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 sta...

Two boys run into the woods—but only one returns—in this new mystery from the award-winning "first-rate British crime writer" ( The Washington Post).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 the case—which quickly spirals out of control when two people connected to the missing boy are murdered.As London prepares to host the European Soccer Championships, Thorne fig...

A Deadly CrashA rainy night in south London. A gun is fired into a car, which swerves onto the pavement and plows into a bus stop. It seems that a chilling gang initiation has cost the life of an innocent victim. But the reality is far more sinister. . . .A Dangerous QuestOne life is wiped out and three more are changed forever: the young man whose finger was on the trigger, the ageing gangster planning a deadly revenge, and the pregnant woman who struggles desperat...

In this "chilling and moving" international bestseller, two of London's toughest detectives investigate the savage world of honor killings ( The Times, London).In Love Like Blood, DI Tom Thorne, "the next superstar detective," teams up with perfectionist DI Nicola Tanner, the protagonist of Billingham's acclaimed stand-alone thriller Die of Shame (Lee Child).When her domestic partner Susan is brutally murdered, Nicola Tanner is co...

K illing becomes a twisted team sport in this " smart, fast-paced procedural" from the award-winning author of Sleepyhead ( Booklist).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 ...

The CrimeThe customers in a London convenience store are taken captive. Among them is young mother, Detective Helen Weeks. She is told her life depends on the co-operation of one of her colleagues - detective Tom Thorne.The DemandAkhtar is desperate to know what really happened to his beloved son, who died a year before in prison. He is convinced the death was not an accident and forces the one man who knows more about the case than any other, Thor...

A brutal murder casts suspicion on a London therapy group in this thriller from the author of The Bones Beneath: "One of my favorite new writers" (Harlan Coben).Every Monday evening, six people gather in a smart North London house to talk about shame. Among them are a grieving surgeon, a betrayed housewife, a taunting gay model, a barely recovered heroin addict. All they have in common is a history of pain and compulsions—until they're li...

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 slayin...

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...

The CrimeThe customers in a London convenience store are taken captive. Among them is young mother, Detective Helen Weeks. She is told her life depends on the co-operation of one of her colleagues - detective Tom Thorne.The DemandAkhtar is desperate to know what really happened to his beloved son, who died a year before in prison. He is convinced the death was not an accident and forces the one man who knows more about the case than any other, Thor...

"A British police procedural as good as those produced by crime queens Elizabeth George and Ruth Rendell." — USA TodayHis 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 skillful 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...

What the Night Brings by Mark Billingham is the latest mystery in the bestselling Tom Thorne series, and this time, a killer is targeting the police. Is it payback? And is it justified?“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...