Time of Death by Mark Billingham

Description from Goodreads:

“The astonishing thirteenth Tom Thorne novel is a story of kidnapping, the tabloid press, and a frightening case of mistaken identity.

Tom Thorne is on holiday with his girlfriend DS Helen Weeks, when two girls are abducted in Helen’s home town. When a body is discovered and a man is arrested, Helen recognizes the suspect’s wife as an old school-friend and returns home for the first time in twenty-five years to lend her support. As his partner faces up to a past she has tried desperately to forget and a media storm engulfs the town, Thorne becomes convinced that, despite overwhelming evidence of his guilt, the police have got the wrong man. There is still an extremely clever and killer on the loose and a missing girl who Thorne believes might still be alive.”

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I am a massive fan of Mark Billingham and I absolutely love his character - Tom Thorne - neither have ever disappointed me and, after reading this, they still haven’t. This book is ace as are all previous 12 novels. I am usually one of the first to the bookshop when a new one comes out but this time I was lucky enough to have been sent an eBook copy via NetGalley and I want to thank the publisher, Grove Atlantic, for this in return for an unbiased review.

I won’t go into any details about the storyline as the description above says it all but I will say that it is captivating, thrilling, absorbing, exciting and all the other superlatives that you normally use to describe a brilliant read.

This book deals with some pretty despicable crimes but does so in a way that is not sensationalised or gratuitous but rather in a thought-provoking and sensitive manner. Now don’t get me wrong, this book isn't all about the heinous crimes, there are some laugh-out-loud moments to lighten the mood particularly when the unorthodox pathologist Phil Hendricks appears from London to lend a hand. He is like a breath of fresh air and his relationship with Thorne is just fantastic and so natural as is Thorne’s budding relationship with Helen.

The story moves at great pace with an easy to read style of writing which makes this book difficult to put down. There are twists and turns aplenty and just when you go “aha, I know who did it”, Mr Billingham goes and throws a spanner in the works again … you know it’s coming but are still surprised when it does.

This may be the 13th instalment in the Tom Thorne series and you might think that Mr Billingham couldn't think of new and innovative scrapes, crisis, crimes and miscreants for Tom Thorne to get involved with and in but he seems to be able to manage it with ease and still he makes it feel fresh and new. You can get away with reading this as a standalone but I would highly recommend reading the others as Thorne will quickly become an old friend who you love to get reacquainted with with each new book.

Would I recommend this to anyone else? Hell yes - go and buy it now :)