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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
THE MURDER BOOK by Mark Billingham
I’ve been a fan of Mark Billingham’s writing for many years now and have been avidly following DI Tom Thorne since the beginning with ‘Sleepyhead’.
“The Murder Book” is amazingly the eighteenth (!) in the series, which just goes to prove how much readers love reading, Mark’s grisly police procedurals.
In this story, we see the return of a serial killer that has haunted Thorne since his last disastrous encounter with him. With the killer always seeming to be one step ahead, Thorne must chase down a woman responsible for a series of gruesome deaths, while looking over his shoulder for the man that has tormented his career for years. The usual well-drawn characters, Nicola Tanner and Phil Hendricks also play a major role in this book, as they try to cope living with a career destroying secret, they share with Thorne.
I was particularly impressed with the prologue and epilogue which I was very satisfied with and honestly made me smile when I realised the connection. Anyone having read any previous books in the series would be at the usual advantage but it’s not necessary to enjoy this book as a standalone, as any essential back story is covered perfectly well.
I hope Mark Billingham continues to write engaging plots that enthrals his readers, I’m sure there’s still a lot more sadistic murders for DI Thorne and his colleagues to solve.
#TheMurderBook - 5 stars
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
This is only the second Mark Billingham book that I've read! After reading Cry Baby on Pigeonhole (PH) previously, I said I would go back and read the rest but I've still not done that!
Having not read the previous books didn't detract from this one though, as the relevant information was provided throughout so you didn't feel like missing anything!
This was another excellent book by Mark and once again I loved the dark humour, the camaraderie and friendship between Tom Thorne and co.
There was an excellent twist at the end which I did not see coming!
Thank you once again to PH and Mark for sharing this book with us!
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thank you to the author, publisher Little, Brown, and online book club The Pigeonhole for the chance to read this. This is an honest and voluntary review.
Everything in Tom Thorne’s life seems to be going well. He has a girlfriend who understands his work demands, friends who are loyal through even the hardest trials, and interesting cases to investigate. But, as his past comes back to haunt him everything is put at risk and Tom has to decide how far he’ll go to protect what he has.
I’m always impressed by how Tom Thorne manages to avoid, sometimes narrowly, the trope of the grumpy down-beaten loner detective. The author writes him in a really believable and engaging way, and whenever he gets too introspective a night watching the football with his best pal and local pathologist Phil Hendricks stops him from wallowing.
This means that what Tom goes through we go through with him, and The Murder Book is a particularly bumpy ride. What seems like an interesting, but relatively straightforward case soon leads to hidden depths and an ending that is likely to reverberate through future books.
While it helps to have read previous books in the series. It’s not essential. The backstory you need is delivered subtly and cleverly so that newbies find out what they need to know about the stories which feed into this one, and diehard fans don’t feel patronised. A great book.