I think I should be handcuffed after reading Rabbit Hole. I am guilty of loving this novel so much. I’m guilty of disliking character after character so much. I was an ex mental health worker am deliriously pleased with an accurate account of just how complex PTSD can be. Not long after her arrival in the ward one of the patients is found murdered. It is from here that things become extremely tangled and our viewpoint within Alice’s brain becomes heightened with delusions, fragmented memories, and deep-seated pain. An acclaimed television series based on the Thorne novels was screened on Sky One in Autumn 2010, starring David Morrissey as Tom Thorne. A series based on the novels In The Dark and Time Of Death was screened on BBC1 in 2017. The book took me a long time to read which is never a good sign. Alice was hard to engage with although I did care what happened to her and was curious about how the book would end.

I enjoy reading Mark Billingham’s Tom Thorne series so I was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately it was an ok read but not up to the previous high standard. This is a stand alone novel that I did enjoy and is different to his other books. Alice Armitage find herself in a rabbit hole. She's a "medically retired" police officer. After witnessing the death of her partner, she develops PTSD and starts self medicating with drink and drugs. Which lands her sectioned into a secure psychiatric unit. It had been a while since I read a Mark Billingham novel. I read lots of the Tom Thorne books but then got out of sequence and never returned to them. Alice is a perfect example of an unreliable narrator. She is a patient in a psychiatric ward and, from the start, it is made clear that her stories are confused. The narrative is first person so the reader can only understand what is happening through Alice, who is mentally ill and suffering side effects from her medication. Her thought processes are confused and her actions are often irrational.Immense skill and heart'Eve Chase ' Brilliant, suspenseful, poignant, heartbreaking, surprisingly funny'Linwood Barclay 'One of the most consistently entertaining, insightful crime writers working today'Gillian Flynn Although there is always a lot happening on the ward, things are about to become even more intense, when one of the patients is found dead. Missing her previous life desperately, Alice throws herself into investigating the case, to the annoyance of staff and the amusement of the other residents of Fleet Ward; while you can understand Alice’s extreme frustration and annoyance as she is not taken seriously.

Whatever the truth is, following a debilitating bout of PTSD, self-medication with drink and drugs, and a psychotic breakdown, Alice is now a long-term patient in an acute psychiatric ward.

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With each of his books, Mark Billingham gets better and better. These are stories and characters you don’t want to leave.”—Michael Connelly, author of the Harry Bosch series Mark Bellingham has pulled the rabbit out of the hat on this one. The Rabbit Hole is told in a way that strikes a perfect balance between sensitively dealing with PTSD and murder whilst injecting tasteful humour throughout the book. The book was interesting and some of the quirky characters were fun. The plot was different in that it was told from the psychiatric patient's point of view - I liked that. After witnessing her police partner’s murder, Alice Armitage experiences a psychotic episode and is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. She is suffering from PTSD and has been self-medicating with alcohol and drugs. While living on the psych ward, Alice befriends the other patients. When her new friend, Kevin, is brutally murdered on the ward, she decides to begin her own investigation into the case. She is an expert at this because she is a police officer. Or is she? Who murdered Kevin?

THE AUTHOR: Mark Billingham was born and brought up in Birmingham. Having worked for some years as an actor and more recently as a TV writer and stand-up comedian his first crime novel was published in 2001. Mark lives in North London with his wife and two children. Most of the other characters were slightly unstable in different ways (understandable as they were inpatients of a mental health unit) but they were all portrayed as being quite unpleasant or irritating.

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Ultimately, though, this is a mystery novel, and unfortunately that is the weakest part of the construct. You can’t fairly blame this on Alice. Setting aside her own unfortunate personal problems and delusions, she’s not able to effectively conduct a modern, professional police investigation --- and she has to come to grips with this. You might think that her unique point of view could lead to an unconventional insight that would solve the case. I certainly did and was somewhat disappointed.

Mental patients are sometimes fascinating to read about, and Alice Armitage is one of them. She is a police officer, was a police officer, or imagines she was. She is now a long-term patient in an acute psychiatric ward after a mental breakdown. When one of the patients in the ward is murdered, Alice decides she is the perfect person to solve the crime since she has so much experience in investigations. She has identified the prime suspect, even though the police are ignoring her, but then the prime suspect is murdered as well. Rabbit Hole excels with its intelligent vivacity. A magnificent sense of gravitas with a terrifying exploration of mental health and guilt. Al thinks she’s ok some of the time but at other times she clearly struggles and you really feel for her.

At the very least it should reach the shortlist of this year's Booker prize' THE TIMES________________________ Rabbit Hole is authentic, raucous and deeply compassionate. Expertly balancing humour, tension and pathos, it'll do for the psychiatric ward what The Thursday Murder Club has done for retirement villages. A deeply compelling read * Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange * There’s a murder in the hospital and Al wants to help investigate. She has a friend in the Police and asks him for information but this doesn’t get her very far. Alice Armitage is a police officer. Or she was. Or perhaps she just imagines she was. Whatever the truth is, following a debilitating bout of PTSD, self-medication with drink and drugs, and a psychotic breakdown, Alice is now a long-term patient in an acute psychiatric ward. A gripping standalone thriller from the internationally bestselling author of the Tom Thorne novels.