Summary
Summary
K illing becomes a twisted team sport in this " smart, fast-paced procedural" from the award-winning author of Sleepyhead ( Booklist ).
It was a vicious, calculated murder. The killer selected his victim at London's Euston station, followed her home on the tube, strangled her to death in front of her child. At the same time, killed in the same way, a second body is discovered at the back of King's Cross station. It is a grisly coincidence that eerily echoes the murders of two other women, stabbed to death months before on the same day.
DI Tom Thorne sees the link and comes to a horrifying conclusion. This is not a serial killer that the police are up against--this is two of them. Finding the body used to be the worst part of the job, but not any more. Now each time a body is found, Thorne knows that somewhere out there is a second victim waiting to be discovered. But while the killers' methods might be the same, their manner is strikingly different. Thorne comes to realize that he is hunting very different people--one ruthless and in control, the other submissive, compliant, terrified.
Thorne must catch a man whose need to manipulate is as great as his need to kill. A man who will threaten those closest to Thorne himself and show him that the ability to inspire terror is the deadliest weapon of all . . .
"One of the most consistently entertaining, insightful crime writers working today." --Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl
"Mark Billingham is one of my favorite new writers." --Harlan Coben, bestselling author of Run Away
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Billingham's second thriller (after Sleepyhead) featuring London Det. Insp. Tom Thorne offers a twist on the serial killer subgenre. Brooding, melancholy Thorne heads a team of detectives who are alerted to the death of a young mother brutally strangled as her three-year-old son looks on. The body of a second murder victim, strangled in the same manner, turns up the same day, and Thorn and his team surmise they have a serial killer on their hands. The first half of the book deals with Thorne's discovery that there are really two killers at work and introduces the childhood backstory of the murderers. The second half picks up speed as the actual hunt commences. Billingham is adept at creating believable characters with ordinary and not-so-ordinary personal problems, then weaving them into the plot in surprising ways. At times, though, he pushes too hard to make Thorne's colleagues quirky: "Thorne stared at the figure in black fleece, with shaved head and a startling collection of facial piercings. Phil Hendricks was not everyone's idea of a pathologist, but he was the best Thorne had ever worked with." Thorne's gloomy internal musings on death and guilt tend to slow things down, but Billingham's handling of the plot is deft, fair and scattered with enough red herrings to open a fish and chips shop. When the mastermind behind both sets of killings is revealed in a dramatic denouement, readers will give the author his due and settle back to wait for the next installment of this dependable series. 5-city author tour. (June 17) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Tom Thorne gets double the usual headache when a pair of serial killers start terrorizing London. As a London Detective Inspector Thorne definitely makes the grade; as a human being, he's not so much fun. Morose and prickly on his best days, he's given to listening to Johnny Cash while poring over grisly crime in his spare time. First introduced in Billingham's debut (Sleepy Head, 2002), Thorne is an intriguing protagonist in that on the one hand he's your typical troubled cop but, on the other, Billingham makes him human enough and surrounds him with enough other flawed people so you can understand why some people would actually hang around. Here, the reason for Thorne's melancholy is a new string of murders that happen in pairs and appear to be the work of two serial killers working together. What gives Thorne and his team pause is their having found copious tears at one of the scenes: the killer was crying as he did his deed. Particularly haunting is the first murder, when a young mother was butchered in front of her three-year-old, who survived. Billingham takes his good time revealing who the killer is, flashing back from the present-day mayhem to a pair of schoolkids in the 1980s, one of whom excelled in the art of manipulation and kept his entire class in abject terror. Thorne's unusual amount of empathy ensures that the police procedural never gets too abstracted, while Billingham's measured and involving emphasis on developing the characters of the other cops (at least one of them seems to be cracking under the strain of the grim profession) keeps the reader from flipping ahead. Not the greatest thriller of the year, but one that mixes its chills with a healthy (and welcome) dose of reality. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
"Red herring" doesn't do justice to the device this taut tale of twinned serial killers employs so deliciously. Obviously having a great time, Billingham releases a small school of herring to keep mystery-solving readers in a pickle. More than a match for Henning Mankell's dour Swede Kurt Wallander, gruff and guilt-ridden Detective Inspector Tom Thorne drives his dedicated but dysfunctional police unit to bring a duo of London murderers to justice during the December holidays. The real meat of this smart, fast-paced procedural lies in its realistically raw characters--detectives and killers as good at their jobs as they are depressed about doing them. Thorne, so blinded by his zeal to crack the case that he'll offhandedly humiliate a supportive supervisor to get his risky plans approved, is the strongest of the lot. But from the ace medical examiner who sports an extra facial piercing for each new boyfriend to a pair of vividly imagined killers, the supporting cast is spot-on as well. Happily, a third entry in this series, which started with Sleepyhead [BKL My 1 02], is already in the pipeline. Frank Sennett
Library Journal Review
With last year's auspicious thriller debut (Sleepyhead), Billingham has given himself a tough act to follow. But the return of London detective Tom Thorne is most welcome, and this novel is every bit as intense and creepy as the first. Thorne is again facing a serial killer, but this time around there's an unwelcome bonus: two killers (chums from grammar school days) who are working in tandem. Nicklin is controlling and ruthless, while Palmer is submissive and frightened-and together they make for a ghastly and lethal combination. Thorne and his fellow detectives discern the pattern with relative ease, but finding the true manipulator and ending the killings turns into a deadly game. Thorne is still a flawed, slightly battered cop who is tired of death and drinks too much in an attempt to buffer himself from his grisly job. Highly recommended, especially for fans of Harry Bosch and Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison of "Prime Suspect" fame.-Rebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Calumet Lib., Hammond, IN (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.