Mark Billingham

Mark Billingham has earned his reputation as one of Britain’s best crime writers due to his series featuring Tom Thorne, a detective serving with the Metropolitan Police. From time to time, he writes books that are not part of that series, and sometimes these feature Thorne and other characters from his series in walk-on roles. Rabbit Hole is that kind of book. If I were to choose one word to describe it, that word would be ‘claustrophobic’. Set entirely inside a closed mental health show more ward in a north London hospital, the characters are pretty much all either hospital staff or patients who have been ‘sectioned’ (forcibly hospitalised) under the Mental Health Act. A murder takes place and one of the patients, a former police officer named Alice (she of ‘rabbit hole’ fame) decides to investigate. In his final remarks, Billingham mentions how difficult it was to write a book like this, and it sounds like he knows a bit about what life is like in these wards. Or rather more than a bit. Claustrophobic for sure, but also brilliant story telling and a wonderfully-drawn character in Alice. show less

The Last Dance by Mark Billingham kicks off his new series in a very promising way, The book captivated me very quickly with it’s warmth, humor and grit. The new lead character, Detective Declan Miller is a wise-cracking smart ass who is very witty and seems to have problems with authority. At the beginning of the book he is just coming back on duty after the murder of his wife who was also in the police. He is given a new partner and they are assigned to a double murder that occurred in a show more local hotel. His new partner, DS Sara Xiu admittedly has no sense of humor but learns to tolerate Millers comments. I think here is a lot more to this character that will be revealed as we go on. She is into heavy metal music and casual one night stands and appears to value no-nonsense straight up police work.

For me the case was almost secondary to learning about these new characters. The murder of two men in adjoining hotel rooms is difficult, and considering that one of the victims is the son of a local mobster who may know more about his wife’s murder, Miller is eager to investigate. When off duty, Miller can be found at the ball room working on his ballroom dancing, or looking after his two pet rats, Fred and Ginger. He also is often lost in deep conversations with his dead wife who had lots of opinions but cannot divulge any clues bout how she was murdered.

I have been following this author’s other series featuring Tom Thorne for a number of years and I will continue to do so, but I am also looking forward to continuing on with this new and entertaining series as well. show less

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

Here Miller continues to mourn his wife, while investigating the (possibly accidental) death of one of local drug kingpin Jacqui's minions. Then there is a definite murder, which might be an attempt at payback, and finally Jacqui's son is kidnapped.

I have enjoyed this series, mainly for the zany and irreverent humour - no one would describe these stories as gritty or true to life. Maybe I wasn't in the mood this time, but the show more disconnect between the absurdity and some of the more serious plot strands (PTSD or Finn, for example) grated on me. We didn't really care about any of the people who died, but I suppose the story demonstrated the senseless violence of the drug dealing culture. And there again was the disconnect... show less

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

Here Thorne and Tanner and the usual gang are searching for a man who is murdering police officers. Naturally feelings are running high in the force, but this book is set against the backdrop of the many recent scandals concerning Met officers, and Thorne soon begins to wonder if all these dead officers were as innocent as they seemed.

I found this quite dark and almost defeated in tone: there are continual references to the show more failings of the police and whether it is better to get out, or to stay and be a force for good. The actual plot was excellent and, thanks to some devious misdirection, I really didn't see the ending coming. I am left hoping things aren't really this bad in real life... show less