I think this is officially Tom Thorne number 16 but I only joined the Detective Inspector’s exploits four books ago and since then author Mark Billingham has introduced DI Nicola Tanner into the mix and though this mostly unfolds from Tom’s point of view, both feature strongly.
I commented in my last review that I was happy that Tom’s relationship was in trouble as I wasn’t a fan of his partner (and fellow cop) Helen and here they’ve recently separated.
I stumbled across Mark Billingham’s Tom Thorne series at number 13. Amazingly it wasn’t a problem at all that I’d missed the first dozen and the two (Time of Death and Love Like Blood) I’ve read since could easily be read as stand-alone novels for those who haven’t previously met the English homicide detective. (Bringing me to the 15th book in the series and my third!)
Last year I read Mark Billingham’s standalone novel, Die of Shame and very much enjoyed it. I commented in that review that I’d previously read Time of Death, the 13th in a series by Billingham about DI Tom Thorne, though it wasn’t until I read this book that I discovered Thorne appeared (perhaps briefly as I didn’t mention him in my review) in Die of Shame.
We’re back in Thorne’s world either way this time around, but we’re reunited with our lead DI from the standalone, the dogged Nicola Tanner.
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