Lifeless (Tom Thorne Series, 5)

Mark Billingham was born and brought up in Birmingham. Having worked for some years as an actor and more recently as a TV writer and stand-up comedian his first crime novel was published in 2001. Though still occasionally working as a stand-up comic, Mark now concentrates on writing the series of crime novels featuring London-based detective Tom Thorne. Mark lives in North London with his wife and two children. For any new readers who have not read any of Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne books, you are missing a real treat. Start reading them now, I am sure you will not be disappointed. It would seem, even those who know him best, that Thorne's career has reached it's peak and is now on the long steep slide to disaster. He has always flirted with trouble with his superiors but on his last case he overstepped the mark and someone up in that ivory tower has suggested he take a break to take stock of both himself and his career. Someone appears to be making a target of London's homeless, so with time on his hands Thorne decides to go undercover amongst them, after all if things carry on the way they are, he may be one of them shortly. Thorne soon finds out that these are no random killings, they are being perpetrated by someone with a very specific purpose. Then all of a sudden it becomes common knowledge that a copper is working amongst them, not good news for Thorne . . .

Fans of the various BBC Mystery programs will find much to interest them in Billingham's series featuring Detective Inspector (DI) Tom Thorne and the other officers of the London Metropolitan Police Service. The recent death of DI Thorne's father, combined with publicly overstepping the bounds on his last case, has made him persona non grata around the station house and he's been asked to take "gardening leave." Unable to sit on his hands and do nothing, DI Thorne requests a job deep undercover posing as a member of the homeless community in order to catch a serial killer. The bodies of three men have been discovered with a banknote pinned to their chests--each one kicked to death. Are these random killings? Or have these men been targeted? The homeless feel ignored by society on a good day, now they have much more to fear than unkind looks and cold shoulders. DI Thorne must walk a fine line to avoid total integration. He is a man in crisis and the smallest nudge could push him over the edge into really becoming what he is only pretending. Not just a crime novel, Lifeless is also a look inside a community with its own rules and moral codes. The homeless community is given a voice and a presence in this story, its characters are very real and their stories are heart wrenching. Armchair Interviews says: With skilled use of dark humor and gut-wrenching tension, Billingham confirms his place as a master storyteller.

Quite different from the rest of the series. Thorne goes undercover as a homeless man to catch a killer and work through some demons. Billingham never dissapoints. His books are always satisying and lean. I'm telling you Rebus and Banks fans to get your Thorne on.

I love Mark Billingham and his main character. I'm glad that I stumbled on his books by chance. Now, I can hardly wait for the next book, Buried, coming in June.

In London, Specialist Crime Directorate Murder Investigation Team Detective Inspector Tom Thorne is not dealing well with the death of his manic father. His superiors decide he needs time away from violent crime; as such they assign him "gardening leave", which means desk duty ad nausea. Bored and with too much time to think about personal thoughts rather than cases, Tom begs his way onto an investigation into someone kicking to death the homeless. His boss reluctantly agrees to allow Tom to go undercover as a homeless person though those who worry about his mental state fear he is trying to destruct. He begins living on the street where the cold is unbearable though food is readily available, but the serial killer continues to murder Tom's new peers, mentors, and dangerous rivals. LIFELESS is a superb British police procedural starring an empathic detective who's so despondent that the audience wonders whether he will "return" to his middle class existence once the case is resolved. Tom terrific is at his best in this superb undercover investigative story line. However, what makes this tale so powerful is spin on the homeless as a community with a hierarchal relationships filled with dos and don'ts. Mark Billingham provides a fabulous societal issue based investigative thriller. Harriet Klausner