To be honest I didn’t much warm to this new character of Marks. I love the Tom Thorne books so much that it will take a lot for another character to live up to him. A big part of it was the silly jokey nature of Miller. It is one of the reasons I gave up on Stuart MacBride as do people really talk and behave like that 24/7.

Billingham’s entertaining 14th Tom Thorne novel (after 2015’s Time of Death) teams the formerly rule-bending London detective inspector, who’s fighting middle age and an expanding waistline, Continue reading » Brimming with wit, expertly paced, and wholly enjoyable — The Last Dance is a showcase of Billingham’s exceptionally gifted storytelling. Mark Billingham is at his best!”— Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author of the Will Trent series I kept thinking of the quote by Fran Lebowitz while I read this book, “A book is not supposed to be a mirror. It’s supposed to be a door.” With that in mind, the fact that this author wanted to write a “humorous” book is not enough. I cannot believe the amount of stars this book has received. It is truly perplexing.Despite a somewhat dubious relationship with both reality and his new partner, can the eccentric, offbeat Miller find answers where his colleagues have found only an impossible puzzle?

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 Continue reading »The line between cop and criminal becomes dangerously blurred in Billingham's excellent stand-alone thriller. Told from multiple points-of-view and full of red herrings, the story begins in Continue reading »

The narrative follows Declan’s, often eccentric, investigation into the double murder, whilst, at the same time, he attempts to glean information from the team investigating Alex’s murder. He manages to obtain information pertaining to the latter, although it poses more questions than answers. Even conversations with Alex's "ghost" don't get him much further. The investigation moves around between people who are ‘known to police’ and others who turn up. While he and Xiu deal with their bosses and assignments, another team is looking into Alex’s murder. He misses her badly, listens to her voice and scrolls through her old phone messages. He’s not allowed to ask questions. Humor is essential in thrillers and crime books but face it this was no thriller or crime fiction, at best it was a cozy mystery. The book was not funny, the humor seemed forced throughout the story. The need for Miller to make “jokes” make me thought he had ADHD but the right term is Witzelsucht. Google it, it has a picture of Miller right next to it. See, this disease unfortunately is contagious. The jokes were unfortunately for this reader, not funny but horribly irritating.In spite of the flippant jokes there are genuine moments that will pique your curiosity about the cast surrounding Declan and you will want to know more about them. As The Last Dance beings a new series, we’re pleased there will be opportunities to delve deeper into some of these characters. It’s obvious at the end of the book that Billingham is setting the stage for the next book. Declan gathers information from some unexpected sources like Finn, a homeless addict; and Chesshead, a criminal with a passion for the game. Declan debriefs his discoveries with the members of his dance team. His approach may not be conventional but it works for him. It is the relationships between these characters that will draw you into the book.

I enjoyed the people and the story. I’ve never read Billingham before, but as this is obviously #1 in a new series, and as the author has left scope for continuing with these characters, I will be standing by for Miller’s next outing.There’s some great humour in this book as Declan has his own form of humour and tries to explain it to his new partner, Xiu. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with Bellingham’s writing or his characters. Aficionados of our language or just plain grammar nerds will love this. MY THOUGHTS: I loved this introduction to Detective Miller. He's the sort of man who is always out of step with everyone else. His partner, Xiu, describes him as annoying, bloody-minded, childish, insensitive, inappropriate, pig-headed, rude, stupidly over-confident, and completely dismissive of authority. Not to mention inattentive, flippant, sarcastic, erratic, unreliable and flaky. Yes, he's all of those things, but he is also wildly entertaining and kind of lovable. AT times I liked Miller but most of the time he was irritating. I didn't warm up to other characters as well. Why was his partner Xiu even there? A double murder in a seaside hotel sees a grieving Miller return to work to solve what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. Just why were two completely unconnected men taken out?