Bloodline Book

Readers who have assiduously followed the upwards trajectory of Mark Billingham’s career -- and consider him their personal property -- are perhaps a touch resentful of the fact that he’s now one of the UK’s bestselling male crime writers. But it was only a matter of time before the mass of readers cottoned on to how on-the-nail such Billingham books as Lifeless and Buried are. Of course, his creation, the implacable DI Tom Thorne, is one of the most distinctive coppers in the genre, and has a legion of followers. After the much-acclaimed standalone In the Dark (in which Thorne took a back seat), Billingham's beleaguered copper is back in Bloodline, and it’s a welcome return.

Tom Thorne and his partner Louise have been trying to become parents, but then Louise suffers a miscarriage, which she finds devastating. Thorne tries his hardest to console her, but neither his words nor his actions seem to do the trick. At work, Thorne and his fellow detective Hendricks spend their time trading barbed one-liners, but they have a grim problem on their hands. There appears to be a disturbing parallel between several murders in the present and the gruesome career of serial killer, Raymond Garvey – but Garvey is dead, killed by a brain tumour. Thorne and Hendricks realise that a lethal individual is murdering the children of Garvey’s victims. It’s up to them to find out why – and quickly, before more innocent victims die.

The steady, understated accretion of tension is Billingham's strategy in Bloodline – as an author, he’s no believer in artificially manufactured climaxes every few chapters (as are some bestselling authors); Billingham, thankfully, is prepared to trust the reader’s patience and attention. And we’re in very capable hands. --Barry Forshaw

When a dead body is found in a North London flat it seems like a straightforward domestic murder until a bloodstained sliver of X-ray is found clutched in the dead woman's fist - and it quickly becomes clear that this case is anything but ordinary. DI Thorne discovers that the victim's mother had herself been murdered fifteen years before by infamous serial killer Raymond Garvey. The hunt to catch Garvey was one of the biggest in the history of the Met and ended with seven women dead. When more bodies and more fragments of X-ray are discovered Thorne has a macabre jigsaw to piece together until the horrifying picture finally emerges. A killer is targeting the children of Raymond Garvey's victims. Thorne must move quickly to protect those still on the murderer's list but nothing and nobody are what they seem. Not when Thorne is dealing with one of the most twisted killers he has ever hunted...

DI Tom Thorne is back... When a dead body is found in a North London flat, it seems like a straightforward domestic murder until a bloodstained sliver of X-ray is found clutched in the dead woman's fist - and it quickly becomes clear that this...