Lifeless [Mass Market Paperback]

Mark Billingham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 29, 2007

Tom Thorne's career is on the skids. Having seriously crossed the line on his last case and depressed over the recent suspicious death of his father, the once ambitious police detective has been reduced to pushing papers . . . and is being encouraged to take a prolonged leave of duty.

But someone is stalking the city's most destitute citizens. Three homeless men have recently been kicked to death, each brutalized corpse discovered with a banknote pinned to its chest. With nothing to lose, Thorne volunteers to try to find the killer—taking to the streets he knows so well from his days as beat policeman and as a homicide detective, but this time joining the squalid ranks of life's rejects. In this harsh and harrowing netherworld, with its own rules and moral codes, a shocking link between the brutal crimes and a fifteen-year-old atrocity could end up costing Thorne what little life he has left.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When a serial killer targets London street people in British author Billingham's gritty fifth police procedural to feature detective Tom Thorne (after 2005's Burning Girl), Thorne, a psychological wreck following his father's death, convinces his bosses to let him go undercover. The detective manages to integrate himself into the community of the down-and-outers, even as a leak threatens to expose his ploy and place him in harm's way. An unusual tattoo on one of the victims leads the police to a squad of soldiers who may have been involved in atrocities during the first Gulf War-and to a possible motive for the killings. While most readers will be several jumps ahead of the police in identifying the murderer, the author's convincing depiction of the streets and his well-developed characters more than compensate.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The fifth Tom Thorne mystery takes a timely turn in focusing on the aftermath of a wartime atrocity, even though Billingham began working on the book in the fall of 2003, "eight months before the publication of certain photographs . . and the scandal surrounding the treatment of Iraqi prisoners." Grim serendipity aside, Lifeless represents a return to form for the author after the mildly disappointing The Burning Girl (2005). Only a few months after his father's death in a suspicious fire, Thorne is living on the London streets. The detective inspector isn't actually homeless, but his career is in real jeopardy as he tracks a man who's kicking "rough sleepers" to death. While Thorne struggles through grief and departmental politics, he befriends a junkie and plumbs the depths of a life untethered. Back at the office, his Serious Crime Group colleagues seek the surviving members of a British tank squadron that murdered Iraqis during the first Gulf War. The gripping plot and a larger-than-normal role for Thorne's best mate, medical examiner Phil Hendricks, turn this procedural into a moody, brooding treat. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Harper (May 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060841672
• ISBN-13: 978-0060841676
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,030,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, May 11, 2008

By 

Helen Simpson (Leeds, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lifeless (Mass Market Paperback)

Not as good as his first three novels featuring DI Tom Thorne; Sleepy Head, Scaredy Cat and Lazybones. Although the potential was there with the very believable Gulf War storyline it never quite hit the spot. Yes there were murders but really it could have just been an account of what it's like to live on the streets of London - which I have to add, was sensitively and well conveyed.

DI Thorne, who is such a likeable maverick, really holds the story together, liasing between the homeless world and the police. Even so, I still found my attention wandering and needed to re-read paragraphs. It wouldn't put me off reading another of Billinghams books though because I know he's capable of better stuff.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Stuff, November 9, 2007

By 

J. Chippindale (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lifeless (Mass Market Paperback)

Mark Billingham was born and brought up in Birmingham. Having worked for some years as an actor and more recently as a TV writer and stand-up comedian his first crime novel was published in 2001.
Though still occasionally working as a stand-up comic, Mark now concentrates on writing the series of crime novels featuring London-based detective Tom Thorne. Mark lives in North London with his wife and two children.

For any new readers who have not read any of Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne books, you are missing a real treat. Start reading them now, I am sure you will not be disappointed.

It would seem, even those who know him best, that Thorne's career has reached it's peak and is now on the long steep slide to disaster. He has always flirted with trouble with his superiors but on his last case he overstepped the mark and someone up in that ivory tower has suggested he take a break to take stock of both himself and his career.

Someone appears to be making a target of London's homeless, so with time on his hands Thorne decides to go undercover amongst them, after all if things carry on the way they are, he may be one of them shortly.

Thorne soon finds out that these are no random killings, they are being perpetrated by someone with a very specific purpose. Then all of a sudden it becomes common knowledge that a copper is working amongst them, not good news for Thorne . . .

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dark humor by a master storyteller, September 25, 2007

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lifeless: A Novel (Hardcover)

Fans of the various BBC Mystery programs will find much to interest them in Billingham's series featuring Detective Inspector (DI) Tom Thorne and the other officers of the London Metropolitan Police Service.

The recent death of DI Thorne's father, combined with publicly overstepping the bounds on his last case, has made him persona non grata around the station house and he's been asked to take "gardening leave."

Unable to sit on his hands and do nothing, DI Thorne requests a job deep undercover posing as a member of the homeless community in order to catch a serial killer. The bodies of three men have been discovered with a banknote pinned to their chests--each one kicked to death. Are these random killings? Or have these men been targeted? The homeless feel ignored by society on a good day, now they have much more to fear than unkind looks and cold shoulders.

DI Thorne must walk a fine line to avoid total integration. He is a man in crisis and the smallest nudge could push him over the edge into really becoming what he is only pretending.

Not just a crime novel, Lifeless is also a look inside a community with its own rules and moral codes. The homeless community is given a voice and a presence in this story, its characters are very real and their stories are heart wrenching.

Armchair Interviews says: With skilled use of dark humor and gut-wrenching tension, Billingham confirms his place as a master storyteller.