In the Dark

It's a hot August night, not the kind Neil Diamond was singing about, when seventeen-year-old Theo Shirley, a wannabe gangbanger looking to make his bones, fires a shot into a moving car. The car careens into a busstop, killing Detective Sgt. Paul Hopwood. Hopwood's girlfriend is also a copper, Detective Constable Helen Weeks. She's also very pregnant. Weeks refuses to believe it was an accident, he was a police officer after all. So she starts investigating and she finds out more then she bargained for. Corruption and violence and not all of it gang related. Some of it a little too close for comfort. This story is told from several different viewpoints and I enjoyed being able to sympathize with characters, who I otherwise would not have. Especially the gangbanger shooter, who has both a girlfriend and a child at home. Usually gang guys are stereotypical cardboard characters, who we are programed to dislike right from the start. Mr. Bellingham brought all of the characters in this book, including the not so savory ones, to life for me. Also, I fell for some of the red herrings and the plot twists are just too delicious to mention. This is a very good thriller.

Violent criminals, big and small; some of them teenagers believing that they are much bigger than they actually are. London police, some straight and some crooked. This book contains non-stop action from the beginning, and the reader is continually trying to separate the good guys from the bad. It is easy to imagine that these are the sorts of events that are happening across London today. It certainly seems so from the news bulletins that I listen to, anyway. The reality will grip your attention, but you'll need to accept the bad language as part of that reality.

There is always a leap of faith that takes place when an author known for a particular series publishes an independent work standing outside of the mythos he or she has created. The author is treading on unfamiliar ground, taking a chance on new characters and situations. The readership comes to the author's new book with some built-in expectations to overcome before they get down to the business of reading, and hopefully enjoying, the new title. So we come to Mark Billingham and IN THE DARK. Billingham is known as a major talent in several artistic disciplines, chief among them as the author of the Tom Thorne police procedural novels. His latest is not entirely outside of Thorne's world; set in London, Thorne appears very briefly, though he hardly plays a pivotal role. The book takes Billingham and the reader deeper into the heart of darkness than he has previously --- and, not incidentally, to heretofore unrevealed depths of his talent. Set in London, IN THE DARK proceeds smartly along three tracks. The first is Helen Weeks, a very pregnant police officer on maternity leave who is within days of giving birth to her baby. The second is Theo, known on the street as "T," a basically well-intentioned teenager who is caught between trying to build a decent life with his girlfriend and child, and his membership in a drug-dealing gang in his estate (project) building. The third is Frank Linnell, an enigmatic gangster who, as events eventually reveal, is not quite all there. The collective nexus of these three individuals is the tragic death of Paul Hopwood. Hopwood is a British police officer who is the live-in boyfriend of Weeks, the unlikely pal of Linnell, and the victim of a horrific car accident that has its origins in the machinations of a gang initiation involving T. Hopwood's death sets off two chain reactions that move in opposite directions. The police, having a vested interest in the death of one of their own, begin an investigation that is hamstrung procedurally by legal issues. Weeks takes advantage of her nebulous status --- a police officer, but officially on leave --- to pursue her own investigation that is unofficial but effective. Weeks had suspected, prior to Hopwood's death, that he was involved in activities on a personal or professional basis --- or both --- that he was hiding from her and his superiors. Meanwhile, Linnell pursues an investigation that is frighteningly and brutally single-minded. He is motivated by nothing more basic than revenge and pursues it with a swift, terrible and effective bend. T gradually becomes aware that someone --- namely Linnell --- is systematically hunting down the gang members involved in the chain reaction that led to Hopwood's untimely end. It is Weeks's own dogged pursuit that challenges the conclusions that everyone, including herself, T and Linnell had reached, with results that are tragic on several levels. IN THE DARK is a step --- actually, several steps --- beyond Billingham's prev

While this standalone novel departs from the excellent Tom Thorne series written by Mark Billingham, apparently he couldn't resist including his favorite protagonist in a cameo role. In this story, however, we are introduced to a whole new set of characters including Helen, a very pregnant policewoman, days away from giving birth. Helen's significant other also is on the job. He is killed while on an apparent drug gang initiation, during which a new member shoots at a car that has flashed its headlights at the one in which he is a passenger. As a result, the victim's auto swerves into a bus stop smashing into Helen's mate and killing him. Helen then begins to look into her partner's recent activities, and to wonder whether he was on the take. Despite her swollen belly, Helen undertakes an investigation of her own, leading to all kinds of ramifications. The graphic descriptions of drug culture and the kids involved in the operations are matched only by the intricacy of the plotting. There is more than one twist when the story takes another turn. The novel is as well-written as anything the author has done, and highly recommended.

A pregnant woman, Helen Weeks, searches for the truth behind the death of Paul Hopwood, her lover and father of her child. Paul, a police officer, was killed while waiting for a bus. Helen is on leave from the Metropolitan police while awaiting the birth of her child. Theo Shirley, a.k.a. T, is a young man with a girlfriend and a baby. When he joins up with a gang, he is forced to go through an initiation. The initiation involved shooting at a moving car. This shooting resulted in the car going out of control and running down Paul Hopwood. While Helen is trying to cope with her pregnancy and being alone, she is not giving up on her investigation. She has heard and seen things that make her believe that Paul hadn't been completely honest with her as far as his work and what had been happening in his life prior to his death. Helen feels that she must uncover these secrets. Her investigation puts her in touch with people that she did not even know Paul associated with. Frank Linnell is a nice man but his business is not legal. Frank is grieving for Paul, but won't reveal any details about his relationship with Paul. While Helen is trying to investigate the accident, T is trying his best to figure out what his next step in life is going to be. Members of his gang are being killed-and these same members were also in the car when shots were fired at the moving vehicle that went out of control. In the Dark will keep you on the edge of your chair through the entire book. Billingham has written a very complex thriller. I've read a number of Mark Billingham's novels and enjoyed them all-but this one just left something to be desired, as far as I am concerned. I gave In The Dark a rating of a 4 rather than a 5 is that I was confused about one portion of the book-and I did come to a conclusion but I don't know if it is the right conclusion. Armchair Interviews says: Billingham fans will be most happy.