Love Like Blood (Tom Thorne Novels)

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Taken off the case, Tanner enlists the help of DI Tom Thorne to pursue a pair of ruthless killers and the broker handing out the deadly contracts. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. He is in a relationship with social worker Helen and her young son Alfie but I can't help feeling that there is little future between them. The book contains all the usual elements of a successful thriller - there are hit men, red herrings galore, more twists than a Curly Wurly and above all an engaging team in Thorne and Tanner.

That's not to say it's not well-written, just not indulgent in the sense of using description for description's sake. A television series based on the Thorne novels was screened in Autumn 2010, starring David Morrissey as Tom Thorne and a BBC series based on the standalone thrillers IN THE DARK and TIME OF DEATH was shown in 2017. No missing or damaged pages, no tears, possible very minimal creasing, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins.Writing about cultures and religions that are not your own brings with it a degree of responsibility, and so it should. While we are not, as readers, privy to the murder itself, the ongoing descriptions of the aftermath, the scene with which Tanner is left, are more than enough to make it clear to us what has happened without it being spelled out in all its glory detail. A challenging subject in this one has been tackled with intelligence and sensitivity, making the book all the more realistic and, indeed, thought-provoking. It tackles the topical and sensitive issue of honour killings, and Billingham skilfully treads a fine line between different cultures to use the subject in a way that actually both informs the reader and propels this exciting novel. Mark Billingham has shone a light into an area of crime few of us know much about, and this is a must-read book for the summer.

With the threat of another attack hanging over them, and the emergence of another family who seem to want their daughter offed, we head towards a complex ending with a couple of big twists in the tail. The more that they look into the reasons for Susan’s murder, the clearer it becomes that it could well be linked to a series of open cases, potential honour killings, that Tanner had been working on. Tanner is convinced that Susan’s death was a case of mistaken identity and that Tanner herself was the real target. The author note at the end of the book revealing just how much fact and truth was used to form this powerful and memorable crime novel.

i was curios as the subject of the book is honour killings in moslem and Sikh families in england - a phenomen which we have in Israel with Muslim a Bedouins. This brings me up to date with the character, I believe there's a new Thorne novel due later this year) - and the subject matter gives the book a sharp edge. I'm sure they aren't doing it to boost hardbound sales, that would strike me as rather cheesy behavior.