In the Dark

If somebody could explain to me what I did with my common-sense I'd be very grateful. I have this list of favourite authors, and a tendency to hoard their books. Makes no sense whatsoever when I think about it, but IN THE DARK got caught in the daftness and lurked on the shelves here for much much longer than it should have.

A standalone novel, IN THE DARK is a thriller with an unexpected scenario and an interesting twist. As the blurb outlines, there's a car crash in the night. A driver is forced off the road, into a bus stop. A man (in this case a policeman) is dead. His partner, a policewoman, wants to know why. Why him, what was he doing just before he died, who on earth was the man she thought she knew, how will she explain who he show more was and what happened to their very soon to be born child.

IN THE DARK is not just the story of her investigation into her partner's death, it's also very much a story about relationships, complications, unfinished business and how people deal with grief. You can just about taste Helen's desperation to do something, investigate, find the truth, anything rather than just sit and grieve for her partner. As she acknowledges an affair she has had, and the affect that it had on their partnership, she also starts to realise that there are things about Paul that she may not know. Despite a very advanced pregnancy she doesn't want to let it go, let other's seek the truth, her policewoman's instinct is too strong, and her need to be involved overwhelming. What stays with me still after I've finished reading this book is the way that Billingham has written such a finally balanced portrayal of this woman. The other thing that has stayed is how sudden death can leave such an emotional minefield behind.

That's not to say that this book isn't a thriller at the same time. The investigation has a pace of it's own, which is enhanced by the knowledge that as Helen's baby is due very soon, her deadline is immovable. Interspersed with Helen's search for the truth there are other stories, other people involved that night. The impact of gangs and crime is an angle which is explored, but interestingly not completely demonised.

Combine a lot of elements that worked really well as the story progressed, with some final twists and turns as the book draws to a close, and this was one of those excellent thrillers that really makes you stop and think. Serves me right for taking so long to read IN THE DARK. Note to self: try not to make the same mistake with the next book - series or not. show less

Got to page 46 when the overwhelming need to shout George P Pelecanos became uncontrollable. This is Pelecanos and his Baltimore/D.C. mean streets transferred to S.E. London. This is not a bad thing, this is definitely not a bad thing at all.

"In the Dark" is the first novel published by Billingham that is not part of the Thorne series. But that does not mean that it is not a Thorne novel.

At the time when it was written, it probably was not planned to be - Thorne shows up for a minute, mostly to put the story in the same timeline and space. But then Helen Weeks showed up in Thorne's life and things are a bit different. Because this is the story of Helen, her baby and her dead boyfriend - we had heard some things about Paul's death (so some of the surprises in this book are a bit spoiled if you had read the Thorne series) but not all the details. And it does not stop the novel from presenting a few surprises.

The story does not get told linearly - we see the main event at show more the start before Billingham returns back to tell us how things got there and then when that start moment comes, it picks up the story and continues. In a way, it makes you pay attention to details, wondering which ones will be important although it is not really needed - the linear structure would have worked.

And the story looks pretty straight forward - a boy from the projects, Theo, who managed to escape the bad influence by moving out comes back. And once he is back in the old gang, things escalate very fast - until he kills a policeman: Paul Hopwood. Technically it is an accident - he shoots at a car, the car veers into a bus stop and Paul is hit and killed. But the police is after the shooters - after all a policeman had died.

Paul and his girlfriend Helen Weeks, who also works in the police, are about to have a child when he dies. A phone call and a remark from a friend makes Helen wonder if Paul was what she believed him to be. And while she is following his actions in the last two weeks of his life, she finds connections that cannot be explained. In the meantime the gang that got him killed start having serious problems - and the dead bodies start piling up. And then the truth start emerging - slowly and unexpectedly and every time you think you know what had happened, something new happens and the story leads you elsewhere.

It is a good novel - not as strong as most of the Thorne series but still strong. The lack of Thorne is not really what is missing - it is the rest of his team that makes the series novels shine and that special relationship is missing. But the story itself is strong enough and if you like the Thorne series, I would recommend this novel (and maybe read it before Good as Dead/The Demands.

Warning: It is a dark novel and bad things happen to people. So if you are too squeamish, Billingham is not for you. show less

It turns out this was a great title for this confusing mess of a mystery because I was in the dark most of the time. The book opens with a car crash. A driver is forced off the road and into a bus stop where a man is killed. His partner, a heavily pregnant policewoman, wants to know why. What was he doing just before he died and was he even the man she thought she knew. The only character I even remotely liked was Theo, the young gang member who has dreams of bettering his life and escaping from the city with his girlfriend and baby son, but who gets caught up in peer pressure and fast-moving violence.

The final twist isn't really that dramatic, and the reader will have to make a couple of leaps of faith along the way. If you like your show more mysteries neatly tied up you won't care at all for the ending. It's the kind of ending where you wonder whether the publisher forgot to include the final chapter. It was hard going and I struggled to finish it. I've heard his Tom Thorne series is better so I'm giving Mark Billingham one more chance to convince me. show less

There are villains and cops that you can form a fast love-hate relationship with. Mark Billingham has been a long-time favorite author of mine but I hadn't red anything by him in quiet some time, so I was glad to find this one while browsing the library. The story starts with a weapon fired, a car crash and a dead Police officer as a result. Is it a gang initiation gone wrong, or the perfect excitation? The plot follows the results of the shooting, the story of the shooter and his "friends", a young pregnant woman looking for answers and a gangster seeking revenge, This is a book that will keep you reading. You won't be putting it down anytime soon.

I enjoyed the listening very much. The story has got a lot of twists and turns and I was guessing along with Helen if her partner was involved in some criminal act himself or if he was working undercover. Sometimes it was really gripping, but there were other times I felt like bobbing up and down through the plot.

This is a gripping thriller that is very difficult to put down. The book tells the story of a death that appears to be one thing (a gang initiation shooting), but is something else altogether. The author is not afraid to humanize all of his characters - from Helen, the pregnant cop trying to solve the mystery of her fiance's murder to Theo, a gangbanger who might decide to change his life. The characters and situations were compelling and readable and I empathized with just about all of them, even though all of them were full of flaws.

This is the first stand-alone from an author who writes a police inspector series that I haven't read. I'm going to have to go find his other books since many readers say they're better than this one and show more I really enjoyed this one. If you're looking for a thriller that will keep you entertained and turning pages, this is a good one. show less