Their Little Secret by Mark Billingham
Series: Tom Thorne & Nicola Tanner #16
Genre: Crime Thriller/ Police Procedural
Published: Jan 2020, Sphere | Little Brown Group UK
Swathi’s Rating: 5/5
About the Book:
When DI Tom Thorne is called to conduct a routine assessment at the site of a suicide, he expects to be in and out in no time. But when he arrives at the metro station, where a woman named Philippa Goodwin threw herself in front of an underground train, Thorne inexplicably senses something awry and feels compelled to dig deeper. He soon discovers that she was the victim of a callous con-man whose deception plunged Philippa to her end. Enraged that one man’s trickery caused an innocent death, Thorne enlists DI Nicola Tanner to help him track down the swindler and bring him to justice.
But the detective duo gets more than they bargained for when a young man’s lifeless, bludgeoned body turns up on the shore of a nearby seaside town: it appears that very con artist they’re searching for is connected to the murder.
Swathi’s Thoughts:
When a woman commits suicide by falling in front of a train, it is almost ruled out as yet another suicide story. But Tom Thorne has other thoughts. As he begins to learn more about the woman, he discovers that a mystery man has befriended her and looted everything she owned and Thorne believes this is not the first time the mystery con man had done this. And he’s determined to find this man and bring him to justice. But the guy is a ghost who leaves no trace. Nobody knows his name or how he looks. And his DNA isn’t in the system to look upon. Without any of these, Tom is stuck with just his unease and nothing else.
Another crime scene where a young man is beaten to death and found naked near the shore. CCTV shows him walking with a woman moments before his death. Who is this woman? What happened next? Who killed him? How’s this death connected to the suicide? Well, well, here comes the twist – ONE of the DNA found on this crime scene matches the DNA of this con man! Et voila. SO, what’s he doing here killing people? He’s supposed to be a con artist, not a murderer.. Right? At least that’s what Thorne thought he was. Until a whole new picture is painted and Thorne and his partner Nicola Tanner are racing against time to find this man and stop whatever is happening.
This is the 16th installment in the Tom Thorne and Nicola Turner series of books but can very well be read and enjoyed as a standalone thrilled, like I did! There’s not much you need about Tom or Nicola. They’re both easy-going characters who you can connect with and follow their brilliant investigation. There’s always this race between them, as to who-gets-there-first and it’s so exciting to see this healthy competition. They find answers quickly and it definitely hooks the reader’s attention. There are also developments in Tom and Nicola’s lives that you can follow, even without their history and easily want to know what happens to both of them and the future cases they handle in future!
I’ve read several of Mark Billingham’s books and loved this one to the core. There’s action in every single page of the book, and the author leaves cliffhangers in almost every chapter and that’s a tough nut to crack! Some moments with Sara are definitely creepy and boggles with your brain so much that you’d have to re-read the passage once more just to make you’ve read it right! I can’t recommend this book more to my fellow thriller fans.
Meet the Author:
Also writes as Will Peterson with Peter Cocks.
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.
