The Killing Habit: Mark Billingham (Tom Thorne Novels)

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With this in mind, Thorne heads off to Kentish Town station to coordinate with the police force he’d be working with on the case, knowing he’d have to do a bit of political maneuvering when it comes to DS Simon Fulton. Anyone that’s familiar with this series already knows how much Thorne hates political maneuvering, but it comes with the job. And although a serious crime, Thorne is getting his share of kitty jokes. One person suggests maybe it's a copycat' killer. This case will take some thinking outside the (litter) 'box'. Maybe this is a grudge against the feline bird killers. In many ways, D.I. Tom Thorne is one of a slew of “grumpy old coppers” in modern crime fiction. Forever at odds with the latest technology and modern police jargon and frequently fearing he’s lost his edge and is past his sell-by date. However, his dedication, experience and intuition always seem to pull him through. One area in which Tom is unique though is that, although straight himself, the majority of his small circle of friends are gay. Unsurprisingly, none of them share his passion for Country Music.

While DI Nicola Tanner investigates the deadly spread of a dangerous new drug, Tom Thorne is handed a case that he doesn’t take too seriously, until a spate of animal killings points to the work of a serial killer. When the two cases come together in a way that neither could have foreseen, both Thorne and Tanner must risk everything to catch two very different killers.NOTE FROM AUTHOR: The series of cat killings fictionalized in this book is based on a real and disturbing case that remains unsolved to this day. Police began their investigation in 2015 ... they have named it the UK Cat Killer. I find Mark Billingham a very capable author who never disappoints with each book he writes. Bring on the next, please. Happily – errrr, sorry – there was a sense of trouble-in-paradise here. It’s sort of resolved at the end but I am kinda hoping there’s a story arc afoot and Thorne moves on. Or at least their relationship becomes more affectionate / loving / believable (or one I could care about). A suspenseful, professional-grade north country procedural whose heroine, a deft mix of compassion and attitude, would be welcome to return and tie up the gaping loose end Box leaves. The unrelenting cold makes this the perfect beach read.

And that ending makes me think another Thorne book is definitely in the pipeline. Hooray *fist pump* I would like to thank Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for an advance copy of The Killing Habit, the fifteenth novel to feature Met detective Tom Thorne. One of DI Tom Thorne’s most harrowing cases begins with evidence that someone’s taken to slaughtering…cats.Interspersed with their investigations are creepy passages that are presumably about the killer. In fact, the book opens with one: Others are less convinced, so Thorne relies on DI Nicola Tanner to help him solve the case, before the culprit starts hunting people. The journey brings them face to face with a killer who will tear their lives apart. In addition to his Tom Thorne series, Mark Billingham has also written other books, including several standalone thrillers, two out of which are being adapted for television by the BBC. As is common in the genre, the two investigations form the story line. In one, a young man fresh from prison, where he developed a drug habit that resulted in his owing money to some criminals upon his release, is being forced to handle some rough stuff to pay off his debt. A murder of someone in a similar situation as his is pinned on him, but detective Nicola Tanner isn't convinced and continues to investigate. Concurrently, cat killings (yes, you heard that right...) are occurring across London, and Tom Thorne is asked to look at it. He proposes a unique scenario, where instead of a nascent serial killer beginning his career as an animal torturer and moving up to humans from there is rather killing cats as a sideline between human murders. Thorne aligns with Tanner to help one another on their respective investigations. Thorne is (despite being a Homicide detective) tasked with looking into the violent killing of cats. He decides (in a leap which is taken on faith) that the perpetrator is killing cats as he "comes down" from killing women. In a further leap, he posits that the method of murder will be strangulation and manages to cobble together a group of unsolved strangulation murders to pin on the cat killer. (Of course, the murdered women do all turn out to have a common link eventually).