Rush of Blood [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

From the outset I will say that I am a steadfast fan of Mr Billingham, having read all the books, having watched the excellent TV adaptations and yes I probably would buy the T-shirt, but overall I found this a curious and unsettling departure of style for him.

The story opens in Florida as three British couples find themselves implicated in the disappearance of a teenage girl, Amber-Marie Wilson from their holiday resort. She is later discovered murdered. On their return to the UK the couples resume contact with one another over a series of meetings and meals which exposes the quirks and frailties of their personal relationships heightened by the fact that another young girl goes missing in similar circumstances to the Florida case. Jenny Quinlan, a young trainee detective is tasked with investigating them as the Trans-Atlantic connection becomes evident and puts them under scrutiny in a bid to expose their darkest secrets and to catch a killer or killers...

For my part, I did enjoy the Florida-based sections of the book more with the beautifully drawn account of Patti Wilson's heartache and sense of loss over the murder of her daughter and the depiction of Detective Jeffrey Gardner in charge of the US investigation, a focused and likeable character who liaises with his British counterpart the equally focused and ambitious Quinlan. I appreciate that having set the premise that by default all of the couples are under suspicion and that they should appear to a certain degree to be unlikeable, but I feel that Billingham pushes this too far and that as a reader you begin not to care `whodunnit' or indeed why, such is the harshness of the characterisation and it felt at times more caricature than characterisation. With the grand reveal (which I guessed- humph!) the motivation for these crimes seems a trifle implausible in the light of the characterisation up to this point and despite a plot punctuated by vignettes of narration by the perpetrator it all seemed a tad...well...unbelievable and all a bit obvious as to how the court scene at the end would play out. It's interesting to see that this is being marketed as having a more `unisex' appeal as I did at times lose sight of the fact that I was reading a Mark Billingham book and thought I had wandered extraneously into a Sophie Hannah book- which admittedly is not always a bad experience- but felt a little strange!

As much as it pains me to say it this was indeed a book of two halves with the American plot-line more reminiscent of Billingham's ease of characterisation and fluidity of style than the slightly less plausible nature and `clunky' characterisation of the British plot. An interesting experiment I feel but rather relieved that it is just a stand-alone...

I love a crime thriller and whilst this is the latest by Mark Billingham it feels more like a title that is lacking in a number of ways, firstly it splits into two plotlines, one set Stateside and the other in good old Blighty. What unfurls within is a tale that brings a lot of Mark's trademark styles to the fore, it has action, adventure and of course a good number of twists. Whilst this is normally the sort of tale that I love what niggled me more than anything else was that it felt more like a couple of short stories blended together to give a fuller plot with sadly the second part feeling very flat and sadly unfulfilling.

All in, whilst I do love the authors work, this one isn't anything that stands out against a whole host of other titles especially against his own. Its middle of the road and sadly that's where it'll sit.

Are you allowed to keep saying that an author's latest book is his best yet? Every time? Well, it's true in the case of Mark Billingham. Since he's spread out beyond the Tom Thorne series, his writing seems to continually get better and better. Rush of Blood is another standalone that refers to DI Thorne only in passing and as a matter of form (for those wondering what might have happened to him after his actions at the end of Good as Dead), the author instead delving into new directions on a case that relates to the kidnapping of a child in Florida. Even more impressive is Billingham's take on the whodunit crime sub-genre, delivering a book that meets every requirement for an unputdownable page-turning thriller, while at the same time providing the author with a new angle from which he can approach certain familiar themes.

The disappearance of a young child from a holiday resort will have a recognisable familiarity and topicality, but Billingham ties it brilliantly into a tradition that is just as well-recognised which allows him to play to his real strengths of delving into those particularly British attitudes and behaviours in relation to crime. Three British couples, at the Florida holiday resort at the time of the disappearance, actually follow up those promises to meet up again and take it in turns to invite each other over for dinner when they get back home. Obviously they have the case to discuss in common, but just as predictably the differences between them lead to tensions over the course of the meetings, particularly when a trainee detective constable conducts some follow-up interviews with them for the Florida police investigation.

With simple direct writing, Billingham lays bare these individuals and couples brilliantly and insightfully, with a keen eye for character, and with witty, disturbing and revealing exchanges of dialogue between them. It's more than just character development however and more than just using the cringing banality of dinner parties to heighten the tensions between these people, any one of which could potentially be involved in the crime (or not) - even though on those fronts alone this is wonderfully thrilling and entertaining writing. Through it however Billingham is also able to explore the dynamic between different sections of the British working middle classes, between men and women, and the need they feel to play or be defined by certain roles in society. He's particularly brilliant at showing what brings out the worst in people, and how closely that is related to criminal behaviour. It's scary how ordinary and recognisable these characters are, yet how easily those flaws and foibles within their nature and in what defines them can potentially lead to the most dangerous and damaging actions against others.

Billingham has always been good at that, but he's particularly brilliant here in Rush of Blood. He does perhaps play to the conventions of the genre and feel the need to be a little more clever than necessary with the conclusion, but in doing so without invalidating the character development and the meticulously laid-out crime procedural elements that make this a terrific and insightful read, he demonstrates just how good a writer he has become. This is British crime writing at its very best.