โ Scribed by Mark Billingham
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
It is almost unthinkable that a single maniac would murder two women miles apart on the same day. Yet someone followed Carol Garner home from the train station and strangled her to death in front of her three-year-old son. And, afterwards, Ruth Murray died in a similar manner. The evidence is leading Detective Inspector Tom Thorne to a stunning conclusion: there isn't only one serial killer on the prowl, but a pair of them, working in tandem. And any corpse that turns up in the future just might be accompanied by a second. To stop them both, 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; a man who will show him that the ability to inspire terror is the deadliest weapon of all.
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.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"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
Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved
๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES
Now, killing is a team sport. 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
Detective Inspector Tom Thorne tracks two serial killers who seem to be working hand-in-hand, trying to catch them before those closest to him get caught in the crossfire of the investigation.
SUMMARY: It is almost unthinkable that a single maniac would murder two women miles apart on the same day. Yet someone followed Carol Garner home from the train station and strangled her to death in front of her three-year-old son. And, afterwards, Ruth Murray died in a similar manner. The evidence
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