Death Message

Up there with Rankin now as one of the leading lights in British Crime fiction. He obviously draws heavily on the first hand experiences of his sources in the "job" which lends this an air of realism missing from many of his contemporaries. Superb, "read in one sitting" novel.
My one quibble, and in this book it is no more than a minor irritant, but why do crime writers from both sides of the pond insist on detailing their protagonists' music tastes in all the books? Did they ALL want to write for Rolling Stone or NME when they started out?

Another Case for Detective Tom Thorne (6/7 people found this helpful)

Mark Billingham was born and brought up in Birmingham. Having worked for some years as an actor and more recently as a TV writer. Mark now tends to concentrate on his writing and his series of crime novels featuring London-based detective Tom Thorne. Writing crime novels is a world away from stand up comedy, but this is what the author does occasionally, time permitting.

Mark Billingham's novels have been consistently good to date. No mean feat for an author, even the best of them are allowed the odd blip. Death Message is no different and continues the high standard that the author has set himself. What a pleasure it is to read a good old British crime novel instead of being dragged through the streets of New York, Chicago or some other crime ridden American city, where cops drive around in cars with an arsenal of weapons in the boot that an al Qaeda cell would be proud to have. Pump action shotguns, stun grenades and handguns powerful enough to stop a grizzly bear.

Death, violent or otherwise is never pretty and it would be foolish to suggest otherwise. I enjoy American crime novels as much as the next person but you can get too much of a good thing. A well written British crime novel is like a breath of fresh air.

The synopsis included with the book details is extremely comprehensive and needs no additional information from me. To include anything else would more than likely spoil what is an extremely enjoyable book for the reader.

Buy the other 6 first! (3/3 people found this helpful)

Mark Billingham is the only author whose new books i look forward to as much as i used to anticipate a new Clash or Jam album! He's that good.

I suggest buying the other 6 featuring Tom Thorne together with this and working your way through them before reading Death Message, it will help fill in the time before the next installment and you won't be dissapointed.

I'd like to think that Thorne will have branched out slightly in his musical tastes by the next book and is giving the wonderful Josh Ritter and Band Of Horses a listen, otherwise more of the same please!

Tom is back - better than ever! (4/4 people found this helpful)

Tom Thorne is back and so are a few ghosts from his past. I am a huge fans of the series and this one is up there with the best. I thoroughly enjoyed this book - it kept me gripped to the last page. Mark Billingham is such a skilled writer and his characters are well drawn and believable. The dialogue is always razor-sharp. Read this as a standalone novel but I would urge you to start at the beginning and get to know Tom Thorne and company thoroughly. You won't be disappointed. He's a wonderful creation - I hope the forthcoming TV series does him justice!

Not One of The Best (7/8 people found this helpful)

For me, this was quite a weak outing in the Tom Thorne series. The storyline is relatively simple and straightforward (OK, if you like that type of thing) and not as complicated or intricate as previous storylines, though characters incidents and plots from previous Thorne novels are at the centre of this book and offer a certain amount of "closure" for Thorne - who continues to be the maverick cop in the Rebus mold. There are a number of personal issues too for Thorne in this book and given that there is going to be a gap before the next Tom Thorne novel it will interesting to see where Billingham takes him.

Mark Billingham

Reader Reviews:

Excellent (0/0 people found this helpful)

Another Case for Detective Tom Thorne (6/7 people found this helpful)

Buy the other 6 first! (3/3 people found this helpful)

Tom is back - better than ever! (4/4 people found this helpful)

Not One of The Best (7/8 people found this helpful)

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