The murder book

Mark Billingham

Book - 2022

"Tom Thorne finally has it all. In Nicola Tanner and Phil Hendricks, Thorne has good friends by his side. His love life is newly reformed by a promising relationship and he is happy in the job he has devoted his life to. As he sets off hunting the woman responsible for a series of grisly murders, Thorne has no way of knowing that he will be plunged into a nightmare from which he may never wake. A nightmare that has a name. Thorne's past threatens to catch up with him and a ruinous secret is about to be revealed. If he wants to save himself and his friends, he will have to do the unthinkable. Tom Thorne finally has a lot to lose"--

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FICTION/Billingham, Mark
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Subjects
Genres
Detective and mystery fiction
Thrillers (Fiction)
Novels
Published
New York : Atlantic Monthly Press 2022.
Language
English
Main Author
Mark Billingham (author)
Edition
First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition
Physical Description
405 pages : 24 cm
ISBN
9780802159687
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

For a police detective, a murder book is the file of a murder investigation, including photographs, sketches, forensic reports, witness interviews, etc. London DI Tom Thorne's murder book on Stuart Nicklin is thick. An absolute monster of a man who lives only to inflict pain on others, Nicklin is at it again. A spate of gruesome murders by a young woman seemingly begging to be caught turns out to have been engineered by Nicklin. Thorne caught him once, only to be tricked into letting him escape, and this time he intends to lock him up forever. A cacophony grows daily inside Thorne's head, an "angry static," as those around him are threatened, and Nicklin takes to sending the inspector messages carved into corpses. The narrative moves rapidly, and readers will find their own "static" growing stronger with each page. Despite the suspense and visceral reality, they will be sustained by the gallows humor and the warmth and caring that has developed between Thorne and those closest to him. This is the eighteenth book (after Cry Baby, 2020) in a series that began in 2001 and has established Thorne as one of British crime fiction's most iconic characters. Billingham is a masterful plotter, and here he supplies a few alarming teasers before delivering one of his most amazing endings ever.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

British author Billingham's masterly 18th novel featuring Det. Insp. Tom Thorne (after 2020's Cry Baby) finds Thorne content in his relationship with Melita Perera, who works with the police as a forensic psychiatrist, following a period of social isolation. Meanwhile, Thorne's nemesis, Stuart Nicklin, who once tortured and nearly killed Thorne's best friend, pathologist Phil Hendricks, escapes from prison and undergoes cosmetic surgery that makes him all but unrecognizable. When three grotesque murders, which imitate the proverbial "see no evil" theme, occur in London, Thorne and partner Det. Insp. Nicola Tanner investigate. They tie all three to sociopath Rebecca Driver, an acolyte of Nicklin's, who meets her victims on a dating website, and arrest her. While Driver is in a holding cell after conviction and waiting to be sentenced, she finally decides to expose Nicklin's evil manipulations. In the brilliant denouement, Thorne confronts Nicklin in Melita's home, and the fallout from their violent encounter is sure to reverberate through the lives of Tanner, Hendricks, and himself in future installments. The intricate plot matches superior characterizations. Thorne fans will eagerly await his next outing. Agent: David Forrer, InkWell Management. (July)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A female serial killer is only the tip of the latest iceberg for DI Tom Thorne. Richard Sumner, who'd planned to find some online "no strings nookie" while his wife was in Liverpool at a conference, ends up minus his ears and his life. Hari Reddy's latest hookup in Clapham cuts out his tongue before killing him. Only then does a phone tip alert the coppers to the mutilated three-week-old corpse of Thomas Bristow in Hadley Wood. The murders are clearly the work of the same woman, and thanks to the panoptic surveillance apparatus of contemporary London, it's not long before she's identified as supermarket clerk Rebecca Driver. Only after her arrest do the twists start to come. Instead of denying her guilt, she seems to take pride in it and in her subservient direction by a man Thorne quickly decides is Stuart Nicklin, a prolific killer who escaped prison and kidnapped pathologist Phil Hendricks six years ago. When Thorne interviews Rebecca in prison, she all but laughs in his face. Nicklin, meantime, has started to assert himself in more direct and baleful ways that have Thorne scurrying to protect his girlfriend, forensic psychiatrist Melita Perera; his former partner, Helen Weeks; his current partner, DI Nicola Tanner; and of course Hendricks. But when he can't even keep his emotions in check successfully enough to avoid threatening another officer whose complaint gets him removed from the case, how can he possibly stay one step ahead of a criminal who's evidently spent years preparing his revenge? Another return-of-master-criminal sequel better in parts than as a whole. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.