Customer Reviews

Scaredy Cat

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is my first book by author Billingham and I am quite impressed. The plot twists around a pair of serial killers, intertwining the lives of DI Thorne and his crew of investigators. The final unveiling of the killer was quite a surprise, as I had guessed a different character to be the villain. The second half of the book really picks up speed and is hard to put down. You don't want to stop until the killer's identity is uncovered and hopefully he is caught. Intriguing characters, fast moving plot; I highly recommend it.

Getting out of the tech genre for awhile, I relaxed with Mark Billingham's Scaredy Cat. This is his follow-up to Sleepyhead (that I really liked)...

A number of killings in England has Tom Thorne looking for a serial killer. The victims are found in pairs, and although the methods are similar, the intensity of the violence is different. He figures there are actually a pair of killers working in tandem. The pair of killers go back to a grammar school friendship, and it's the typical controller/controllee type relationship. The cops quickly get one of the killers, but then try to set a trap for the other one. Unfortunately, the trap backfires and the killer starts to strike closer to home. The question becomes can he be stopped before he kills someone close to Thorne.

As I mentioned above, I really liked Sleepyhead. Very dark, and hard to tell who was guilty and who was innocent. Scaredy Cat was just as dark, but the suspense wasn't there. You find out right away who the killers are, but you're not quite sure about the current identity of the controlling personality. The relationship between the killers is rather complex and somewhat ill-explained, and one of the common elements that tie them together is left to hang out there for far too long. When it's finally revealed, it doesn't seem to have the impact that it was probably intended to. Thorne's personal torments don't seem to do anything but sit there. The relationship between his partner Holland and a female cop with issues also doesn't seem to add anything to the storyline.

Maybe it's just the sophomore jinx, but this novel definitely isn't on par with his first...

Mark Billingham is a standup comic. I am unfamiliar with his stage work, and perhaps it's just as well, as I would have come to SCAREDY CAT (and, for that matter, his debut novel SLEEPYHEAD) with some preconceived notion that it would be at least quasi-comedic, that Billingham would possibly be a British Donald Westlake. For all I know, Billingham may be the funniest man on the planet, but you couldn't prove it with SCAREDY CAT.

SCAREDY CAT is an almost unrelievedly grim police procedural, though the setting is not a fictionalized New York City but rather modern-day London. The novel focuses on a series of murders being investigated by Team 3 of the unimaginatively named Serious Crime Group (West) of the Met, London Metropolitan Police. Detective Inspector Tom Thorne, introduced in SLEEPYHEAD, is back, and Billingham continues his slow and methodical sketching of Thorne's personality. Thorne may well be one of the most quietly complex characters in modern detective fiction; just when the reader thinks he or she has a handle on him, there is a twist or a turn, and suddenly one's opinion, one's conception, needs revision. Thorne is no genius, and he knows it. This is important; he is able to admit mistakes and to turn, albeit grudgingly, on a dime to correct them, even as he is weighed down by regret.

Ah, and the series of murders. Two women are murdered in London, some distance apart, with enough similarities to convince the police that they are, at least initially, the work of the same person. The murders resemble a pair of killings that occurred several months previously in which two other women were killed on the same day, apparently at the same time. Thorne comes to the conclusion that the two pairs of killings are linked, and that there is not one killer, but two, working in tandem with each other. He is horrified to further realize that, every time one body is found, there will be another waiting to be discovered. And while the methods of the murders may be the same, the killers themselves, it seems, are very, very different.

As the reader follows Thorne and his team (a group of extremely interesting individuals, to say the least) through their investigation, Billingham describes the intricacies of the investigators, the murderers and the survivors, the relatives of the victims left behind in death's wake. And while the identity of one of the murderers is revealed relatively early, the other is not revealed to either Thorne or the reader until the very end. The result is a novel with such skilled pacing that it is almost excruciatingly painful to read it without finishing it in one sitting. Yet it is simultaneously a novel of such simple craft, such intelligence, that one wants to savor it slowly. The result is an interesting dichotomy that few writers are able to achieve.

It is not necessary to read SLEEPYHEAD prior to reading SCAREDY CAT, though a reader introduced to one will inevitably be drawn to the other. Billingham, with only two novels, has become a writer who will undoubtedly be added to many "must-read" lists. Oh, one other thing about SCAREDY CAT: this book has perhaps the saddest Epilogue I have ever read. Don't skip ahead --- you won't really get it unless you read the whole book. And you'll definitely want to read the whole book.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Billingham's titles are great; not surprising since he is also a well-respected standup comic. However, even though his books have touches of humor, they are dark, disturbing, but definitely worth reading.
This time, our reluctant hero, Tom Thorne, is after a serial killer, who has killed a young woman in front of her little boy. Alas and alack, it appears there are TWO serial killers working together.
As we come to know the two villains in flashbacks, Billingham weaves a tightly constructed tale of a warped love, and it's disastrous results.
There are some strong supporting characters in Billingham's novels, and they help move the twisting plot along to a heart-stopping climax in a schoolyard. The identity of the real sicko is surprising, and don't be surprised at how Billingham treats his heroes, either!
An outstanding book, can't wait for the next one!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I don't usually read fiction or in the "mystery" genre, but I certainly would if all of them were this good. I have read and enjoyed all of Billingham's Tom Thorne novels, but this is my favorite, I think. The depth of the characters across the board is untouched in most other novels. Just fantastic.

Tom Thorne is a classically dark, English detective with the usually gang of very human fellow officers. But for that, I never had a real sense of the character. The plot is interesting, but so focused on character that it is way too slow at times and I found myself skimming, and when the killer is exposed I had to go back to figure out when he'd been introduced to the story. I have to admit being disappointed. It was an okay read, but nothing extraordinary.

I read a lot of crime novels, and this one sits down at the bottom of the bunch. The idea of two serial killers working in tandem has already been done before (as early as James Patterson's Kiss The Girls), and this one brings nothing new to the concept. Instead, we're treated to lengthy descriptions of the main characters' personal lives. Tom Thorne seems to be conflicted by something new in every novel, but this novel was so tiresome I forgot what he was upset about a day after reading it. There's Thorne's young partner who is in a troubled relationship. There's a new female officer who is eager to prove herself - and also has a drug addiction.

When the book remembers it's actually a crime novel, it isn't too bad. There are decent moments of suspense, and one or two twists, but I saw the ending coming from a mile away. All in all, Scaredy Cat feels like an extended episode of NYPD Blue or The Bill (a British police series). It's unoriginal, exceedlingly soapy and often predictable. You're better off picking up Lazybones or Sleepyhead, which are decent crime novels by the same author.

This book was not that bad, actually it's was amazingly intense until the end, I must admit I was a bit disappointed " just at the end". There were quite a few things that were unanswered, and the direction was very misleading. Not in a twist kind of a way,like (I had you going) yet (here is a lot of information), that, 1). Doesn't have closure at the end; 2). has nothing to do with the main villain. But hey, solving crime shouldn't be as simple as we would like to,... READ?
Yatta yatta, so what! I enjoyed reading it, it was witty and exciting.
Also I really liked Sleepyhead, Mr. Billingham has quite a future with his talented writing style. PS, I really enjoy the intellect and wit about M.B's writing. AND the different terminology by the brit's language is just GREAT fun and catchy. For weeks after I finished this book, I was calling people bloody this and sloth's that!
Recommend, for sure !!!!

When two young women are found strangled in London, the police suspect a link. But they seem different in some ways. Eventually Detective Inspector Tom Thorne suspects two killers, linked somehow but operating alone. One of those killers proves to be easy enough to catch, but the other, his current identity a secret, is more challenging indeed. That killer strikes for pleasure, and gains further pleasure from the pain he causes others--including his fellow killer.

Thorne and his unit are obsessed with the killer, but have to manage their other responsibilities as well. England may not be the murder kingdom that the U.S. is, but murder, like fast food, has been imported and taken. Meanwhile, the police have to deal with their own issues--sexual tensions among the detectives, alcoholism, and drug abuse. Thorne doesn't have a home life, but he does have an aging father who has begun behaving more and more erratically.

Author Mark Billingham delivers a darkly fascinating and exciting suspense novel. Thorne and the killer play a battle of wits that each intends to win. Thorne hates the price he has to pay to capture the killer and the killer savors his kills, but they are alike in their willingness to make any sacrifice to achieve their goals. Fans of Bill James will love SCAREDY CAT and anticipate more books by Billingham.

DI Tom Thorne is back after a promising debut in SLEEPYHEAD. Tom and his team of DS Sarah McEvoy and DC Dave Holland investigate a pair of serial killers who kill in tandem. One killer is more brutal than the other is. The first deaths involve a three-year-old child who was locked in the house with the body of his dead mother for three days, and a woman left behind a rubbish bin at the rail station.

Tom is a gloomy chap in the best of times. Now he is tormented by the thought of the child left with his dead mother. He makes it his personal mission to catch the killer. The characters are well-fleshed out with all the fragility and emotion that comes with being human. The subplots relating to the team and their interaction were very interesting. The reader really gains an emotional connection to these characters.

The story is told by the use of flashbacks so we get to know who the killers were. The present is a little harder to discern. One of the killers has changed his name and is living a "normal" life. The plotting is dark and emotional. You can try to figure things out as you read along, but things are not always what they seem. There are some good twists and turns. The ending was quite poignant and stayed with me several hours after finishing the book. The book was not perfect. There were some subplots that just seems extraneous and made the book drag in spots. Overall, it was a very good book and I look forward to the next entry in this series.