What the Night Brings (Tom Thorne #19) by Mark Billingham

Description from Goodreads:

""Three dead coppers, Tom, maybe four by lunchtime."

The targeted murder of four officers is only the first in a series of attacks that leaves police scared, angry and, most disturbingly of all, vengeful.

As Tom Thorne and Nicola Tanner dig into the reasons for the violence, a deeper darkness begins to the possibility that these murders are payback. The price paid for an unspeakable betrayal.

To uncover the truth, Thorne will be forced to question everything he stands for. He can trust nobody, and the shocking secrets revealed by one terrible night will fracture his entire world."

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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. 

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

The story moves at a 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.

This may be the 19th 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 and his team will quickly become old friends who you love to get reacquainted with with each new book.

Would I recommend this? Heck yes - go and buy it now 🙂

Many thanks to the author, Little, Brown Book Group UK, Sphere and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of this another excellent addition to a brilliant series.

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Their Little Secret (Tom Thorne #16) by Mark Billingham

 

Description from Goodreads:

"She says she's an ordinary mother. He knows a liar when he sees one.

Sarah thinks of herself as a normal single mum. It's what she wants others to think of her. But the truth is, she needs something new, something thrilling.

Meanwhile, DI Tom Thorne is investigating a woman's suicide, convinced she was driven to do it by a man who preys on vulnerable women.

A man who is about to change Sarah's life."

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This is my first foray into the world of audiobooks and I am so pleased I chose one of Mark Billingham's books to introduce me to the world of audio because, once again, he and Tom Thorne did not disappoint.

I was engrossed from the start and this didn't let up until the end.  I never thought I would be able to get into a book that I wasn't actually physically holding but there was no such problem with this and I took every opportunity to put my headphones in and get lost in this book of intrigue.

I am already familiar with many of the main characters so it was like putting on a pair of comfy slippers being back amongst some good friends that I have grown quite attached to over the years.  The narration is done by Mark himself and whilst he changed the voices slightly, he didn't put on a female voice for those particular parts (thank goodness!) so it did make it a little more difficult to distinguish between them but this didn't last long and didn't detract from my listening experience.

The plot is complex and compelling - what is it about a suicide that has Thorne intrigued?  How is a murder in Margate connected? What does this have to do with a conman?  Where does Sarah and her son Jamie come into this?  So many secrets, so many lies and so much intrigue.

I admit that I was worried I wouldn't enjoy an audio book quite as much as an actual book but Mr Billingham removed that doubt with this excellent story that I would definitely recommend to lovers of crime thrillers and I have to thank Hachette Audio via Secret Readers Project for my audio book in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.

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Other books by Mark Billingham that I have read and reviewed:

Rabbit Hole

Cry Baby (A Tom Thorne Thriller)

Die of Shame

The Dying Hours (Tom Thorne #11)

Time of Death (Tom Thorne #13)

Love Like Blood (Tom Thorne #14)

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Click here to learn more about the Secret Readers Project

Cry Baby (A Tom Thorne Thriller) by Mark Billingham

 

Description from the Publisher's website:

"It’s 1996. Detective Sergeant Tom Thorne is a haunted man. Haunted by the moment he ignored his instinct about a suspect, by the horrific crime that followed and by the memories that come day and night, in sunshine and shadow.

So when seven-year-old Kieron Coyne goes missing while playing in the woods with his best friend, Thorne vows he will not make the same mistake again. Cannot.

The solitary witness. The strange neighbour. The friendly teacher. All are in Thorne’s sights.

This case will be the making of him . . . or the breaking."

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I am a huge fan of Mark Billingham and of his character, Tom Thorne, and have avidly followed the series and so I was absolutely thrilled to see a prequel was available which went back to the beginning in 1996 when "portable" phones are a novelty, smoking in pubs was the norm and England weren't doing too badly in the Euro's!

Tom is a young Detective Sergeant going through a bit of a rough patch after separating from his wife and experiencing recurring nightmares of an old case when along comes every persons worst nightmare ... the abduction of a little boy from a local park.  The book follows the investigation into the abduction where everyone is a suspect and the mystery deepens when the body of one of those suspects turns up, quickly followed by the body of the boy's father.  

This is a tense read written mainly from the perspectives of Tom, Cat (mother of the abducted child) and Kieron (the abducted child); the pace built up as the investigation progressed and I loved it.  I particularly enjoyed meeting the characters that I have grown to love at the beginnings of their relationship with a particular highlight being the first meeting between Tom and Phil Hendricks which made me literally laugh out loud.

I would most definitely recommend this book and you don't have to have read any of the others in the series as this makes a really good starting point for those of you who haven't discovered the delight that is Tom Thorne and who have clearly been living under a rock!!

I was extremely lucky to have won a copy of this book via a Facebook competition but thanks also to Little, Brown Book Group via NetGalley for an e-copy in return for an unbiased and honest review.

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