Scaredy Cat: A Tom Thorne Novel (DI Tom Thorne Series, 2) Paperback – July 9, 2013

He may not be a secret in UK, but I wasn't familiar with his work before browsing online. I read thrillers and crime stories, lots of them, and it was a joy to discover a new author (to me) with an extensive backlist.This is my second Thorne, and won't be my last. These are solid, well-written stories, and while they differa bit from American crime stories in structure with a bit too much of flashback alternating chapters, they are so well written that it doesn't interfere with the pacing of the story. If you haven't read any of Billingham yet, you're in for a treat. I look forward to continuing my journey with Thorne and also reading the stand alone books. If you're thinking of trying this author, don't. Worth the time.

School ties and master slave relationships make for a murderous romp from those formative years to adulthood. Great unforgettable characters living loving, lusting, and killing through some fast turning pages or blurring kindle screens. So far Mark Billingham 's only failure is to disappoint.

The plot was inventive, but it was very hard to enjoy the book because of the problems with digitization.1. The print was teeny tiny. I had to enlarge it to the next to the largest option and I suspect this may have had something to do with the pages loading properly.2. Pages did not load properly. I was well into the book before I realized this. I would turn the page and the first sentence of the next page would load, but the rest of the page was blank like at the end of a chapter. The book simply wasn't making good sense because of this until I realized that when this happened, I could go one page further and then back and the page would load.3. Sometimes when I turned the page I would get the end of book popup.In summary. The book was probably pretty good, but the technical problems I was having were very distracting and took a great deal of the enjoyment away. I wouldn't pay more than a dollar for it.P.S. I went to the forum and discovered one other person who had this problem with a touch, but no solutions. I don't really know if it was the book or the kindle device.

Love this guy. Though way different, he's as interesting and fun to read as Bosch. Read his 2 newest, then I started at the beginning and glad I did

Mark Billingham's Detective Tom Thorne is one of the best characters you will read. He makes human decisions and some of his decisions and actions are wrong. Read all the DI Tom Thorne novels in chronological order. Each book stands alone, but connects to its predecessors and makes you hungry for the next in the DI Tom Thorne series. It's a side of London, we never hear about -- real people.

enjoying the development of this series and how the main character developes though out the series, I started this series as I enjoy both Zoe Sharpes - Charles Fox and Lee Child's - Jack Reacher and enjoy getting to know the main character within the stories. If you enjoy a good detective series then look at this.

Billingham has plotted a crime thriller worthy of the genre, and planted enough red herrings to keep the reader hooked to the final chapter. The grit and gore of crime fighting is balanced by an appreciation of the toll it takes on the detectives and the novel is peopled with utterly believable characters.

A pretty good story but there were a couple of times that strained plausibility and that is what led to my 3 star rating. Interesting premise but, at least for me, a really good story never makes you stop and wonder if anyone would do what is suggested. Two times, one an escape the other the ending gave me this kind of pause. Not so much as to ruin the book but enough to rate no higher than 3 stars.

I read Sleepy Head some time ago and couldn't really remember the Thorne character. On reading Scaredy Cat I realise he is written as a hapless, disorganized, short tempered fool. If any of this story is based on what the author has been told by real police about what goes on in the Met then I can only despair. Admittedly this book was written at a time when perhaps some of the portrayed behaviour did go on but really, its quite poor story telling, and some scenarios are quite bizarre. I'm sure the Line of Duty TV characters would come down on Thorne like a ton of bricks.The story line itself was quite good and it was intriguing enough to read to the end. I have the next book in the series but it might be a while before I can bring myself to read it.

A disturbing childhood friendship becomes murderous 15 years later when the charismatic leader connects again with his fearful but loyal follower. Stuart Nicklin has changed his look as well as his name since the last time he pressured Martin Palmer to join in his dark games. Now adults the stakes have risen and Nicklin persuades Martin to join him in a murderous competition of one upmanship.Tom Thorne is back and there are more distraught families to haunt his dreams.Thorne’s relationship with his teammate Holland and best friend Hendricks form a core of humanity through this book although the focus is very much on the hunt for a killer. A killer who can’t be found even when his partner in crime hands himself in and confesses all.Another engaging and thrilling read from Mark Billingham. Highly recommended.

Wow what can I say? I love Mark Billingham - sorry Mark i mean that I love your characters and expertise of the subject your are writing about, the way you capture my attention and imagination from start to finish, the way in which I don't want the book to end BUT I want and need to know what the outcome is.I've said it before and no doubt will repeat myself again - I think Tom Thorne is the best. I know he's a fictional character but he is charismatic, annoying, stubborn and charming, a Spurs fan and to top it all he likes Johnny Cash. I could never get bored reading about him and how he handles his life and work.In my mind that's the way I would define a great writer. It's the best compliment I think an author would want to hear is that a fan gets so engrossed in a story that it becomes real to them.Excellent book and I'm just about to start number three. I can't wait.Karrie 🌹

Okay so I know this is only my second Thorne book, but in comparison to the first book this one didn’t have as much, shall we say shine, as the first one. In the first book I was quite gripped, but with this one the first quarter of the book seemed to be quite hard going. The things I love about a series, and this one as well is getting to know characters. Thorne is actually quite a hard character to get to grips with, but I actually like him more for that reason. I’m also quite fond of his colleague Holland, and in this book we see more of him than in book 1.This latest case involves not one but two killers and the key to it all is what they struggle with. As usual the murders themselves have an air of creepiness about them (which is always a bonus in my eyes) but the actual story felt a bit boggy. I apologise for my descriptions (this is why I am a reader and NOT a writer). Do you know what I mean though, you are enjoying it, but you just feel like its all too much effort?!?The only other reason I didn’t enjoy this as much is that I had worked the killer out by just after the halfway mark. I know this is sometimes a sticking point for people, and sometimes it irritates me and other times not so much. I think the fact that this story was plodding rather than racing, meant I fell into the ‘irritated’ group for guessing the killer. That aside, there are flashes of genius in the writing and I can see that this series is one that I bet will improve as time goes on. Although this was just middle of the road for me I’m actually looking forward to book 3.

This is a really enjoyable read. The author kept me guessing to the very last pages. I missed a vital clue and was lead astray to reach the wrong conclusion. There is one warning note I would issue, once you start reading, it will be extremely hard to stop.