Time of Death (Tom Thorne Novels)

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Past cases are referred to but not in a way that affects the understanding of the plot of this book. This time Thorne is not on a case at all, but on holidays with his partner Helen Weeks (also a cop and the main character in Billingham's novel, In The Dark which I have but have not yet read). While the story and denouement were worth the read, it was this ensemble of characters that kept me reading.

Her support is much needed as the evidence piles up quickly, one of the girls turns up dead, and Stephen Bates is arrested for the crimes. If you enjoy police procedural novels with great characterisation then this series is the one for you.Helen then remembers an old abandoned site from her childhood that could be the perfect place to keep the girls. This is the fourth book by the author and is my least favorite till now as it was very slow moving and therefore hard to pick up again. She insists on going to the aid of her friend while Tom is left twiddling his thumbs - but not for long.

But the thing that annoyed me more, especially after Billingham mocking the maverick cop cliché himself, was that Helen and Tom suddenly turned into violent criminals halfway through - beating up a teenager in front of his friends (who fortunately seemed to be the only teenagers in Britain without smartphones to film it on) for the heinous crime of spitting, with no repercussions. His standalone thriller IN THE DARK was chosen as one of the twelve best books of the year by the Times and his debut novel, SLEEPYHEAD was chosen by the Sunday Times as one of the 100 books that had shaped the decade. There are strong hints of a recent case that caused Tom Thorne (and Hendricks) enormous grief and it is clear that this ‘holiday’ is overdue and much needed. The holiday is short lived when Helen hears the news involving an old school friend whose husband has been arrested in connection with 2 missing school girls.As the evidence mounts up against the man a press feeding frenzy begins and the Bates family find themselves under siege from not only the press but hordes of angry people who seem to take it upon themselves to punish the family for the alleged crimes of Stephen Bates. In fact, early on in the book Billingham has a sly dig at the cliché of the angst-ridden drunken maverick of current crime fiction. This is the 13th book in Mark Billingham's series featuring his tough as old boots detective, Tom Thorne - I've not read the entire series but after really enjoying the previous book in the series, The Bones Beneath (review HERE) I felt the immediate need for more Thorne and so I started on Time of Death. uk/landing-page/little-brown-book-group/little-brown-book-group-company-information/">Little, Brown Book Group Limited.