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.

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...

A BLOODY MESSAGE As DI Nicola Tanner investigates what appears to be a series of organised killings, her partner Susan is brutally murdered, leaving the detective bereft, and vengeful. A POWERFUL ALLY Taken off the case, Tanner enlists the help of DI Tom Thorne to pursue a pair of ruthless killers and the broker handing out the deadly contracts. A CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE As the killers target their latest victim, Thorne takes the biggest risk of his career and is drawn into a horrifying and disturbing world in which families will do anything to protect their honour. From number one bestseller Mark Billingham comes a masterful, intense crime novel that pits DI Tom Thorne against an evil beyond comprehension, yet shockingly real. **

Available together in ebook for the first time ever, this trio of brilliant short stories showcases the writing talent of number one Sunday Times bestseller Mark Billingham. Dancing Towards the Blade: They are waiting for the boy on his way home, the racist thugs. For Vincent, it is the latest in a string of violent events his family has faced since moving to England. But Vincent knows something that the thugs don't: he has in him the spirit of his father who, once upon a time in a far off country, also faced down fear to prove he was Grade A. Stroke of Luck: During a summer cricket match, Alan meets Rachel, and they start a relationship - but soon Alan discovers he is having an affair with a married woman. Though not a happily married one. Rachel's husband abuses her physically and psychologically and Rachel is at her wits' end. Alan vows to protect her - but her husband is not the only one who is a threat. Rachel is being secretly watched... The Walls: When Chris spots a beautiful woman across a crowded restaurant on his business trip to Texas, he never imagines that she would be interested in him, let alone be waiting for him when he returns to his hotel later that evening.As the two strangers talk, the true and haunting reason for their visits comes to light...

An anthology of brilliant stories by some of the world's most successful crime writers. Mark Billingham, Ann Cleeves, Harlen Coben, P.D. James, Val McDermid and Steve Mosby all contributed these stories—some of them never published before—for this special collection to tie in with the famous annual Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, held in Harrogate. With an Introduction by Woman's Hour's Jenni Murray.

A cluster of suicides among the elderly. Such things are not unknown to the police and the deaths are quickly dismissed by the police as routine. Only one man is convinced that something more sinister is taking place. However, no one listens to Tom Thorne anymore. Having stepped out of line once too often, he's back in uniform and he hates it. Patronised and abused by his new colleagues, Thorne's suspicions about the suicides are dismissed by the Murder Squad he was once part of and he is forced to investigate alone. Unable to trust anyone, Thorne must risk losing those closest to him.He must gamble with the lives of those targeted by a killer unlike any he has hunted before. A man with nothing to lose and a growing list of victims. A man with the power to make people take their own lives. Tom Thorne returns in Billingham's most compelling thriller to date. The Dying Hours is a haunting portrait of London's dark heart, and the darker heart of a twisted killer bringing terror to its streets.Review“Morse, Rebus, and now Thorne. The next superstar detective is already with us—don’t miss him.”—Lee Child“Billingham is one of the most consistently entertaining, insightful crime writers working today.”—Gillian Flynn“Billingham is a world-class crime writer and Tom Thorne is a wonderful creation. Rush to read these books.”—Karin Slaughter“With each of his books, Mark Billingham gets better and better. These are stories and characters you don’t want to leave.”—Michael Connelly“Mark Billingham is one of my favorite new writers.”—Harlan Coben"Billingham is one of the best crime novelists working today."—Laura Lippman“Mark Billingham has brought a rare and welcome blend of humanity, dimension, and excitement to the genre.”—George Pelecanos“Billingham leaps to the upper echelons of crime fiction in one bound.”—John HarveyAbout the AuthorMark Billingham is one of England's best known and top-selling crime writers. His most recent book was a #1 bestseller in the UK. He has twice won the Theakston's Old Peculier Award for Best Crime Novel, and has also won a Sherlock Award for the Best Detective created by a British writer. His novels Sleepyhead and Scaredy Cat were made into a hit TV series on Sky 1 starring David Morrissey as Thorne. Mark lives in North London with his wife and two children.

SUMMARY: 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.

Now, killing is a team sport.It was a vicious, calculated murder. The killer selected his victim at London's Euston station, followed her home on the tube, strangled her to death in front of her child. At the same time, killed in the same way, a second body is discovered at the back of King’s Cross station. It is a grisly coincidence that eerily echoes the murder of two other women, stabbed to death months before on the same day.It is DI Tom Thorne who sees the link and comes to a horrifying conclusion. This is not a serial killer that the police are up against. This is two of them. Finding the body used to be the worst part of the job, but not any more. Now each time a body is found, Thorne must live with the knowledge that somewhere out there is a second victim, waiting to be discovered. But whilst the methods might be the same, the manner of the killings is strikingly different. Thorne comes to realise that he is hunting two very different killers. One is...

A rainy night in London. Shots are fired into a car which swerves on to the pavement and ploughs into a bus stop. It seems that an act of casual gang violence has cost an innocent victim their life. But the reality is even more chilling . . . One life is wiped out and others are changed forever. A pregnant woman struggles desperately to uncover the truth, and makes herself a target in the process. Two weeks from giving birth, how will she survive in a world where death is an occupational hazard? In a city where violence can be random or meticulously planned, where teenage gangs clash with career criminals and where loyalty is paid for in blood, anything is possible. Secrets are uncovered as fast as bodies, and the storyís final twist is as breathtakingly surprising as they come.

SUMMARY: A contract killer is carving his way through North London's criminal underworld, leaving a bloody X on his victims' backs and taking Billy Ryan's gang down one thug at a time. Detective Inspector Tom Thorne and his team know there's a turf war going on, but who's attempting to take over Ryan's racket isn't quite clear. When DCI Carol Chamberlin comes out of retirement to work on the cold case squad and asks Thorne for help solving an old murder, the past and present catch up in what looks like a continuation of a twenty-year-old gang war. And when someone carves an X in Thorne's door, a fuse is lit that stretches from the eponymous burning girl of the title--Chamberlin's old case--to the gang war that's lighting up the London sky. It's a clunky plot that relies on telling more than showing, slowing down the pace and makeing it difficult for the reader to care about any of the principals involved--either the victims or those who seek justic for them. Billingham has written better thrillers (Lazybones, Scaredy Cat), but this one doesn't live up to their promises. --Jane Adams