Lazybones

Lazybones by Mark Billingham is the third in his Tom Thorne series of British police procedurals, and I have enjoyed each book. In Lazybones, DI Thorne and his crew are on the trail of a serial killer who targets rapists. Such random murders are extremely difficult for the police to solve and although there is a flurry of activity after each murder, the trail all too soon grows cold.

What finally gets the case rolling is the involvement of a retired policewoman, who has been brought back to review cold cases. She notices something about a older case that causes her to bring this one to the attention of DI Thorne.

Mark Billingham writes fast paced thrillers that are real page turners. My only quibble is that so far each book has had the show more murderer too close to Thorne, and sooner or later it becomes a little too personal. Of course, I was still glued to the pages as I wanted to see who the killer would turn out to be and how the case would be resolved.

I will certainly be continuing with this series, as I find Tom Thorne, battered and psychologically bruised as he is, both interesting and likeable. The action is non-stop and twists and turns abound. show less

I am quickly becoming a fan of Mark Billingham. Inspector Thorn is not someone you like all the time and I suppose that it what makes him real. What I do like about Thorn in this story is the line he draws when facing the murdered ex-rapists: justice must still be served. Holland's attitude about pretty much everything was bothering me, but at the book's end Holland wraps his head around becoming a father and . . . read the book to find out. The title of book doesn't make sense until the end, but it saved Thorn's life.

Another good read in the series of D.I.Thorne, each getting more exciting. This series is not only about murder cases but about the lives of the police officers involved. It explores the highs and the lows and how work impacts on their own relationship.

a good read, Billingham's characters are complex and believable, particularly Thorne and Holland. This one was deceptively disorganised, feeling more focussed on Thorne's personal life, and a bit soapy for that, except of course that the story would never be that straight forward...

I found this really hard to get ino, chiefly I think because the main detective Thorne is finding it difficult to motivate himself to find the murderer and this kind of rubbed off on me. (The victims of the murderer are rapists themselves.) Once Thorne got excited about the case I did too. Good ending, I could see it coming for once but that's not bad, just adds to the thrills really.

It was quite slow read and I could easily sense what was coming up. Not sure why it got awards and all the rave reviews. I am quite a sucker for great protagonists in policy procedural. DI Tom Thorne failed to intrigue me enough to look for the next book in this series. An interesting plot of murder of rapists who just got out of the prison could have handled in much better way; and the suspense never reached a level where you are flipping the page to know what happens next.

Another good read in the series of D.I.Thorne, each getting more exciting. This series is not only about murder cases but about the lives of the police officers involved. It explores the highs and the lows and how work impacts on their own relationship.