Rabbit Hole by Mark Billingham

This is not your usual Mark Billingham. Yes, there are a few murders. Yes, there is a mystery to solve. And yet the setting (a mental health institution) gives this book a totally different flavour and feel. Very realistic, very well done. 

Oh, and PS: I really like Tom Thorne makes an appearance in person, even if his name isn't mentioned. 

PS2: Alice down the rabbit hole, Mad Hatter's tea party yep, got it.

Blurb:
    Alice Armitage is a police officer. 
    Or she was.
    Following a debilitating bout of PTSD, self-medication with drink and drugs, and a psychotic breakdown, Alice is now a long-term patient in an acute psychiatric ward. Though convinced that she doesn’t really belong there, she finds companionship with the other patients in the ward despite their challenging and often intimidating issues.
    So when one of her fellow patients is murdered, Alice feels personally compelled to launch an investigation from within the ward. Soon, she becomes convinced that she has identified the killer and that she can catch them. Ignored by the police, she must gather proof on her own, relying on the few contacts she has on the outside that still take her calls. But Alice’s life begins to unravel as she realizes that she cannot trust anyone in the ward, least of all herself. Having lost her conviction and with her investigative confidence shattered, she comes dangerously close to a psychological point of no return.

Cry Baby

This one's different! I've been following Mark Billingham since his first official visit to New Zealand (the Auckland Writers' Festival), where he shared the podium with two other authors and joked that with that many people in the audience, we could all go up and hold the presentation in his hotel room. I fell in love with his humour right then and promptly bought "Sleepyhead" and all those that came after. I don't regret it.

***THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS***

The plot of "Cry Baby", written two decades after "Sleepyhead", actually predates it. Don't let it be the first Tom Thorne book you read, because you'll deprive yourself of the little "aha" moments when Tom meets Phil Hendricks for the first time, or walks away from his future flat in Kentish Town, or visits his parents. "Cry Baby" is a throwback to the times when people didn't carry cell phones and there was no CCTV footage to do the police legwork - and it's also a throwback to a younger, less cynical, Tom.

Of course, if you don't want to commit to reading 16 Tom Thorne books before "Cry Baby", go right ahead. It can be enjoyed as a stand-alone. 

Their Little Secret (Tom Thorne Novels Book 16)

"Their Little Secret" is Mark Billingham's 16th Tom Thorne Novel. What I like about this series is the character development: the Tom we meet in "Sleepyhead" is not the same Tom as the one in "Good as Dead", and he's different (consistently so) from the one in "Their Little Secret". Nicola Tanner is also evolving, healing in one sense but still broken in another. All good.

The plot features interesting characters (a suburban mum with a secret, a conman), and the book ends before this reader got to know them well enough for her liking. Still, it's the usual Billingham page-turner. And Tom's a treat, as always.

Love Like Blood

"Love Like Blood" is Mark Billingham's latest thriller (2017), again featuring both Thorne and Tanner. I liked the ratio in this one (his previous book was a bit Thorne-poor), I was intrigued by the topic of honour killings, and I enjoyed the non-predictable plot twists.


5/5. This one's a winner.


Warning: the official blurb contains a spoiler (IMHO).
DI Nicola Tanner needs Tom Thorne’s help. Her partner, Susan, has been brutally murdered and Tanner is convinced that it was a case of mistaken identity—that she was the real target. The murderer’s motive might have something to do with Tanner’s recent work on a string of cold-case honor killings she believes to be related. Tanner is now on compassionate leave but insists on pursuing the case off the books and knows Thorne is just the man to jump into the fire with her. He agrees but quickly finds that working in such controversial territory is dangerous in more ways than one. And when a young couple goes missing, they have a chance to investigate a case that is anything but cold.