Blood Line by Mark Billingham
Jun. 6th, 2010 03:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
The Bloodstained X-Ray
It seems like a straightforward domestic murder until a bloodstained sliver of X-ray is found clutched in the dead woman’s fist – and it quickly becomes clear that this case is anything but ordinary.
The Infamous Killer
Thorne discovers that the victim’s mother had herself been murdered fifteen years before by serial killer Raymond Garvey. The hunt to catch Garvey was one of the biggest in the history of the Met, and ended with seven women dead.
The Chilling Legacy
When more bodies and more fragments of X-ray are discovered, Thorne has a macabre jigsaw to piece together until the horrifying picture finally emerges. A killer is targeting the children of Raymond Garvey’s victims ...
It’s several months after DEATH MESSAGE and DIsTom Thorne and Louise Porter’s comfortable relationship is dealt a blow when Louise suffers a miscarriage. As Thorne struggles to come to terms both with his feelings about it and Louise’s reaction to the same, he is called out to what appears to be a straightforward domestic murder. However, the victim is clutching a sliver of an X-ray in her hand and as Tom and his team investigate, they discover that the victim’s mother was herself a murder victim – killed by the serial killer Raymond Garvey 15 years earlier.
With the body count increasing, more fragments of the X-ray are found and Thorne soon realises that the killer is targeting the children of Garvey’s victims. As Thorne tries to find out why, he is drawn closer to the killer, and to one of the most horrifying cases of his career ...
As always, Mark Billingham has woven together a tightly plotted crime novel with plenty of gruesome murders and twists and turns. Thorne’s reaction to Louise’s miscarriage forms the emotional core of the novel and Billingham does well in depicting Thorne’s confusion as he tries to come to terms with losing a baby that he wasn’t sure he wanted in the first place and veers between wanting to comfort Louise and avoiding doing so because he doesn’t know what to say – it certainly doesn’t feel cliché. Also good is the way in which Phil Hendricks becomes a confidante and messenger for both of them as an extension of their existing friendship.
Mention should also go to the way Billingham weaves in the story of Debbie, a single mother, and her mentally disabled son Jason – their story being used to bring an impending sense of dread that keep the nerves jangling.
What didn’t work so well for me was the twist on the killer’s identity because having read all the previous Thorne books, it felt like a rehash of previous ideas – to the extent that I predicted the killer the moment s/he arrived on the page so the final third of the book felt a bit ho-hum. It’s also noticeable that there isn’t any of the cynical humour in this book, which gave the previous books a vital spark.
It’s a good fast-paced read and worth a look, but I do wonder how much mileage there is left in this series.
The Verdict:
The latest in the Tom Thorne series has a good emotional core to it that skirts cliché, but the twist was (to me) a little obvious, robbing the final third of tension.
It seems like a straightforward domestic murder until a bloodstained sliver of X-ray is found clutched in the dead woman’s fist – and it quickly becomes clear that this case is anything but ordinary.
Thorne discovers that the victim’s mother had herself been murdered fifteen years before by serial killer Raymond Garvey. The hunt to catch Garvey was one of the biggest in the history of the Met, and ended with seven women dead.
When more bodies and more fragments of X-ray are discovered, Thorne has a macabre jigsaw to piece together until the horrifying picture finally emerges. A killer is targeting the children of Raymond Garvey’s victims ...
It’s several months after DEATH MESSAGE and DIsTom Thorne and Louise Porter’s comfortable relationship is dealt a blow when Louise suffers a miscarriage. As Thorne struggles to come to terms both with his feelings about it and Louise’s reaction to the same, he is called out to what appears to be a straightforward domestic murder. However, the victim is clutching a sliver of an X-ray in her hand and as Tom and his team investigate, they discover that the victim’s mother was herself a murder victim – killed by the serial killer Raymond Garvey 15 years earlier.
With the body count increasing, more fragments of the X-ray are found and Thorne soon realises that the killer is targeting the children of Garvey’s victims. As Thorne tries to find out why, he is drawn closer to the killer, and to one of the most horrifying cases of his career ...
As always, Mark Billingham has woven together a tightly plotted crime novel with plenty of gruesome murders and twists and turns. Thorne’s reaction to Louise’s miscarriage forms the emotional core of the novel and Billingham does well in depicting Thorne’s confusion as he tries to come to terms with losing a baby that he wasn’t sure he wanted in the first place and veers between wanting to comfort Louise and avoiding doing so because he doesn’t know what to say – it certainly doesn’t feel cliché. Also good is the way in which Phil Hendricks becomes a confidante and messenger for both of them as an extension of their existing friendship.
Mention should also go to the way Billingham weaves in the story of Debbie, a single mother, and her mentally disabled son Jason – their story being used to bring an impending sense of dread that keep the nerves jangling.
What didn’t work so well for me was the twist on the killer’s identity because having read all the previous Thorne books, it felt like a rehash of previous ideas – to the extent that I predicted the killer the moment s/he arrived on the page so the final third of the book felt a bit ho-hum. It’s also noticeable that there isn’t any of the cynical humour in this book, which gave the previous books a vital spark.
It’s a good fast-paced read and worth a look, but I do wonder how much mileage there is left in this series.
The Verdict:
The latest in the Tom Thorne series has a good emotional core to it that skirts cliché, but the twist was (to me) a little obvious, robbing the final third of tension.
