Death Message by Mark Billingham
Feb. 24th, 2010 10:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
The Message
DI Tom Thorne has seen plenty of dead bodies in his time. But when he starts receiving sick photos of murder victims on his mobile phone, he soon realises that the next body could be his.
The Killer
And even when the man who has been sending the photos is tracked down, the deadly threat remains. For some, the case is all but closed, but Thorne’s nightmare is just beginning.
The Twist
Because someone else is masterminding the death messages. Even behind bars, the most vicious psychopath Thorne has ever faced is able to manipulate others to do his dirty work for him. And time has only deepened the deadly grudge he has against the policeman who put him away ...
The sixth in Billingham’s Thorne series sees Thorne in a relationship with DI Louise Porter, who he met in Buried. Despite his lingering doubts about the death of his father, he is generally content with his life and looking to the future. Everything changes when he receives a picture of a dead body on his mobile phone and feels compelled to investigate. Soon he finds himself in a game of cat and mouse with the killer, a man on a mission that began with an apparent accident several years before. The more Thorne digs, however, the more he finds himself faced by the ghosts of his past, Stuart Nicklin, the psychopath from SCAREDY CAT and Arkan Zarif, the head of a Turkish crime family first met in The Burning Girl.
The main storyline is as gripping and tense as you’d expect from this series. Thorne remains a stubborn and determined character who will do anything to uncover the truth and achieve a form of justice – no matter what he risks to do so. Here though he has more at stake and his relationship with Louise and in particular the effect that this has had on his friendship with gay pathologist, Hendricks, makes for an interesting read. It’s also good to see continuity with the early books and it’s interesting to see Thorne’s past antagonists continuing to play a role, with Billingham building events to a satisfying conclusion.
In fact, the only weak strand relates to the ‘B’ story, which follows Kitson’s investigation of the murder of a Turkish man in front of his girlfriend. There’s very much a ‘by the numbers’ feel to this story strand and when Billingham inevitably pulls it in to the main events, there’s a strained and somewhat contrived feel to it – particularly the superficial way in which he addresses the concept of ‘honour’.
This is a shame because Thorne continues to be a fascinating character and his growing ruthlessness and the demands he places on his friends and those who love him make for a riveting read. At the same time, there are some flashes of bleak humour – particularly the title suggestions for a drama about a gay pathologist.
Despite the resolution to this book, I hope that this is not the last we see of Tom Thorne and what is building into a classic series of crime thrillers.
The Verdict:
Although this book is let down by a flat secondary plot, all in all it’s a tight and well plotted read with a central character who remains an interesting draw.
DI Tom Thorne has seen plenty of dead bodies in his time. But when he starts receiving sick photos of murder victims on his mobile phone, he soon realises that the next body could be his.
And even when the man who has been sending the photos is tracked down, the deadly threat remains. For some, the case is all but closed, but Thorne’s nightmare is just beginning.
Because someone else is masterminding the death messages. Even behind bars, the most vicious psychopath Thorne has ever faced is able to manipulate others to do his dirty work for him. And time has only deepened the deadly grudge he has against the policeman who put him away ...
The sixth in Billingham’s Thorne series sees Thorne in a relationship with DI Louise Porter, who he met in Buried. Despite his lingering doubts about the death of his father, he is generally content with his life and looking to the future. Everything changes when he receives a picture of a dead body on his mobile phone and feels compelled to investigate. Soon he finds himself in a game of cat and mouse with the killer, a man on a mission that began with an apparent accident several years before. The more Thorne digs, however, the more he finds himself faced by the ghosts of his past, Stuart Nicklin, the psychopath from SCAREDY CAT and Arkan Zarif, the head of a Turkish crime family first met in The Burning Girl.
The main storyline is as gripping and tense as you’d expect from this series. Thorne remains a stubborn and determined character who will do anything to uncover the truth and achieve a form of justice – no matter what he risks to do so. Here though he has more at stake and his relationship with Louise and in particular the effect that this has had on his friendship with gay pathologist, Hendricks, makes for an interesting read. It’s also good to see continuity with the early books and it’s interesting to see Thorne’s past antagonists continuing to play a role, with Billingham building events to a satisfying conclusion.
In fact, the only weak strand relates to the ‘B’ story, which follows Kitson’s investigation of the murder of a Turkish man in front of his girlfriend. There’s very much a ‘by the numbers’ feel to this story strand and when Billingham inevitably pulls it in to the main events, there’s a strained and somewhat contrived feel to it – particularly the superficial way in which he addresses the concept of ‘honour’.
This is a shame because Thorne continues to be a fascinating character and his growing ruthlessness and the demands he places on his friends and those who love him make for a riveting read. At the same time, there are some flashes of bleak humour – particularly the title suggestions for a drama about a gay pathologist.
Despite the resolution to this book, I hope that this is not the last we see of Tom Thorne and what is building into a classic series of crime thrillers.
The Verdict:
Although this book is let down by a flat secondary plot, all in all it’s a tight and well plotted read with a central character who remains an interesting draw.
