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In the Dark
 
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In the Dark (Hardcover)

by Mark Billingham (Author)
2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
RRP: £14.99
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Price For All Three: £18.39

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Little, Brown (7 Aug 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1408700697
  • ISBN-13: 978-1408700693
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.8 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 80,053 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

'Right up there with this country's dark masters such as Ian Rankin and Val McDermid' Time Out '[A] brisk, racy read' The Times 'Assured and shocking thriller' The Guardian 'A cunning variation on the serial-murder theme' Sunday Telegraph 'Scary, pell-mell, cliff-hanging thriller' Literary Review


Evening Standard

'In The Dark is not only a top-notch mystery and a convincing portrait of crack-dealing on south London estates but a moving exploration of grief. Many so-called literary novels achieve far less and are by no means as impressive.'
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Customer Reviews

33 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (7)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:
 (11)
1 star:
 (4)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.9 out of 5 stars (33 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Well Written But Not The Best of Mark Billingham (3.5***), 25 Aug 2008
By G. J. Oxley "Gaz" (Tyne & Wear, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Mark Billingham's crime-writing career got off to a turbo-charged start with `Sleepy Head' and `Scaredy Cat'. These books were written with a real freshness of approach that confirmed him as a major new voice in the pantheon of British crime writers. His policeman DI Tom Thorne was a well-drawn maverick investigator (yes, another one!) with a world-weary sense of humour. One or two of the subsequent five novels in the series were a touch unsatisfactory for me - maybe a little bit tired - so I was greatly looking forward to his first standalone `In The Dark'.

First impressions were: `This looks like a horror novel!' You have the dark, plain cover, featuring the illuminated title: 'IN THE DARK' and beneath that, the tag line... `It's where fear lives' Of course we know it's nothing of the sort. It is what it purports to be: a crime novel.

It begins with what appears to be a gang initiation costing off-duty policeman Paul Hopwood his life. In addition to the police investigation into the affair, his heavily pregnant lady friend Helen Weeks (also a police officer) decides on a parallel investigation of her own. She initially uncovers evidence that Paul had become involved with at least two local 'businessmen' (a euphemism for gangster) and wonders what other shady dealings he may have become embroiled in. But is everything as it seems?

The book reaches a satisfactory conclusion, but I'm afraid I spotted the much vaunted `twist' a mile off (no matter: there's a couple of others). I was puzzled all the way through as to why a gangland boss, Frank Kinnell, who Paul had befriended during a past investigation, was exacting such terrible retribution on his behalf. It's only in the last few pages that Billingham brilliantly reveals the reason/s why.

Once again there're one or two little loose ends not tidied up. Billingham has done this before and quite deliberately so - to remind us that complex situations don't always have a nice pat ending in real life.

I don't know why Helen Weeks has to be pregnant here, but it seems to me (as a bloke) that Mark draws a very realistic portrait of a lady in her condition - the anxieties and occasional fits of irrational thought, the weepiness... The drug gang culture and life in a high rise council estate are also vividly drawn, though how realistically I'm not sure.

Mark writes with style, real insight and an excellent eye for character development, but I somehow kept wanting `more' from this novel. It's different from his Tom Thorne books (but guess what, Thorne makes a cameo appearance in here!), but for me there was always the nagging suspicion that he can do better than this. A cautious `recommended' from me, then.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars I'm Still In The Dark, 30 April 2009
By Thrillerlover (Northern England) - See all my reviews
I ploughed through this book manfully. My concentration continually straying. I found the story very fragmented. As for "... the final twist is brilliantly clever and shocking" The Times, and "...a story with a twist that I guarantee even veteran crime fiction aficionados won't see coming." Evening Herald, well sad to say, I'm still in the dark. Maybe I'd lost the plot, along with the will to live with this book a moment longer than it took to uncover this shocking twist, but it was totally lost on me. Please would someone explain in words of one syllable what happened? I'll be glad to provide my email address to anyone who can tell me what I missed, so that other readers can judge for themselves what has obviously gone over my head.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars In the Dark - Mark Billingham, 10 Oct 2008
By S. Lloyd (Norfolk, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
Other reviewers have described the story itself - which is extremely good. The intrigue starts on the first page and is cleverly woven in later in the book. The pace does slow down in the middle but what's lost in pace gives value to the well drawn characters. The writing is excellent so much so that in reality I wanted one of the main characters to thrive when in reality he is a gang member selling drugs.
The pace picks up to a quite a speed at the end and even though you may work out the twists towards the end, this doesn't detract from any enjoyment.
I liked the Tom Thorne cameo and the snippet of information given which will be interesting when the next Tom Thorne novel comes out.
I didn't feel that this had the same grittiness that comes across in the Thorne novels but that said, this is great and holds your interest throughout.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars In The Dark
I am an avid Mark Billingham fan and have read most of his books with a sensation of not being able to put them down. But, I'm sorry to say, In The Dark did the opposite for me. Read more
Published 9 days ago by B. Mulvanerty

2.0 out of 5 stars No Scardy Cat
Ok, I can see what Mark Billingham was trying to achieve here, but in my honest opinion it just isn't as exciting as his first three crime novels. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ben Francis

4.0 out of 5 stars Easy to relate to everyday London news
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. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Lance Mitchell

2.0 out of 5 stars Bring Back Tom Thorne!
Mark Billingham has (I hope temporarily) set aside his compelling series featuring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne and given us instead In The Dark, a stand alone novel about gangs... Read more
Published 2 months ago by ratscat13

1.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointed
The worst book I've read for a very long time. I chose the book on the basis of the extremely favourable newspaper reviews on the back but felt an element of the emperor's new... Read more
Published 2 months ago by R. Davies

4.0 out of 5 stars Into the Dark
This isn't a D.I. Tom Thorne story though he does make a token appearance late in the book but only as a bearer of news. Read more
Published 2 months ago by M. Gouda

5.0 out of 5 stars Kept me gripped
I like this author and this book certainly didn't disappoint. It moves back & forth between the characters and the story is told from each of their points of view. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Dobermom

3.0 out of 5 stars Average Thriller
I have read all of the Tom Thorne series of books by this author, and found them enjoyable, exciting stories. So, I decided to read In The Dark. Read more
Published 3 months ago by J.Flood

2.0 out of 5 stars Very poor considering his past work
I can understand why the author tried to write a novel not based around Thorne as no one wants to be seen to be a one trick pony (then again that isn't a problem for Peter... Read more
Published 4 months ago by kipperknickers

1.0 out of 5 stars If you've enjoyed Billinghams previous novels, then give this one a miss!
I've been an avid fan of Mark Billingham's "Tom Thorne" novels for some time now. This book isn't a Tom Thorne novel, although I'm told he does make a cameo appearance later on in... Read more
Published 4 months ago by J. Robson

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