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Mark Billingham

Biography

Mark Billingham

Mark Billingham has twice won the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award and also won the Sherlock Award for Best Detective Created by a British Author. His books, which include the critically acclaimed Tom Thorne series, have been translated into 25 languages and have sold over four million copies. He lives in London.

Mark Billingham

Books by Mark Billingham

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Tom Thorne finally has it all. In Nicola Tanner and Phil Hendricks, Thorne has good friends by his side. His love life is newly reformed by a promising relationship, and he is happy in the job to which he has devoted his life. As he sets off hunting the woman responsible for a series of grisly murders, Thorne has no way of knowing that he will be plunged into a nightmare from which he may never wake. A nightmare that has a name. Thorne’s past threatens to catch up with him, and a ruinous secret is about to be revealed. If he wants to save himself and his friends, he will have to do the unthinkable. Tom Thorne finally has a lot to lose.

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Maverick sleuth Declan Miller is back at work following the murder of his wife (and amateur ballroom dancing partner), Alex. Working with new partner and heavy metal enthusiast DS Sara Xiu, he is tasked with investigating the double killing of gangland family scion Adrian Cutler and IT consultant Barry Shepherd at the Sands Hotel. Initial evidence suggests a hired gun and a botched job. The search for the hitman begins, and Miller starts reconnecting with his old network --- his ballroom dancing friends, homeless informant Finn, and even the ghost of his wife who keeps showing up in his kitchen. The fact that Alex had been investigating the Cutler family prior to her death complicates things, and as Miller gets closer to the truth, he realizes the danger is walking right up to his doorstep.

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Alice Armitage is a police officer. Or she was. Following a debilitating bout of PTSD, self-medication with drink and drugs, and a psychotic breakdown, Alice is now a long-term patient in an acute psychiatric ward. Though convinced that she doesn’t really belong there, she finds companionship with the other patients in the ward despite their challenging and often intimidating issues. So when one of her fellow patients is murdered, Alice feels personally compelled to launch an investigation from within the ward. Soon, she becomes convinced that she has identified the killer and that she can catch them. But Alice’s life begins to unravel as she realizes that she cannot trust anyone in the ward, least of all herself.

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

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.

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

When DI Tom Thorne arrives at the metro station, where a woman named Philippa Goodwin threw herself in front of an underground train, he inexplicably senses something awry and feels compelled to dig deeper. He soon discovers that she was the victim of a callous conman who preys on vulnerable women, and whose deception plunged Philippa to her end. Thorne enlists DI Nicola Tanner to help him track down the swindler and bring him to justice. But the detective duo gets more than they bargained for when a young man’s bludgeoned body turns up on the shore of a nearby seaside town. The two cases come together in a way that neither of the detectives could have foreseen.

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

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.

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

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.

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Three British couples meet around the pool on their Florida holiday and become fast friends. But on Easter Sunday, the last day of their vacation, tragedy strikes: the 14-year-old daughter of an American vacationer goes missing, and her body is later found floating in the mangroves. When the shocked couples return home to the UK, they remain in contact, and over the course of three increasingly fraught dinner parties, they come to know one another better. But buried beneath these apparently normal exteriors are some unusual kinks and unpleasant vices. Then a second girl goes missing, in Kent --- not far from where any of the couples lives. Could it be that one of these six has a secret far darker than anybody can imagine?

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Mystery

Every Monday evening, six people gather in a smart North London house to talk about shame. 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. 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?

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

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 25 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 the wrong man.

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Mystery

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 10 years in prison. But before she is released, Donna receives a nasty shock: an anonymous letter containing a photo of her husband. How is it possible that he’s still alive? Where is he? Who sent the picture, and why?

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

When Stuart Nicklin announces that he wishes to reveal the whereabouts of one of his earliest victims and that he wants the cop who caught him to be there when he does it, it becomes clear that Tom Thorne’s life is about to become seriously unpleasant. Thorne is forced to accompany Nicklin to a remote island off the Welsh coast. As Thorne and his team search for bones that are somewhat more recent, it becomes clear that Nicklin’s motives are far from altruistic.

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Mystery

Tom 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.

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

The Crime: Customers of a convenience store are taken captive. The Demand: The man needs to know what really happened to his son, who died an "accidental" death in prison. The Twist: What Detective Tom Thorne discovers upends everything he thought he knew about those he put away. But will it be enough to fulfill the wishes of the distraught and dangerous father?

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Thriller
Pregnant journalist Joan Harken is cautiously excited to follow her fiancé back to his Minnesota hometown. After spending a childhood on the move and chasing the screams and swirls of news-rich city life, she’s eager to settle down. Lilydale’s motto, “Come Home Forever,” couldn’t be more inviting.And yet, something is off in the picture-perfect village. Joan can’t shake the feeling that every move she makes is being tracked. An archaic organization still seems to hold the town in thrall. So does the sinister secret of a little boy who vanished decades ago. And unless Joan is imagining things, a frighteningly familiar figure from her past is on watch in the shadows.