The Dying Hours

May 27, 2013
A growing number of suicides start looking like murder in Billingham’s absorbing 11th novel featuring Det. Insp. Tom Thorne (after 2012’s The Demands). With the apparent joint suicide of an elderly London couple, Thorne, who’s no longer with the CID, senses something amiss but can’t pinpoint what. His suspicions are met with ridicule from his former CID colleagues. With the reluctant help of old friends Det. Sgt. Dave Holland and Det. Insp. Yvonne Kitson, Thorne looks for other recent questionable suicides and finds several promising cases, but no clear link between the victims other than their advanced age. At home, the moody Thorne is doing no favors for his burgeoning relationship with fellow copper Helen Weeks, whom he met in The Demands. Billingham takes a chance by shaking up Thorne’s career, but it pays off in this consistently tense thriller that’s as much about Thorne as it is about solving the crimes. Agent: Anna Steadman, Lutyens & Rubinstein Literary Agency (U.K.).

June 1, 2013
Detective Inspector Thorne, long with the London Police Murder Squad (Billingham has chronicled his adventures in 10 previous mysteries), has been demoted to regular copper and suffers accordingly. Billingham shows the glee with which other police regard Thorne's demotion and the eager way they shove him aside. He also showsand, unfortunately, overshowshow this rankles Thorne. But even a depressed, demoted cop must carry on, and Thorne finds himself growing suspicious of a number of deaths of elderly people. The deaths have all been ruled suicides, but Thorne is convinced they may be homicides. In a way that is just far too predictable, the Murder Squad won't believe Thorne, and Thorne must investigate on his own. As the mystery progresses, however, the psychology and strategy of murder become more intriguing. Thorne is a little hard to take here. His gloom is pretty one-note and seems at odds with his enterprise in tracking down a killer. This acclaimed series has, however, hit many high notes (especially Lazybones, 2004), and fans will take one subpar effort in stride.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2013
DI Tom Thorne, back in uniform after his last round of insubordination, goes even further off the rez in his attempts to prove that a series of suicides was something else. John and Margaret Cooper didn't leave a note when they topped themselves; the bottle of insulin they used didn't carry a prescription label; and Margaret had removed her dentures, as if she were merely going to sleep. But those telltale signs don't persuade DI Paul Binns or DCI Neil Hackett that the Coopers might have been murdered. Since nobody will listen to him, Thorne signs off on the official findings and then goes off on his own--first during his free time, then on manufactured sick days--to find more compelling evidence that they're wrong. For better or worse, evidence of a sort keeps coming in. The earlier suicides of Brian Gibbs and Fiona Daniels look equally suspicious, and more victims soon follow, each of them clearly (at least to Thorne's mind) coaxed or forced into killing themselves. The breakthrough comes when Thorne, sneaking behind the back of DS Helen Weeks, the lover he's been more or less living with ever since he saved her life (The Demands, 2012), links all the elderly victims to a 30-year-old case. But even when he's satisfied himself of the killer's motive and identity, Thorne still can't find any evidence that changes Hackett's mind, and the harder he tries, the more he risks getting booted off the force for good. Too many views of the killer at work and not enough actual mystery. But no one currently working the British scene tops Billingham for mordant intensity, whether Thorne is surveying the latest scene of an apparent suicide or just trying to explain why he called in sick.

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