Den bästa Billingham sedan sömntuta. Han gräver i karaktären Tom Thorne och han gör det bra. Hela upplägget känns både trovärdigt och aktuellt. ( )

Great book.
I found the respect paid to the homeless and their world the best part of the book. ( )

http://www.literaryfeline.com/2006/07/review-of-lifeless-by-mark-billingham.html ( )

Lifeless by Mark Billingham is the 5th in his Tom Thorne police procedural series and although I am a big fan of this series, this particular book wasn’t my favorite. I should say here that although this book was published in 2005, I read an uncorrected bound proof that I picked up in a second hand book store. I hope that the final published version was a little tighter.

Due to consequences from the last book, Thorne is having trouble settling at work. He can’t abide doing a desk job and filling out reports so when it appears that someone is targeting and killing the homeless he volunteers to go undercover as a street person. Soon he is making connections with some of the street people that he meets and these murders become personal to him.

The main character Tom Thorne has quite a few things to work through in this book and having him on the street with a lot of time on his hands gives the character the opportunity to do so. Unfortunately it also slows the story down and at times seemed to drag it down as well. This is a series that I enjoy a great deal so one slightly off book will certainly not stop me from looking forward to the next book. ( )

London police detective Tom Thorne goes undercover as a homeless to capture a serial killer targeting them. The case develops slowly but gives excellent descriptions of street people and a grittier side of London. The book dwells on causes from drugs to the Iraq War (1 in 5 are vets), also explores their community. Nothing attractive here. Again, Billingham goes for realism in his climax, forsaking a flash ending. Thorne morns his Dad in this one ( )