Their Little Secret by Mark Billingham

Their Little Secret by Mark Billingham
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

When DI Tom Thorne is called to the site of a suicide, he expects to be in and out in no time. But when he arrives at the Underground station where a woman named Philippa Goodwin threw herself in front of a train, he inexplicably senses something awry and feels compelled to dig deeper. He soon discovers that she was the victim of a callous con man who preys on vulnerable women—and whose deception plunged Philippa to her end.

Thorne enlists DI Nicola Tanner to help him track down the swindler and bring him to justice. But the detective duo gets more than they bargained for when a young man’s bludgeoned body turns up on the shore of a nearby seaside town and the two cases come together in a way that neither of the detectives could have foreseen . . .

Tom Thorne is called out to an apparent suicide and while he’s fairly sure that this is what it seems – the reason behind the suicide is something he struggles to let go of. When eventually he and his partner Nicola Tanner do hand the case to the fraud squad no one is more surprised than Thorne when he’s contacted by another division – the DNA sample turning up in a recent murder case. Suddenly his interest doubles and the case once again becomes theirs. Can Thorne and Tanner sort out what’s going on?

I found this to be an enjoyable British police procedural murder mystery book. Both Thorne and Tanner have worked a few cases before, so they seem to have found a good rhythm together now which I really enjoyed. While there are some developments in each of their respective personal lives, I was pleased this didn’t take too much time away from the main plot.

I really enjoyed how this case grew and almost spiraled as the main characters wove together and the case grew as the villain’s relationship did too. While I definitely found parts of the plot easy to guess and foresee, there were still enough twists to keep me guessing and surprised. I feel this book should absolutely appeal to mystery readers of all kinds. I particularly liked how while the villains were clearly villains, they both had quite different issues and in many respects, they worked wonderfully together it was equally clear they were also going to cause serious issues for one another. I thought their relationship – both growing and disintegrating – was an extremely complicated and intriguing dynamic and I feel this really made the plot as gripping as it was. I can’t recall reading a story like this previously and to some extent the two villains even outshone Tanner and Thorne for me- which is a highly unusual position for me as a reader to find myself in.

With a steadily growing plot and plenty of realism I found this to be a good read and a nice addition to a great series.