Customer Reviews

Death Message: A Novel of Suspense

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although I believe that British chick lits (can you say Bridget Jones?) are always at the top of their game, I run hot and cold on British thrillers - with the exception of Mark Billingham - I like all of his books as he does not hesitate to write very dark, creepy and scary books.

Death Message rates somewhere in the between a 3 and 4 star review. One of the things I like about Billingham is that he never runs away from writing some somewhat gross and gruesome scenes - and he manages to do this without it being gratuitous somehow. Death Message does not really deliver this as much as in the previous books.

I like the basic premise - our returning character Detective Thom Thorne is back and he is getting "death messages" through his cell phone - with the killer sending him, at first, pictures of dead victims and progresses to sending him pictures of future victims.

This, of course, triggers a massive manhunt for the killer - who we discover the identify of about 1/3 into the storyline.

Maybe this is why the book was not quite as suspensful for me? not sure.

However, this book was still a good read and kept me entertained enough to stick it through.

Okay, okay, admittedly I'm a pushover for British crime novels, but most will be, too, after reading any of Mark Billingham's seven Tom Thorne thrillers. Thorne is a Detective Investigator with savvy and a heart, very human, so we relate to him easily, sprout goose bumps when he's in deep trouble, and once we begin a Thorne title cannot put it down until the end. By now he seems like an old friend, one we know well but still cannot predict what he will say or do next.

Billingham brings his latest thriller very much to the present by the important use of a cellphone. Just as Thorne walks into his kitchen to tell Elvis he's sorry for forgetting to feed her and to make some tea his cellphone rings. He knew who it would be from - Louise, which made him smile. But then the phone rang again and this message was as far from Louise as possible. "It was a multimedia message, with a photograph attached.....and Tom Thorne knew a dead man when he saw one."

As techies scramble to trace the sender another photo arrives, and before long Thorne finds himself faced with an enemy capable of manipulating others into doing his dastardly deeds for him, and it starts to hit Thorne very close to home.

In police lingo the phrase "death message" refers to telling someone that they have just lost a loved one. But, in this case, those messages are directed toward Thorne but why and by whom?

- Gail Cooke

This is the sixth Thorne book I've read in this series and I probably won't read another one for awhile. I find I get tired of continuing characters in a book series when they get near or at double digit figures. In Billingham's case, DI Tom Thorne is such a depressing character that I get tired of his constant dwellings on his purposefully meaningless life. His girlfriend Louise is just as depressing as he is so the dysfunctional relationship goes on and on in this book. It takes up much too much story time in this dark tome. Boring.

What makes this a five star review is that the author writes quite well and has forged a murderer, Marcus Brooks,that really makes the book work. I wound up rooting for the killer over the cops. His story is very well written....a story that stays with you.

I find for me that trilogies work best. I quit reading Bosch, Delaware and Cross, etc.....I just lost interest in their similar plots, thoughts, injuries (that should be crippling for life), escapes from serial killers and whatever. The characters grow boring and stale, the bland un-stylish writing becoming more like a one week writing spree looking for a paycheck.

The only happy (somewhat) person in this book is friend Hendricks who is part of the plot but not really there in a way in this book.

This is a dark, depressing book with very fine story within the story.

According to Billingham, a "death message" is the news the cops deliver to the family when one of their number has died suddenly and (usually) violently. In the case of Marcus Brooks, who is only a couple of weeks from being released after six years in prison, the message is to inform him of the deaths of his girlfriend and young son at the hands of a hit-and-run driver. And it was no accident. Looking forward to seeing his loved ones again was pretty much the only thing that was keeping Marcus sane, and now that he has no life to look forward to, the obvious alternative is revenge. All this is unusual in this author's series of very good novels about the irascible DI Tom Thorne, homicide specialist in the Metropolitan Police. He often lets the reader peer over the killer's shoulder, get into his mind, work out what motivates him -- but never before has he given away the killer's identity. But it works because Marcus -- who certainly is the murderer -- isn't really the Bad Guy. That role belongs possibly to a couple of bent cops whom Thorne would very much like to identify and bring in. Or maybe there are even further layers. And much of the story is concerned not with the murders so much as with the way Thorne handles them, because even though he often bends the rules and ignores procedures in order to solve a case, he goes far beyond that this time. Because he has his own father's death to avenge. And, while he's about it, there's a new woman in his life, too -- a kidnap specialist from another unit of the Met. Will this relationship be any more successful than the previous ones he's edged into? (Stay tuned.) I wasn't sure this one was going to work, what with the author giving away so much so early in the story, but it all comes together pretty well. The only questionable narrative strategy is bringing in events and characters from _The Burning Girl,_ four novels ago, so you really want to be sure you've read that book first. Otherwise, you're apt to feel a bit sandbagged.

Best selling British thriller author, Mark Billingham has outdone himself with the recent launch of "Death Message". Giving readers an insider view into the undeniably shadowy search for an unconventional killer and the cop tasked with bringing him in, Billingham takes an uncommon approach while speeding readers through this fast-paced thrill ride.

DI Tom Thorne is the typical career cop with a history of faintly blurring the lines between right and wrong in order to get his job done. When he begins receiving death messages via text from a new breed of killer who is hell-bent on revenge, that very thin line all but disappears and everything becomes personal.

Deftly sprinkling clues, readers may be under the false impression that Billingham has given it away but, don't be fooled--he hasn't. Unpredictable twists and turns seem to come naturally to this impressive author and you won't foresee the ending until you arrive.

Check out our interview with Mark Billingham in the April 2010 issue of Suspense Magazine.
[...]

It's not often that a homicide detective receives a picture of a victim prior to the murder, but that's exactly what happens to Tom Thorne in this latest volume in the series, when his cell phone rings and he opens it to see a photo. And it happens more than once. A connection occurs after the second victim is identified and Thorne discovers that the murderer is a recently released man named Marcus Brooks, who had learned that his girlfriend and his son were killed deliberately in a hit-and-run accident two weeks before he was to be released from prison after serving seven years for the killing of a bike gang leader.

Thorne has to balance the capture of Brooks with several other pressures, including his relationship with his own girlfriend, the death of his father, possible connections between bike gangs and the Turkish mafia, drug and other illicit activities, and an investigation by Internal Affairs.

It is a long story, but an absorbing one, with the plot(s) moving forward at a steady pace. Thorne is depicted on a basic human level, with all the doubts and wonders inherent in a person. As police procedurals go, "Death Message" is not so much a step-by-step investigation as it is an insight into the detective's mind and ability to weigh alternatives, especially in his own ethos and life.

Recommended.

No matter how much he already knows, Detective Inspector Tom Thorne continues to learn, and continues to make mistakes as he learns again. The latest thriller featuring Thorne is titled, Death Message, in which Thorne is receiving photos and messages from a killer. The ensemble cast of characters help and prod Thorne who acts both within and outside the constraints of proper procedure. Death Message is entertaining especially for those readers who like British detective fiction.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)

This was my first Mark Billingham book and I'm pleased to have found an author that I will be returning to. The characterizations are vivid and interesting. The protagonist, DI Thorne, is complex and a fascinating study of moral ambivalence. The plot keeps moving along at a good pace with many interesting twists and turns. Recommended.

As much as I enjoyed IN THE DARK, Mark Billingham's previous effort, at the end of the day I found myself wishing that it had come shrink-wrapped with a new Tom Thorne book. DEATH MESSAGE, Billingham's newest work, answers the prayer for more Thorne --- and then some.

Thorne is a complex character, one of those introverted people who fakes being personable quite well and, as his love life demonstrates, the type of man who drives the woman he happens to be involved with at any particular point insane. Thorne, as much as any character you'll find in contemporary mystery fiction, has mastered the art of compartmentalization. His job as a London detective investigator is over in one very big corner, with his friends --- all of whom are in law enforcement --- in an adjacent box, and his girlfriend, also a cop, somewhere nearby. When someone tries to get too close to Thorne or too emotionally attached to him, he pulls out (not a figure of speech, as Thorne demonstrates at one point in DEATH MESSAGE).

The one element in Thorne's life that causes him to stay focused to the point of obsession is his job. So when someone begins sending Thorne pictures of murder victims on his cell phone, the professional and the personal intersect in a grisly manner. Thorne is able to sort out fairly quickly who is doing this: a convicted murderer named Brooks, who, on the eve of his early release from prison, lost his wife and son to a hit-and-run driver in an apparent act of revenge against him. The issue of why the pictures are being sent to Thorne is resolved fairly quickly and involves a degree of revenge, though the revenge belongs not to Brooks but to someone from Thorne's past. However, the fact remains that the police cannot seem to catch Brooks, who shows no sign of ending his killing spree.

At the same time, Thorne is lassoed into assisting with the investigation of the murder of a Turkish gangster, who seems to have reached a dead end until an unexpected revelation occurs, which, against all probability, intersects with the Brooks case. Almost immediately, Thorne receives another photograph on his cell phone indicating, inexplicably, that Brooks's next victim is someone very close to Thorne.

Billingham strikes the perfect balance between plot complexity and character development, using the urban backdrop of London's historical thoroughfares and seedier alleyways to create a work that is part character study, puzzle and guided tour. But the star element of DEATH MESSAGE is Billingham's pacing, which moves smartly throughout the book. While it is a compelling read, watch out for the last third of the novel; you will not be able to finish it quickly enough. And Thorne? Expect some changes in his life and the lives of those around him.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

A good premise; DI Tom Thorne is receiving photo messages on his mobile, the first of which is a man who is already dead...these progress to short clips of intended victims.
Early on in the investigation we (and Thorne) discover who is sending the messages, and why, but the task is to find the killer before more deaths occur. However I just didn't find this book gripped me as much as previous Billingham novels. I sided with the killer more than the victims and the plot was slow. Even the much loved characters of Thorne and Hendricks seemed a bit disenchanted and flat.

Not a patch on Sleepy Head and Scaredy Cat, the authors first two novels in this series.