changes from reality are made but it is a nice introduction to a place that people would not know about.

But let's get back to the novel and the story. Nicklin insists on bringing one of his prison friends with him and the police decides to agree (not that they seem to have any choice). So Thorne picks his team - Holland and Sam Karim and Wendy Marhkam - and goes on a trip. Keaton is left home to deal with relatives and to try to figure out what is happening really. Of course this being Nicklin, not everything is as it appears to be. What seems to be a pretty straightforward "discover the bones and solve an old murder" novel is interrupted by chapters about abduction and murder. It also contains chapters in the past, showing how Nicklin escaped the previous time but these are logical. The other ones, the dark ones, take a while to be explained. You know something bad is happening, you know that it ties to the story but even this way, it feels like a punch when you finally realize what really is happening.

It is a masterfully constructed novel. What would feel like a gimmick in the hands of a worse storyteller works beautifully. It is one of those stories that you cannot read twice - or at least you cannot feel about it the same way twice - for the second time you will know where it is leading. And it has nothing to do with the murder or the case - it all turns out personal for the team.

At the end, the careers of a lot of our team are still in an unknown status - the resolving of the last book's end is delayed for the next one. And I have a bad suspicion that we will be hearing from Nicklin again. ( )