Lifeless by Mark Billingham
Publisher: Sphere
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Tom Thorne’s career is on the skids. Having seriously crossed the line on his last case and depressed over the recent suspicious death of his father, the once ambitious police detective has been reduced to pushing papers . . . and is being encouraged to take a prolonged leave of duty.

But someone is stalking the city’s most destitute citizens. Three homeless men have recently been kicked to death, each brutalized corpse discovered with a banknote pinned to its chest. With nothing to lose, Thorne volunteers to try to find the killer—taking to the streets he knows so well from his days as beat policeman and as a homicide detective, but this time joining the squalid ranks of life’s rejects. In this harsh and harrowing netherworld, with its own rules and moral codes, a shocking link between the brutal crimes and a fifteen-year-old atrocity could end up costing Thorne what little life he has left.

Three men (all homeless and sleeping rough on London’s streets) have all been brutally murdered; kicked to death and found with a twenty-pound note pinned to their jackets. The murders each appear random, but – even still grieving and newly shuffled out of the murder team – DI Tom Thorne can tell there has to be more to this series of killings than is readily apparent. Convincing his boss that going undercover and living rough with these people, Tom is determined to navigate this disturbing underworld. Can Tom uncover what’s happening before he, as well, is lost amongst the masses?

I have been really enjoying this gritty and well written British Police Procedural series. I’ve remarked a few times in the previous reviews for earlier books that this series can be quite harsh and difficult at times to read and this story was absolutely up there with the best of them. The entire premise of the plot is a difficult subject – the vulnerable homeless which every large city has, so I feel everyone can relate on some level to this group. While I was pleased the author didn’t go overboard with the harshness and tragedy of this subject, neither does he gloss over anything.

I found myself really impressed with the depth and balance to which the author – through Tom – filled out this book. I thought the balance was just right, with plenty of description and showing much of this underbelly through Tom living 100% rough on the streets full time with this community (and all those associated taboos) but not making this aspect more important than the other humans there or the plot of unearthing a killer.

Like most of the previous books in this series, I strongly suspect this will not be every reader’s style or favoured plotline. I feel this is meant to be an uncomfortable book and meant to make you think and push your boundaries and I found that here in spades. I equally found myself enjoying Tom’s character – and his boss and Holland’s to a lesser extent – and hoping each of them could grow and expand through this experience.

I admit the murder mystery – while always present – definitely took a secondary seat at times to the life experience Tom was getting on the streets. I was quite happy with this, but I do feel readers interested more purely in the mystery and not as engrossed in the rest of the story might find the spotlight should have been more firmly on the mystery and less on the homeless world and streets that were the atmospheric backdrop to this story.

Readers looking for a different, grittier and at times harder storyline should absolutely give this series – and this book in particular – a crack. While it might not resonate with everyone, I am really finding myself darkly addicted to this series and am happy there’s a number more to come before I’m caught up.

The Burning Girl by Mark Billingham
Publisher: Sphere
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

A series of brutal gangland slayings — each victim found with an X gouged into his back — has Thorne plunging into the fires of a deadly turf war, as he attempts to tie together the threads of perplexing crimes separated by decades. But time is rapidly running out in his search for a copycat who revels in blood and pain — because the body count keeps rising . . . and someone has carved an X into Tom Thorne’s front door.

A particularly vicious killer is making an inter-gang war become a lot harsher than is usual. And soon the revenge tit-for-tat acts between the gangs bleed over into the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. DI Tom Thorne and his team are trying to work with the organized crime group to mitigate the fall out. To make matters harder a killer long imprisoned and related to one of these gangs has suddenly changed his tune – insisting the burning of a young girl, the act he’s been put away so very long for – wasn’t actually him, but someone else. And when another young girl is very nearly killed in the exact same manner, Tom and his superiors suddenly can’t ignore this killer might be telling the truth for a change.

I found this to be a busy and interesting British police procedural novel. It was a little different to previous books in this series in that there were two strong cases in this book, both given quite a lot of time in the forefront, so I was sometimes a little confused as to which story was leading, and which was following. There is quite a bit of overlap and that muddied the waters for me a fair bit too.

Similar to other books in this series I found the writing to be quite gritty and the characters realistic but a little harsh and lean. Readers who prefer softer police thrillers or a more country or rural feel to their crimes definitely might not find this story hits the spot with them. I will admit though that some of the darker aspects and internal questioning from DI Thorne didn’t strike me in this book as quite as heavy as I’ve felt it was in previous books. The feel and tone of this book was still gritty and very urban, but I didn’t feel it was as bleak in this book as I’ve thought it was in the previous few books.

I could believe that having two different, but equally strong plotlines might not sit well with some readers – in some respects this felt like Tom and the team had their attention divided between the two big cases. While I can empathize with this, and agree I usually don’t enjoy this style of writing, in this book I felt having the two cases didn’t feel like padding but more felt as if Tom and his team had their plates full and it helped solidify the image throughout the story that there were multiple balls in the air and everything was quite hectic and tilting out of control. Which is how you’d think life might feel for a police officer when rival gangs were virtually in a turf war and everything was spiraling.

Gritty and realistic, this was an excellent although slightly uncomfortable read. With plenty of plot and action this isn’t a gentle murder mystery but a lean and hard British police procedural. I enjoyed it and am eager for the next in the series.