Lazybones [Hardcover]

Lazybones confirms our sense of Mark Billingham as a thriller writer determined to put ever more inventive spins on the police procedural and the serial killer novel. His police officers--hard-working Country fan Thorne, pierced gay pathologist Hendricks and the rest--find themselves on a case that raises complicated issues for them; they have continually to remind themselves that dead rapists have as much right not to be raped and murdered as anyone else.

Billingham's tricksiness--he tells us just enough of what the killer is thinking to keep us intrigued and confused--goes along with a real sense of London's back streets: the shabbiness of small hotels and the lonely hours of the early morning. The case involves not only pursuing present cases, but chasing up back-story; among all its other merits, this is an intelligent and humane discussion of changing attitudes to rape and its investigation. There was a time, after all, not so long ago, when police regularly failed to take rape seriously enough to get convictions. This is not just an ingenious thriller--Billingham makes us care what happens to Thorne, who is in far more jeopardy than he ever begins to know. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'Mark Billingham is one of my favourite new authors. Highly recommended.' Harlan Coban** 'Brisk, racy read.' The Times

Winner of the Theakston's Old Peculier Award for Crime Novel of the Year --This text refers to the Perfect Paperback edition.

Someone - a woman or somebody pretending to be a woman, is writing to convicted rapists in prison, befriending them and then brutally killing them when they are released. DI Tom Thorne must discover the link between these killings and a murder/suicide that took place twenty-five years before; a tragedy to which the only witnesses were two small children, now adults and nowhere to be found. How can you escape a past that will do a lot more than just catch up with you? And how can Thorne catch a killer, when he doesn't really care about the victims? Visit the author's website at www.markbillingham.com

A MONSTER MURDERED It's only ten days since Douglas Remfry's release from prison, having served seven years for rape, and now he's dead: naked on a bare mattress in a grubby north London hotel room, his head hooded and his hands tied with a brown leather belt. A DEADLY JUSTICE Someone knew he was coming out. Someone wanted to mete out some punishment of his own. A CASE NO ONE WANTS SOLVED And when a second sex offender is found dead, DI Tom Thorne knows he has a vicious, calculating viliglante on his hands... 'I defy any reader not to be hooked' Daily Mirror --This text refers to the Perfect Paperback edition.

Mark Billingham is a stand-up comedian, appearing regularly at the Comedy Store. He has also written drama for children's television, including Knight School which won the Royal Television Society Award for best children's drama.