Books by Mark Billingham
The Burning Girl: A Novel
by Claire Messud, Mark Billingham
Some fires never go out ...
X marks the spot -- and when that spot is a corpse's naked back and the X is carved in blood, Detective Inspector Tom Thorne is in no doubt that the dead man is the latest victim of a particularly vicious contract killer. It's morbid and messy -- but it's a mystery with plenty of clues. This is turf warfare between North London gangs. Organized crime boss Billy Ryan is moving into someone else's territory, and that someone is ready to stand up for what he believes is his.
Thorne's got plenty on his plate when he agrees to help out ex-DCI Carol Chamberlain rake through the ashes of an old case that has come back to haunt her. Schoolgirl Jessica Clarke was lit on fire twenty years ago. Now, Gordon Rooker, the man Chamberlain put away for the crime, is up for parole, and it seems there's a copycat on the prowl.
Or perhaps it's someone trying to right a serious wrong: Jessica Clarke was the victim of mistaken identity. The intended target was the daughter of a gangland boss, a woman who would grow up to marry the current leader, Billy Ryan ...
Thorne quickly identifies a tenuous link between the two crimes, and past and present fuse together to form a new, horrifying riddle. One that involves more killings, violence, greed, and a murderous family with no values -- except gain at any price.
When an X is carved into his front door, Tom Thorne realizes that fires, once thought to be out, continue to burn.
Copies
No copies available.
The Burning Girl: A Novel
by Claire Messud, Mark Billingham
A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
"[A] masterwork of psychological fiction.… Messud teases readers with a psychological mystery, withholding information and then cannily parceling it out." ―Chicago Tribune
Julia and Cassie have been friends since nursery school. They have shared everything, including their desire to escape the stifling limitations of their birthplace, the quiet town of Royston, Massachusetts. But as the two girls enter adolescence, their paths diverge and Cassie sets out on a journey that will put her life in danger and shatter her oldest friendship. The Burning Girl is a complex examination of the stories we tell ourselves about youth and friendship, and straddles, expertly, childhood’s imaginary worlds and painful adult reality―crafting a true, immediate portrait of female adolescence.
Claire Messud, one of our finest novelists, is as accomplished at weaving a compelling fictional world as she is at asking the big questions: To what extent can we know ourselves and others? What are the stories we create to comprehend our lives and relationships? Brilliantly mixing fable and coming-of-age tale, The Burning Girl gets to the heart of these matters in an absolutely irresistible way.
The Burning Girl was named one of the best books of the year by the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Vogue, NPR, Financial Times, Town & Country, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Refinery29, and Literary Hub.
Copies
No copies available.
The Burning Girl: A Novel
by Claire Messud, Mark Billingham
A New York Times Bestseller
A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
A bracing, hypnotic coming-of-age story about the bond of best friends, from the New York Times best-selling author of The Emperor’s Children.
Julia and Cassie have been friends since nursery school. They have shared everything, including their desire to escape the stifling limitations of their birthplace, the quiet town of Royston, Massachusetts. But as the two girls enter adolescence, their paths diverge and Cassie sets out on a journey that will put her life in danger and shatter her oldest friendship. The Burning Girl is a complex examination of the stories we tell ourselves about youth and friendship, and straddles, expertly, childhood’s imaginary worlds and painful adult reality―crafting a true, immediate portrait of female adolescence.
Claire Messud, one of our finest novelists, is as accomplished at weaving a compelling fictional world as she is at asking the big questions: To what extent can we know ourselves and others? What are the stories we create to comprehend our lives and relationships? Brilliantly mixing fable and coming-of-age tale, The Burning Girl gets to the heart of these matters in an absolutely irresistible way.
Copies
No copies available.
Lazybones
Thorne knew when he was looking at something out of the ordinary. This was a significant murder scene. This was the work of a killer driven by something special, something spectacular ... He looked at the dead man on the bed -- the position of him, as if he were praying ... Thorne guessed that at the end, he probably had been.
The body is found in the grubbiest of North London hotel rooms. Kneeling, naked on a bare mattress, the head is hooded and the hands tied tight with a brown leather belt. And then there's the oddest detail of all: the call from the florist to check arrangements about the wreath ... It's been only ten days since convicted rapist Douglas Remfry was released from prison. Someone knew he was coming out. Someone wanted to hand out some punishment of his own. When a second sex offender is discovered dead, the police believe they have a vicious, calculating vigilante on their hands. But how does the killer lure his victims to their deaths? Who do the victims think they are going to meet in these hotel rooms? And then the police find the letters ...
Detective Inspector Tom Thorne always works best when his emotions are involved in the case, when his anger flares him into action -- but he's having trouble finding any sympathy for the dead. It is only as his investigation continues that Thorne finally discovers a victim worth fighting for, a victim whose identity becomes crucial to cracking this most twisted of cases ...
From its chilling opening to its shocking climax, Lazybones confirms Mark Billingham's place as one of today's master storytellers and is certain to be one of the most thrilling and talked-about suspense novels of the year.
Copies
No copies available.
Lazybones (Tom Thorne Series, 3)
The first corpse was found hooded, bound, and naked, kneeling ona bare mattress in a seedy hotel room. This was no ordinary murder but rather the work of a killer driven by something special, somethingspectacular. The fact that the dead man was a convicted rapist recently released from prison only increases the bizarre nature of the gruesome crime ... and the police's reluctance to apprehend the perpetrator. It's the body count that troubles Detective Inspector Tom Thorne, as brutal slaying follows brutal slaying, each victim more deserving than the last. Though he has no sympathy for the dead, Thorne knows he must put an end to a cruelly calculating vigilante's bloody justice before time runs out -- and a horrifically efficient serial killer targets a life worth fighting for.
Copies
No copies available.
The Burning Girl
Once burned . . .
By rights, the horrific schoolyard crime should have been laid to rest twenty years ago. An alleged perpetrator confessed and now is growing old behind bars. But the case still haunts ex-Detective Chief Inspector Carol Chamberlain -- and she has asked DI Tom Thorne to uncover a disturbing truth that lies buried in the ashes.
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.
Copies
No copies available.
Like a Charm: A Novel in Voices
by Lee Child, Karin Slaughter, Laura Lippman, Peter Robinson, Mark Billingham, Denise Mina, Lynda La Plante, Jerrilyn Farmer, Peter Moore Smith
Desire leaves a man destroyed ... A young girl's curiosity reveals secrets better left hidden ... Jealousy drives a woman mad ... An obsession with numbers precipitates a deadly revenge ... Ambition leads to a curious exchange ... An uncanny likeness changes two lives forever ... The hand of fate lies buried in the past ...
An unforgettable novel in sixteen parts by some of the most prestigious crime writers working today.
One bracelet, sixteen charms ...
From nineteenth-century Georgia, where the bracelet is forged in fire, to wartime Leeds, the seedy underside of London's Soho, a Manhattan cab, the frozen cliffs of Nova Scotia, and back to Georgia, each story takes the reader on a gripping journey of murder, betrayal, and intrigue.
Copies
No copies available.
Scaredy Cat
by James Patterson, Mark Billingham, Chris Grabenstein, Cyndy Szekeres
It is almost unthinkable that a single maniac would murder two women miles apart on the same day. Yet someone followed Carol Garner home from the train station and strangled her to death in front of her three-year-old son. And, afterwards, Ruth Murray died in a similar manner. The evidence is leading Detective Inspector Tom Thorne to a stunning conclusion: there isn't only one serial killer on the prowl, but a pair of them, working in tandem. And any corpse that turns up in the future just might be accompanied by a second. To stop them both, Thorne must catch a man whose need to manipulate is as great as his need to kill; a man who will threaten those closest to Thorne himself; a man who will show him that the ability to inspire terror is the deadliest weapon of all.
Copies
No copies available.
Scaredy Cat
by James Patterson, Mark Billingham, Chris Grabenstein, Cyndy Szekeres
Pasha & Poop, two adorable housecats take on Ebeneezer, the Grinch of all Cats. James Patterson’s funniest animal adventure since Katt vs. Dogg.
When shelter cats Pasha and Poop move in with their new human family, they find themselves up against a ghostly bully. Scaredy Cat demands they follow his rules or he'll cause all kinds of trouble-knock over lamps, spill kitty litter, and even get them shipped back to the animal shelter!
But Pasha and Poop are stubborn and rebellious. They won't follow the Scaredy Cat's ridiculous rules like all of the other pets on the block. Together, they set out to find the truth behind who the Scaredy Cat really is, and how they can end his mischief-making for good.
Copies
No copies available.
Scaredy Cat
by James Patterson, Mark Billingham, Chris Grabenstein, Cyndy Szekeres
Meow! Meooow! Everything seems to frighten Scaredy Cat, from the buzzing bees to the dark shadows as clouds pass in front of the sun. Her friends laugh and try to reassure her. Then, something happens that shows Scaredy Cat that she can be brave as any other kitty.
Maybe shell even change her name?because SHES not afraid anymore!
Copies
No copies available.
Buried
by Mark Billingham, Robin Merrow MacCready
Teenager Luke Mullen is missing. He was last seen by schoolmates getting into a car with an older woman, and it is unclear whether he has disappeared voluntarily or been abducted.
Police looking for the boy are pretty certain they are dealing with a missing-persons case. The son of a former police officer, Luke has no history of being out of touch, no track record of truancy or misbehavior. And they know that the longer he is missing, the more likely he is to turn up dead.
Then the videotape arrives. . . .
On special assignment, Detective Inspector Tom Thorne searches desperately for the boy and for anyone who might have a grudge against him or his father, former detective Tony Mullen. As someone responsible for convicting many tough villains in his time, Luke's father is asked to list a few potential suspects. But it is the names Mullen carefully omits from the list that intrigue Thorne. Has Mullen simply forgotten about the criminal who threatened him? Is he so distraught in the emotional trauma of his son's disappearance? Or is he hiding something?
When the kidnapper demonstrates, shockingly, that he is not reluctant to kill, Thorne knows he does not have the luxury of time. He must dig hard and deep into old cases and past lives. He learns that secrets are as easily hidden as bodies, and that even if Luke Mullen is still alive, making assumptions is the quickest way to get him dead and buried.
Copies
No copies available.
Buried
by Mark Billingham, Robin Merrow MacCready
Winner of the Edgar Award!
Careful planning and constant control is Claudine's protection. Order is her weapon. She's long buried her own needs and dreams to cover for her alcoholic mom. But when Mom suddenly disappeares-another alcoholic binge-seventeen-year-old Claudine finds herself all alone, and a much darker reality emerges from beneath years of angry denial and enabling behavior. And as the truth comes closer to the surface, Claudine must dig for the answers she's always worked so hard to cover up.
Copies
No copies available.
In the Dark
by Mark Billingham, Gita Wolf, Sirish Rao, Kate Hoefler, Ruth Stone
Product Description Five men are out walking on a moonless night, when suddenly they bump into something. Each of them sees something different, yet each is convinced that he is right. How is that possible? And what could this thing be? This modern retelling of an old Sufi tale is a story/fable of wisdom of all ages.Calligraphed and printed in the style of traditional woodcuts, this book is every collector's dream."This small, square book is a handcrafted treasure . . . The pictures and the short calligraphic text, written on handmade paper, and the small bag in which the book is sold make it a special treat for children and book collectors alike."-White Ravens Catalogue of the World's Best BooksRathna Ramanathan is one of India's most sought-after graphic designers. About the Author Gita Wolf has written more than seventeen books for children and adults. A highly original and creative voice in contemporary Indian publishing, she has pursued her interest in exploring and experimenting with the form of the book and its status as a revered cultural object. Many of her children's books have won major international awards.
Copies
No copies available.
In the Dark
by Mark Billingham, Gita Wolf, Sirish Rao, Kate Hoefler, Ruth Stone
When asked whether poets improve with age Ruth Stone, 89, replied: “There’s no question. If your brain goes on and on, as it should under normal conditions, there’s more in it and your writing will get more profound.”
Year after year, Ruth Stone’s poems turn ever more penetrating. Fresh from her National Book Award, this prophetic new book is filled with winter, fractals, and passionate aging:
From “What is a Poem?”:
Having come this far
with a handful of alphabet,
I am forced,
with these few blocks,
to invent the universe.
Science, politics, art, and fellow small-town citizens all play pivotal roles in her poems. From the cilia in the ear of an owl to cheap paint peeling off the walls, Ruth Stone presents a world dissected and revealed:
From “The Driveway”:
Asphalt is a kind of urban lava flow
that creeps from plot to plot along a street;
affluent, weedless, slow, and cancerous;
pressure from the magma populace
for easy maintenance; neat status-symbolic,
easy to wash with the garden hose.
“Her poems startle us over and over,” Galway Kinnell said when presenting Stone the Wallace Stevens Award, “with their shapeliness, their humor, their youthfulness, their wild aptness . . . the moral gulps they prompt, their fierce exactness of language and memory.”
Ruth Stone is the author of nine books of poetry. She is the recipient of the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, a Whiting Award (with which she bought plumbing for her house) and two Guggenheim Fellowships (one of which roofed her house). After her husband committed suicide, she was forced to raise three daughters alone. For twenty years she taught creative writing at many universities, finally settling at Binghamton University. Today, Ruth Stone lives in Vermont.
Copies
No copies available.
In the Dark
by Mark Billingham, Gita Wolf, Sirish Rao, Kate Hoefler, Ruth Stone
“A stand-out thriller….[A] remarkable achievement.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
Hailed as one of the UK's strongest contemporary thriller writers—the British Dennis Lehane—Mark Billingham may be the most exciting author to hit the noir fiction scene in years. With In the Dark, Billingham steps briefly away from his bestselling series featuring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne (Sleepyhead, Scaredy Cat, Lazybones, et al) and delivers a powerful story of cops, street gangs, and career criminals that twists and turns into dark, unexpected areas. In the Dark is a magnificent achievement by a modern master who’s been compared enthusiastically to Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, and George Pellacanos, and whose latest novel, Death Message, has recently been named the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.
Copies
No copies available.
In the Dark
by Mark Billingham, Gita Wolf, Sirish Rao, Kate Hoefler, Ruth Stone
With striking illustrations that will make your soul fly and spare text that will make your heart dance, this lyrical picturebook encourages us to set aside our snap judgements and quiet our fears of the unknown by shining light on what has been kept in the dark.
They came in the dark,
and took the narrow path
that only witches used.
Everyone said that’s what they were . . .
But what if everyone was wrong? Watch what happens when one girl steps into the woods and gets to know these newcomers. The spooky black cat? Meet Mingus! The broomsticks and cloaks? Cloth and wooden handles. And those shadows in the sky? Handmade kites, fluttering in the breeze.
When the breeze becomes a blustery storm, everything changes...including first impressions.
Told from two perspectives, here is a gentle and timely reminder that all it takes to bridge the gap of misunderstanding and fear between people is an open and willing heart.
Copies
-
$18.99
In the Dark
by Mark Billingham, Gita Wolf, Sirish Rao, Kate Hoefler, Ruth Stone
“An aging poet’s failing eyesight informs this collection . . . some of which recall the spirit of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. Dark but not hopeless, they spring from Stone’s lucid inner vision, which is straightforward, musical, and defiant.”—Utne
Now available in paperback, In the Dark, winner of the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement, is Ruth Stone’s follow-up to her National Book Award--winning In the Next Galaxy. Personal issues of memory, aging, and loss are balanced against profound political and cultural change. Stone has been called a “people’s poet” whose work is “profoundly rewarding,” and she writes a poetry of everyday life that recasts the mundane as indispensable. When asked whether poets improve with age, Stone, then eighty-nine, replied: “There’s no question.”
From “What is a Poem?”:
Having come this far
with a handful of alphabet,
I am forced,
with these few blocks,
to invent the universe.
Copies
No copies available.
In the Dark: A Novel
“A stand-out thriller….[A] remarkable achievement.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
Hailed as one of the UK’s strongest contemporary thriller writers—the British Dennis Lehane—Mark Billingham may be the most exciting author to hit the noir fiction scene in years. With In the Dark, Billingham steps briefly away from his bestselling series featuring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne (Sleepyhead, Scaredy Cat, Lazybones, et al) and delivers a powerful story of cops, street gangs, and career criminals that twists and turns into dark, unexpected areas. In the Dark is a magnificent achievement by a modern master who’s been compared enthusiastically to Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, and George Pellacanos, and whose latest novel, Death Message, has recently been named the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.
Copies
No copies available.
The Dying Hours: A Tom Thorne Novel (DI Tom Thorne Series, 11)
A fantastic, never-before-published Tom Thorne novel by England's crime king.
It's been twenty-five years since Tom Thorne last went to work wearing the "Queen's cloth" but now, having stepped out of line once too often, he's back in uniform. He's no longer a detective, and he hates it.
Still struggling to adjust, Thorne becomes convinced that a spate of suicides among the elderly in London are something more sinister. His concerns are dismissed by the Murder Squad he was once part of and he is forced to investigate alone.
Now, unable to trust anybody, Thorne risks losing those closest to him as well as endangering those being targeted by a killer unlike any he has hunted before. A man with nothing to lose and a growing list of victims. A man who appears to have the power to make people take their own lives.
Copies
No copies available.
Time of Death: A Tom Thorne Novel (DI Tom Thorne Series, 13)
The stunning thirteenth Tom Thorne novel, from a writer called “one of the most consistently entertaining, insightful crime writers working today” by Gillian Flynn
Time of Death is the astonishing thirteenth Tom Thorne novel from British crime master Mark Billingham, whose books have sold more than four million copies worldwide. In Time of Death, he weaves a gripping story of kidnapping, the tabloid press, and a frightening case of mistaken identity.
Reeling from a particularly difficult recent case, Tom Thorne is enjoying a Valentine’s Day break with his girlfriend DS Helen Weeks in the picturesque English Cotswolds. But their romantic weekend is disturbed when they hear about an arrest made in Helen’s hometown of Polesford, Warwickshire. Two young girl have been abducted, and the town has been overwhelmed by a media storm, the local hotels and pubs brimming over with journalists and police. The prime suspect in the case is the husband of an old school friend of Helen’s, and Helen and Tom rush to Polesford to try to find out more. It is Helen’s first time back home in twenty-five years, and she finds the town much changed, but old secrets and buried memories are lingering under the surface. As Helen faces up to a past she has tried desperately to forget, Thorne becomes convinced that, despite overwhelming evidence of the man’s guilt, the police have got the wrong person. There is an extremely clever killer on the loose and a missing girl who Thorne believes might still be alive.
Brilliantly plotted and intensely gripping, Time of Death is a masterly thriller from one of England’s best-loved crime writers and will keep readers guessing until the final page.
Copies
No copies available.
Sleepyhead: A Tom Thorne Novel (DI Tom Thorne Series)
"The next superstar detective is already with us ― don’t miss him.”―Lee Child
His first three victims ended up dead. His fourth was not so fortunate...
Alison Willetts is unlucky to be alive. She has survived a stroke, deliberately induced by a skilful manipulation of pressure points on the head and neck. She can see, hear and feel and is aware of everything going on around her, but is completely unable to move or communicate. Her condition is called Locked-In Syndrome. In leaving Alison Willetts alive, the police believe the killer made his first mistake.
Then D.I. Tom Thorne discovers the horrifying truth; it isn’t Alison who is the mistake, it’s the three women already dead. "An appropriate margin of error" is how their killer dismisses them, and Thorne knows they are unlikely to be the last. For the killer is smart, and he’s getting his kicks out of toying with Thorne as much as he is pursuing his sick fantasy. Thorne knows immediately he’s not going to catch the killer with simple procedure. But with little more than gut instinct and circumstantial evidence to damn his chief suspect, anesthetist Jeremy Bishop, his pursuit of him is soon bordering on the unprofessional. Especially considering his involvement with Anne Coburn, Alison’s doctor and Jeremy’s close friend.
Thorne must find a man whose agenda is terrifyingly unique, and Alison, the one person who holds the key to the killer’s identity, is unable to speak...
Copies
No copies available.
Scaredy Cat: A Tom Thorne Novel (DI Tom Thorne Series, 2)
“Billingham is one of the most consistently entertaining, insightful crime writers working today.” ―Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl
It's been twenty-five years since Tom Thorne last went to work wearing the "Queen's cloth" but now, having stepped out of line once too often, he's back in uniform. He's no longer a detective, and he hates it.
Still struggling to adjust, Thorne becomes convinced that a spate of suicides among the elderly in London are something more sinister. His concerns are dismissed by the Murder Squad he was once part of and he is forced to investigate alone.
Now, unable to trust anybody, Thorne risks losing those closest to him as well as endangering those being targeted by a killer unlike any he has hunted before. A man with nothing to lose and a growing list of victims. A man who appears to have the power to make people take their own lives.
Copies
No copies available.
The Dying Hours (Tom Thorne, 11)
A fantastic, never-before-published Tom Thorne novel by England's crime king.
It's been twenty-five years since Tom Thorne last went to work wearing the "Queen's cloth" but now, having stepped out of line once too often, he's back in uniform. He's no longer a detective, and he hates it.
Still struggling to adjust, Thorne becomes convinced that a spate of suicides among the elderly in London are something more sinister. His concerns are dismissed by the Murder Squad he was once part of and he is forced to investigate alone.
Now, unable to trust anybody, Thorne risks losing those closest to him as well as endangering those being targeted by a killer unlike any he has hunted before. A man with nothing to lose and a growing list of victims. A man who appears to have the power to make people take their own lives.
Copies
No copies available.
Cry Baby: A Tom Thorne Novel (DI Tom Thorne Series, 17)
The latest thriller from internationally bestselling author Mark Billingham takes us back to the origins of Tom Thorne.
In the summer of 1996, two boys run from a playground into the adjoining woods, but only one comes out. DS Tom Thorne takes on a case that quickly spirals out of control when two people connected with the missing boy are murdered. As London prepares to host the European Soccer Championships, Thorne fights to keep on top of a baffling investigation while also dealing with the ugly fallout of his broken marriage.
A prequel to Billingham’s acclaimed debut Sleepyhead―which the Times voted “one of the 100 books that had shaped the decade”―this compelling novel highlights the case that shaped the career of one of British crime fiction’s most iconic characters.
Copies
No copies available.
Damn Near Dead: An Anthology of Geezer Noir
by Laura Lippman, Mark Billingham, Ken Bruen, Duane Swierczynski, Victor Gischler, Reed Farrel Coleman, Colin Cotterill, Jason Starr, Jeff Abbott, Steve Brewer
“Some [of the stories] are hilarious; many are sad; all are the kind of stuff that makes Miss Marple look like a Girl Scout.”—Dick Adler, Chicago Tribune
An original anthology.
A collection of twenty-seven original “geezer noir” stories by some of today’s top crime writers, including John Harvey, Laura Lippman, Ken Bruen, Colin Cotterill, and more.
Bill Crider’s “Cranked” was nominated for the Edgar and Anthony awards and won the Derringer Award. Megan Abbott’s “Policy” was nominated for the Anthony Award and became the basis for her novel Queenpin, which won the 2008 Edgar Award.
Copies
No copies available.
Afraid Of The Christmas Lights: An eclectic mix of festive shorts with all profits going to support domestic abuse survivors (Afraid Of The Light)
by Sophie Hannah, Mark Billingham, Val McDermid
All profits from the sale of this anthology will be donated to frontline domestic abuse charities
IT WOULDN’T BE CHRISTMAS WITHOUT A LITTLE CRIME…
From the biggest stars in crime fiction comes an eclectic mix of festive shorts
A Christmas dinner takes a murderous turn, a friendship group loses the festive spirit, and a young girl goes to extreme measures to keep a beloved dog.
Afraid Of The Christmas Lights is a collection of gripping, sometimes funny, and always festive short stories from a group of bestselling crime writers. From the hilarious to the macabre, there’s something for everyone – whether you’re a Christmas convert or a bit of a Grinch. From a detective tracking down missing Christmas geese, to a cat lady who goes on a date in order to keep Santa Paws well fed, this anthology is the perfect gift to cosy up with this year.
Perfect for fans of Stephen King and Lee Child
****************************************************************
CONTRIBUTORS
Mark Billingham
Rachael Blok
Heather Critchlow
Elle Croft
James Delargy
Clare Empson
Jo Furniss
Sophie Hannah
T.E. Kinsey
N.J. Mackay
S.R. Masters
Val McDermid
Phoebe Morgan
Dominic Nolan
Robert Scragg
Victoria Selman
Kate Simants
Adam Southward
Harriet Tyce
****************************************************************
Profits from Afraid Of The Christmas Lights will support two front-line charities:
ESDAS: Educates professionals, communities, victims and even perpetrators on the nature of domestic abuse. They offer practical measures, such as legal advice and transport, to enable survivors to find a safe place to live.
Rights of Women: Helps women understand their legal rights and access a range of support services to which they are entitled.
Copies
No copies available.
The Killing Habit: A Tom Thorne Novel (DI Tom Thorne Series, 15)
Two distinctive killers, two detectives with distinctly different styles―Thorne and Tanner again end up joining forces in the new thriller from internationally bestselling author Mark Billingham
From “one of the most consistently entertaining, insightful crime writers working today” (Gillian Flynn), The Killing Habit again brings together favorite wild-card detective Tom Thorne and straight-laced DI Nicola Tanner on a pair of lethally high-stakes cases.
While DI Nicola Tanner investigates the deadly spread of a dangerous new drug, Tom Thorne is handed a case that he doesn’t take too seriously, until a spate of animal killings points to the work of a serial killer. When the two cases come together in a way that neither could have foreseen, both Thorne and Tanner must risk everything to catch two very different killers.
Copies
No copies available.
From the Dead: A Tom Thorne Novel (DI Tom Thorne Series, 9)
In the ninth Tom Thorne novel, never before published in the United States, Thorne investigates a troubling case of conspiracy―a wife who arranges to have her husband murdered. He turns up alive... and other people begin to turn up dead.
A decade ago, Alan Langford’s charred remains were discovered in his burnt-out car. His wife Donna was found guilty of conspiracy to murder her husband and sentenced to ten years in prison. But before she is released, Donna receives a nasty shock: an anonymous letter containing a photo of her husband. The man she hates with every fibre of her being―the man she paid to have murdered―seems very much alive and well. But how is it possible that her husband is still alive? Where is he? Who sent the photo, and why?
Copies
No copies available.
Time of Death (D.I. Tom Thorne, 13)
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.
Copies
No copies available.
Die of Shame
From British thriller master Mark Billingham, a recent finalist for the Crime Writers' Association Dagger in the Library, Die of Shame is a chilling story of addiction, subterfuge, and murder.
Every Monday evening, six people gather in a smart North London house to talk about shame. A respected doctor, a well-heeled housewife, a young male prostitute . . . they could not be more different. All they have in common is a history of addiction. But when one of the group is murdered, it quickly becomes apparent that someone else in that circle is responsible. The investigation is hampered by the strict confidentiality that binds these individuals and their therapist together, which makes things difficult for Detective Inspector Nicola Tanner, a woman who can appreciate the desire to keep personal matters private. If she is to find the killer, she will need to use less obvious means. The question is: What could be shameful enough to cost someone their life? And how do you find the truth when secrets, lies, and denial are second nature to all of your suspects?
Copies
No copies available.
Bloodline (Tom Thorne, 8)
A killer is on the loose. The victims: children whose mothers can't protect them.
The past is coming back to haunt the people of London: a murderer is targeting the children of victims of Raymond Garvey, an infamous serial killer from London's past.
When Murder Squad veteran Detective Tom Thorne, who solves the London Police Department's most difficult cases, is called into what seems like, for once, an ordinary domestic murder, he thinks he's caught a break. A woman has been murdered by someone she knows. A positive pregnancy test found on the floor beside her. Thorne plans to question the husband, arrest him and return home to deal with his own deteriorating personal life.
But when a mysterious sliver of bloodstained X-ray that was found clutched in the victim's fist is replicated at other crime scenes around the city, Thorne realizes that this is not a simple case. As the bits of X-ray begin to come together to form a picture, it becomes clear that the killer knows his prey all too well and is moving through a list that was started long ago.
As Thorne attempts to protect those still alive, nothing and nobody are what they seem. Not when Thorne is dealing with one of the most twisted killers he has ever hunted.
Copies
No copies available.
Love Like Blood: A Tom Thorne Novel (DI Tom Thorne Series, 14)
Internationally bestselling author Mark Billingham's riveting new novel Love Like Blood marks the return of series character Tom Thorne, "the next superstar detective" (Lee Child), as he pairs up with perfectionist detective inspector Nicola Tanner of Die of Shame on an investigation that ventures into politically sensitive territory.
DI Nicola Tanner needs Tom Thorne's help. Her partner, Susan, has been brutally murdered and Tanner is convinced that it was a case of mistaken identity―that she was the real target. The murderer's motive might have something to do with Tanner's recent work on a string of cold-case honor killings she believes to be related. Tanner is now on compassionate leave but insists on pursuing the case off the books and knows Thorne is just the man to jump into the fire with her. He agrees but quickly finds that working in such controversial territory is dangerous in more ways than one. And when a young couple goes missing, they have a chance to investigate a case that is anything but cold.
Racing towards a twist-filled ending, Love Like Blood is another feat of masterful plotting from one of Britain's top crime novelists.
Copies
No copies available.