Death Message (Tom Thorne Series #7)

by Mark Billingham

Overview

An “outstanding” novel featuring British detective Thorne investigating a string of murders after he receives text messages with photos of corpses. (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Thorne looked at the picture, feeling the pulse quicken at the side of his neck. There were times when he couldn’t see what was staring him in the face, but this, for better or worse, was his area of expertise. Thorne knew a dead man when he saw him.

Delivering the “death message.” That’s what cops call those harrowing moments when they must tell someone that a loved one has been killed. Now Detective Investigator Tom Thorne is receiving messages of his own: photographs of murder victims sent to his cell phone.

Who are the victims? Who is sending the photographs? And why is he sending them to Tom Thorne? The answer lies in the detective investigator’s past, with a man he had once sent to prison for life. But even behind bars, the most dangerous psychopath Thorne has ever faced is still a master at manipulating others to do his dirty work for him. And Thorne must act fast because the photos keep on coming, and the killer’s next target is someone the detective investigator knows very well . . .

“Morse, Rebus and now, Thorne. The next superstar detective is already with us. Don’t miss him.” —Lee Child, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061941542
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	08/18/2023
Series:	Tom Thorne Series , #7
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	468
Sales rank:	252,579
File size:	850 KB

About the Author

Mark Billingham is the author of nine novels, including Sleepyhead, Scaredy Cat, Lazybones, The Burning Girl, Lifeless, and Buried—all Times (London) bestsellers—as well as the stand-alone thriller In the Dark. For the creation of the Tom Thorne character, Billingham received the 2003 Sherlock Award for Best Detective created by a British writer, and he has twice won the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. He has previously worked as an actor and stand-up comedian on British television and still writes regularly for the BBC. He lives in London with his wife and two children.

Editorial Reviews

When Det. Insp. Thorne receives an anonymous text message with a blurry photograph of a dead man, Thorne wonders if someone is playing a macabre trick in Billingham's outstanding seventh novel to feature the London policeman (after 2007's Buried). But when another, similar photo arrives, Thorne knows it's something much worse. Both victims are identified as members of the Black Dogs, a notorious biker gang, and fingerprints point to Marcus Brooks, recently paroled after serving time for allegedly killing the Black Dogs' leader. Brooks claims he was framed for the gang leader's murder; a few weeks before his release, Brooks's girlfriend and son are killed in a suspicious hit-and-run. Now Thorne fears that Brooks is out for revenge, targeting both the gang that landed him in prison and the bent coppers who may be behind it all. Billingham continues to enrich Thorne's world by introducing new villains and by highlighting connections to old cases and older wounds. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

After his stand-alone In the Dark, Billingham returns to his Detective Inspector Tom Thorne series. This time Thorne is the recipient of pictures via cellphone of murder victims either before or immediately after they are killed. When Thorne traces the pictures to an ex-con whose wife and child were murdered shortly before his release, the link leads Thorne back to one of his old cases. Then a friend is threatened and dirty cops are implicated in the case. Thorne doesn't know whom he can trust, but in a strange twist, a confession from another killer unravels assumptions made by both the death message killer and Thorne himself, uniting them in an unexpected conclusion. VERDICT Billingham's latest deservingly won this year's Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. The plot twists and tight writing are sure to please fans of the genre. [This title was highlighted in LJ's Mystery Book Buzz webcast at http://bit.ly/AV1nw.—Ed.]—Lisa O'Hara, Univ. of Manitoba Libs., Winnipeg

Library Journal

Forget You've Got Voicemail. DI Tom Thorne's cell phone is delivering a more macabre message: You've Got Corpses. Whoever beat to death dodgy used-car salesman Raymond Tucker is civic-minded in at least one respect. Instead of waiting for someone to report Tucker missing, he uses his phone to send Thorne a photo of the week-old corpse. Ricky Hodson's face also turns up on Thorne's phone shortly after he's suffocated in his hospital bed. Since Tucker and Hodson were both longtime members of the Black Dog gang, Thorne's suspicions soon focus on Marcus Brooks, who faced a horrific revenge after murdering the founding president of the Black Dogs some ten years ago and is now evidently engaged in reprisals of his own. But the case grows steadily more complicated. The next victim isn't another Black Dog but a police officer. Brooks, who's addressing himself more openly and directly to Thorne, insists that he arrived at one murder scene to find his intended victim already dead. And a tenuous bond begins to grow between Brooks and Thorne as they race to close the case, each in his own way. Though the climactic identification of the master criminals who are pulling the strings will pack a bigger wallop for Thorne than for most readers, the motives for their perfidy are satisfyingly chilling. Thorne's eighth (Buried, 2007, etc.) boldly pushes the British procedural toward the kind of cops-and-criminals psychodrama Americans are most likely to associate with James Lee Burke-a heady brew indeed.

Kirkus Reviews