false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179860289m/964990.jpg 964990 10 In <i>Lifeless</i>, Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne reaches something like the nadir of his police career, broken by the death--possibly the murder--of his demented father and shuffled off to a desk job of infinite tedium. When someone starts kicking the London homeless to death, he suggests going undercover, and those of his friends who care about him worry that he is looking for his own destruction as much as for the killer. Certainly Thorne finds compensations on the street for danger, cold, hunger and squalor--his friendship with two young addicts is nonetheless real for his deceit and their pragmatic ruthlessness. Yet the secret of the deaths he is investigating lies only partly in London's dark alleys and corners; it lies as well fourteen years in the past on the road to Baghdad... This is probably Billingham's best thriller yet--inventive and passionate and full of commitment and dark humour. In his vulnerability and shrewdness, Tom Thorne is gradually shaping up into a classic detective whose habit of breaking the rules is not so much a strength as part of a pattern of self-destructive behaviour. Billingham's writing gets better with each book, too--the rough tenderness for each other of Spike and Caz, Thorne's mildly deranged guides to the street, is delicate and moving. ---<I>Roz Kaveney</I> 2196310 2005 Lifeless (Tom Thorne, #5) total:102|5:27|4:47|3:25|2:2|1:1| 102 403 174 9 0 0 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 05 19:56:20 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 05 19:56:20 -0700 2008
In this book, Tom Thorn has been put on “gardening leave” for things that occurred in the prec...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Feb 16 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 19:02:43 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 19:06:28 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon May 18 08:52:55 -0700 2009 Mon May 18 08:54:13 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri Aug 29 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 30 13:02:08 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 29 08:58:06 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 0 true false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 15 15:02:44 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 15 15:05:34 -0800 2008
If I hadn't been stuck in a noisy hotel needing something to read at 3...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Oct 14 14:04:33 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 14 14:10:04 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Fri May 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon May 19 13:46:49 -0700 2008 Mon May 19 13:48:01 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Sat Sep 20 23:15:30 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 20 23:15:57 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Sat Aug 16 06:40:39 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 16 06:40:39 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Mon Nov 23 15:29:53 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 23 15:29:53 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Nov 13 14:22:23 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 13 14:22:26 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Oct 30 08:04:35 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 30 08:04:35 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Oct 19 17:43:22 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 17:43:22 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Oct 18 09:03:59 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 09:03:59 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Oct 11 18:25:39 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 11 18:25:39 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Oct 03 20:46:40 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 03 20:46:40 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Wed Sep 02 11:33:12 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 02 11:33:12 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Sep 02 08:39:03 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 02 08:39:03 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Aug 29 14:08:51 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 29 14:08:54 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Aug 27 09:35:42 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 27 09:35:42 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=964990