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Good As Dead by Mark Billingham
Oct. 15th, 2014 10:41 pmThe Blurb On The Back:
The hostage.
Police officer Helen Weeks walks into her local newsagent’s on her way to work. It’s the last place she expects to be met with violence, but she is about to come face to face with a gunman.
The demand.
The hostage-taker is desperate to know what happened to his beloved son, who died a year before in youth custody. By holding Helen at gunpoint, he will force a re-investigation into his son’s death. And one man knows the case better than any other – DI Tom Thorne.
The twist.
As the body count rises, Thorne must race against time to bring a killer to justice and save a young mother’s life.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
The tenth in Mark Billingham’s TOM THORNE SERIES is another page-turning thriller that shows Thorne once again prepared to break the rules to get the result he knows is right. The problem is that the conspiracy element to the story never convinced me because it’s so dependent on a contrived set of events that didn’t ring true. This is a shame because I really enjoyed the return of Helen Weeks who’s struggling to keep her head in a stressful situation and whose conversations with Javed really bring out the pain and loss that comes when the justice system acts unfairly. I also enjoyed the way Thorne continues to develop here now that his relationship with Louise is over and the way in which he is looking to reorder his life to make a new start and yet cannot escape his old habits. Ultimately, this was entertaining enough to keep me reading but it wasn’t the best in the series – although I will definitely check out the next book.
Police officer Helen Weeks walks into her local newsagent’s on her way to work. It’s the last place she expects to be met with violence, but she is about to come face to face with a gunman.
The hostage-taker is desperate to know what happened to his beloved son, who died a year before in youth custody. By holding Helen at gunpoint, he will force a re-investigation into his son’s death. And one man knows the case better than any other – DI Tom Thorne.
As the body count rises, Thorne must race against time to bring a killer to justice and save a young mother’s life.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
The tenth in Mark Billingham’s TOM THORNE SERIES is another page-turning thriller that shows Thorne once again prepared to break the rules to get the result he knows is right. The problem is that the conspiracy element to the story never convinced me because it’s so dependent on a contrived set of events that didn’t ring true. This is a shame because I really enjoyed the return of Helen Weeks who’s struggling to keep her head in a stressful situation and whose conversations with Javed really bring out the pain and loss that comes when the justice system acts unfairly. I also enjoyed the way Thorne continues to develop here now that his relationship with Louise is over and the way in which he is looking to reorder his life to make a new start and yet cannot escape his old habits. Ultimately, this was entertaining enough to keep me reading but it wasn’t the best in the series – although I will definitely check out the next book.
