Book Review: Lazybones

Reviewed By: Woodstock - RAM

Lazybones     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon UK HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Mark Billingham
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Series: Tom Thorne # 3

Inspector Tom Thorne returns in the third enty in Billingham's excellent series of novels featuring the Serious Crimes Unit of London's police force.

Convicted rapists who have been released from prison are being found dead in horrific circumstances - garroted or hung, with evidence of homosexual rape, and the sheets pulled from the beds of the shabby hotel rooms where the murders took place. As in the earlier entries in the series, Thorne sees some elements as more important than the conventional wisdom would hold, and finds himself at odds with his superiors. And eventually, tedious work checking the histories of similar crimes pays off and the investigating team begins to move in the right direction.

As a parallel to the investigation, Thorne is gradually and somewhat reluctantly drawn into a tentative new romance. The two story lines converge in a harrowing concluding sequence, and friendships formed between police officers who have worked together for years prove to a lifesaving asset.

Billingham is one of the best new writers of suspense fiction working today. I'm eager to read the next Tom Thorne book.

Woodstock - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Woodstock - RAM