Lazybones by
Mark Billingham
pbk out July 03
(Little Brown)
at £10.99
This reasonably priced hardback describes the third recorded case of the engaging
detective Tom Thorne. Thorne's lot, it seems, is to be pitted against depraved serial
killers and here he comes up against one of the nastiest of them all. The murderer
leaves his victims kneeling, hooded and naked and orders a wreath for each of them.
But his unique touch is that his victims are vicious rapists who, many people think,
deserve the grim fate that he metes out to them. It is plain from the flashbacks inserted
into early parts of the narrative that this crime has its roots in a rape more than a
quarter of a century ago, but the case has a variety of puzzling features. Thorne's
attempts to devote himself to the business of detection are complicated by the fact that
his father is showing signs of dementia, by a burglary at his own home, and by a new,
although slow-burning, romance with Eve Bloom, the aptly-named florist who was
asked to supply a wreath for the first victim. I did not find it difficult to solve Mark
Billingham's puzzle, but even so, this was an agreeable, pacy read. It seems to me that
time may be running out for the serial killer novel vogue, but this book certainly has
enough entertainment value to stand out in a crowded field.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
