Mark Billingham

A deliberately induced stroke leaves Alison Willetts unable to move or communicate. Police feel her attacker erred in trying to kill her. But Detective Tom Thorne discovers that Alison is the psychopath's masterpiece; the three women he killed before her were mistakes.

Sleepyhead

A gripping standalone thriller from the “first-rate British crime writer” and internationally bestselling author of the Tom Thorne novels (The Washington Post). Alice Armitage is a police officer. Or she was. Or perhaps she just imagines she was. Whatever the truth is, following a debilitating bout of PTSD, self-medication with drink and drugs, and a psychotic breakdown, Alice is now a long-term patient in an acute psychiatric ward. When one of her fellow patients is murdered, Alice becomes convinced that she has identified the killer and that she can catch them. Ignored by the police, she begins her own investigation. But when her prime suspect becomes the second victim, Alice’s life begins to unravel still further as she realizes that she cannot trust anyone, least of all herself. Praise for Mark Billingham and the Tom Thorne novels “Morse, Rebus, and now Thorne. The next superstar detective is already with us―don’t miss him.” —Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher series “Billingham is a world-class writer and Tom Thorne is a wonderful creation. Rush to read these books.” —Karin Slaughter, international bestselling author “With each of his books, Mark Billingham gets better and better. These are stories and characters you don’t want to leave.” —Michael Connelly, author of the Harry Bosch series “Mark Billingham has brought a rare and welcome blend of humanity, dimension, and excitement to the genre.” —George Pelecanos, writer and producer of The Wire “Tom Thorne is one of the most credible and engaging heroes in contemporary crime fiction.” —Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus novels and The Travelling Companion

A Novel of Suspense

Rabbit Hole

The latest thriller from internationally bestselling author Mark Billingham finds Tom Thorne settling into a newly content existence, but a spate of brutal murders sets him off on an investigation that may just shatter every happiness he has built Tom Thorne finally has it all. In Nicola Tanner and Phil Hendricks, Thorne has good friends by his side. His love life is newly reformed by a promising relationship and he is happy in the job he has devoted his life to. As he sets off hunting the woman responsible for a series of grisly murders, Thorne has no way of knowing that he will be plunged into a nightmare from which he may never wake. A nightmare that has a name. Thorne's past threatens to catch up with him and a ruinous secret is about to be revealed. If he wants to save himself and his friends, he will have to do the unthinkable. Tom Thorne finally has a lot to lose.

The Murder Book

Mary Higgins Clark

Lawrence Block

John Connolly

Lee Child

Ken Bruen

Alafair Burke

Charlaine Harris

C. J. Box

Jonathan Santlofer

Twenty masters of suspense join forces to present one gripping mystery that follows a one-time NYPD homicide cop as he, hired by a wealthy Upper East Side matron to find her daughter, discovers that there is much more to this story during a bitterly cold winter where everyone has something to hide.

A Novel

Inherit the Dead

The first new series in two decades from multi-award-winning international bestseller Mark Billingham that introduces Detective Miller: a man who's unique, unconventional, and criminally underestimated. Maverick sleuth Declan Miller is back at work following the murder of his wife (and amateur ballroom dancing partner) Alex. Working with new partner and heavy metal enthusiast DS Sara Xiu, he is tasked with investigating the double killing of gangland family scion Adrian Cutler and IT consultant Barry Shepherd at the Sands Hotel. Initial evidence suggests a hired gun and a botched job. The search for the hitman begins and Miller begins to reconnect with his old network--his ballroom dancing friends, homeless informant Finn, and even the ghost of his wife who keeps showing up in his kitchen. The fact Alex had been investigating the Cutler family prior to her death complicates things, and as Miller gets closer to the truth, he realizes the danger is walking right up to his doorstep...

The Last Dance

Full of betrayal, deceit and suspense, Die of Shame is the spectacular new book from number one bestseller Mark Billingham - author of Time of Death and In the Dark, both soon to be major BBC series. Every Monday evening, six people gather in a smart North London house to talk about addiction. There they share their deepest secrets: stories of lies, regret, and above all, shame. Then one of them is killed - and it's clear one of the circle was responsible. Detective Inspector Nicola Tanner quickly finds her investigation hampered by the strict confidentiality that binds these people and their therapist together. So what could be shameful enough to cost someone their life? And how do you find the truth when denial and deception are second nature to all of your suspects?

Die of Shame

To his friends, his foes and even to himself it looks as though Tom Thorne's career is on the skids. On his last case he had seriously over-stepped the mark, and now gardening leave has been suggested and all he has to tend is a window box. So when it appears someone is targeting London's homeless community it seems pefectly natural for Thorne to take a step nearer to the gutter and go undercover amongst them. He blends into the sometimes invisble community easily - too easily perhaps - but the information he gleans quickly proves that this is no random killer, it is someone with a very distinct purpose and a very specific list of victims, only the team supporting Thorne from the outside don't have the key to motive or identity. Then somehow the fact that a policeman is working under cover becomes public knowledge ... With acute observation of character and place, combined with his acknowledged mastery of plotting, LIFELESS raises the Thorne series to an even higher level.

Lifeless

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?

Lazybones

Jessica Clarke had been set alight twenty years ago. Her attacker, quickly tracked down and eager to confess, was still in jail, his career as a hitman for North London gangs now well behind him. So who is harassing Carol Chamberlain, the arresting officer in that case, and claiming that he is the one who burned the girl? Now retired, Carol turns to DI Tom Thorne for help. He's up to his neck in an investigation into a series of killings, which appears to be the result of a turf war between rival gangs, and he's fed up to the gills with reporting to DCI Tughan, so helping Carol out looks like a good deed in a naughty world. Only the world is about to turn much nastier, so nasty in fact that he finds himself longing for a straightforward psycopath to hunt down. In Mark Billingham's fourth novel, he explores the effects of violence and greed on the lives of those who exploit their fellow beings in a novel of exceptional power.

The Burning Girl

Recalled from a romantic vacation with his girlfriend Helen Weeks, Tom Thorne investigates the abduction of two girls in Helen's hometown, convinced that the police have the wrong person in custody.

Time of Death

It was a vicious, calculated murder. The killer selected his victim at Euston station, followed her home on the tube, strangled her to death in front of her child. At the same time, killed in the same way, a second body is discovered at the back of King's Cross station. It is a grisly coincidence that eerily echoes the murder of two other women, stabbed to death months before on the same day... It is DI Tom Thorne who sees the link and comes to the horrifying conclusion. This is not a serial killer the police are up against. This is two of them. Finding the body used to be the worst part of the job. Not any more. Now each time a body is found, Thorne must live with the knowledge that somewhere out there is a second victim, waiting to be discovered. But whilst the methods might be the same Thorne comes to realise that he is hunting two very different killers. One is ruthless and in control, while his partner in crime is submissive, compliant, terrified. Thorne must catch a man whose need to manipulate is as great as his need to kill; a man, who will show him that the ability to inspire terror is the deadliest weapon of all...

Scaredy Cat

A Tom Thorne Novel

Their Little Secret

The first message sent to Tom Thorne's mobile phone was just a picture - the blurred image of a man's face, but Thorne had seen enough dead bodies in his time to know that the man was no longer alive. But who was he? Who sent the photograph? And why? While the technical experts attempt to trace the sender, Thorne searches the daily police bulletins for a reported death that matches the photograph. Then another picture arrives. Another dead man ... It is the identities of the murdered men which give Thorne his first clue, a link to a dangerous killer he'd put away years before and who is still in prison. With a chilling talent for manipulation, this man has led another inmate to plot revenge on everyone he blames for his current incarceration, and for the murder of his family while he was inside. Newly released, this convict has no fear of the police, no feelings for those he is compelled to murder. Now Tom Thorne must face one of the toughest challenges of his career, knowing that there is no killer more dangerous than one who has nothing left to lose.

Death Message

Two distinctive killers, two detectives with distinctly different styles--Thorne and Tanner again end up joining forces in the new thriller from internationally bestselling author Mark Billingham

The Killing Habit

Perfect strangers. A perfect holiday. The perfect murder... Three couples meet around the pool on their Florida holiday and become fast friends. But on their last night, their perfect holiday takes a tragic twist: the teenage daughter of another holidaymaker goes missing, and her body is later found floating in the mangroves. When the shocked couples return home, they remain in contact, and over the course of three increasingly fraught dinner parties they come to know one another better. But they don't always like what they find: buried beneath these apparently normal exteriors are some dark secrets, hidden kinks, ugly vices... Then, a second girl goes missing. Could it be that one of these six has a secret far darker than anybody can imagine? A brilliantly plotted, utterly gripping thriller about the danger of making friends on holiday, Rush of Blood is Mark Billingham's most ambitious and accomplished work to date.

Rush of Blood

When a body is found in a North London flat clutching a sliver of x-ray, it is clear the case is anything but ordinary. The victim's mother had been murdered by the infamous serial killer Raymond Garvey years before and as more bodies are discovered, it appears that a killer is targeting the children of Raymond Garvey's victims.

Bloodline

Angela Marsons

Clare Mackintosh

Harry Bingham

James Oswald

Jane Casey

Antonia Hodgson

C L Taylor

A woman reports a crime to the police, with unexpected results The grieving widow who finds that she's about to lose more than just her husband When a man attempts the perfect murder, it's not quite as easy as he thinks Two men in prison play a deadly game of Scrabble A young woman tries to trick an old man and gets more than she bargained for Sometimes crimes are solved in ways you can't explain A murderer about to be hanged finds that's not the worst thing that can happen You never know who's going to turn up at your door Original stories from Mark Billingham, Clare Mackintosh, James Oswald, Jane Casey, Angela Marsons, Harry Bingham, Antonia Hodgson and CL Taylor - specially written for Quick Reads.

Dead Simple

Wrong Hands

Struggling to adjust back to a life in service to the queen after 25 years as a detective, Tom Thorne is forced to work alone when he pursues suspicions that a spate of elderly suicides are more sinister, a case that estranges him from his colleagues and places his life at risk.

Bryan A. Baker

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