Product Description

Someone - a woman or somebody pretending to be a woman, is writing to convicted rapists in prison, befriending them and then brutally killing them when they are released. DI Tom Thorne must discover the link between these killings and a murder/suicide that took place twenty-five years before; a tragedy to which the only witnesses were two small children, now adults and nowhere to be found. How can you escape a past that will do a lot more than just catch up with you? And how can Thorne catch a killer, when he doesn't really care about the victims?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #547465 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Lazybones confirms our sense of Mark Billingham as a thriller writer determined to put ever more inventive spins on the police procedural and the serial killer novel. His police officers--hard-working Country fan Thorne, pierced gay pathologist Hendricks and the rest--find themselves on a case that raises complicated issues for them; they have continually to remind themselves that dead rapists have as much right not to be raped and murdered as anyone else.

Billingham's tricksiness--he tells us just enough of what the killer is thinking to keep us intrigued and confused--goes along with a real sense of London's back streets: the shabbiness of small hotels and the lonely hours of the early morning. The case involves not only pursuing present cases, but chasing up back-story; among all its other merits, this is an intelligent and humane discussion of changing attitudes to rape and its investigation. There was a time, after all, not so long ago, when police regularly failed to take rape seriously enough to get convictions. This is not just an ingenious thriller--Billingham makes us care what happens to Thorne, who is in far more jeopardy than he ever begins to know. --Roz Kaveney

Review
'Mark Billingham is one of my favourite new authors. Highly recommended.' Harlan Coban ** 'Brisk, racy read.' The Times

About the Author
Mark Billingham is a stand-up comedian, appearing regularly at the Comedy Store. He has also written drama for children's television, including Knight School which won the Royal Television Society Award for best children's drama.

Customer Reviews

Lazybones is no Sleepyhead - but it's good enough
The first body was found in a shabby London hotel room, bound with a leather belt, raped, kneeling hooded on a bare mattress, as if praying for salvation.

Ten days ago convicted rapist Doug Remfry was released from prison. Now, he has been horrifically murdered, and a macabre wreath ordered for him from a florist. What anger drove his killer to this act? Was it vengeance for his victim, or something that happened to him in prison, or something else entirely?

It is only when the body of a second released rapist is found, killed in an identical way, and another wreath ordered, that Tom Thorne realises that they are up against a completely different, even more chilling and twistedly driven killer than they at first thought. But how can Thorne fight with all he has if he cares so little for the victims? Thorne will have to dig very deep inside indeed to put a stop to this most cold and calculating of killers.

This is another original serial killer thriller from Mark Billingham. It's very dark and it's good, but it lacks something that his previous books had. I never felt the urge to race through it as I did with Sleepyhead (maybe because there isn't a great deal of urgency created through the killings. After all, if the investigator himself finds it hard to care, so will the reader), and the prose isn't so special as it first felt in his debut. But maybe that's just because I'm used to it a bit more now, I'm not sure. Indeed, there is something about the writing style that doesn't quite fit right, but that might be just me. Or maybe I'm just getting used to his rather unchangeable "formula" (and he certainly does have one). Billingham's very original formula has remained static through his first three books, and with each one that formula has been exposed a little more, and the power of each additional book is very much less.

Still, Thorne remains a good lead character, human and flawed as the most popular detectives are. There's also a solid cast of subsidiary characters: Phil Hendricks, the quirky, earinged pathologist, Yvonne, Dave Holland (who, in this book, gets a nice chunk of subplot and character development). The plot itself is a great concept, and discovering the history and motivations of the killer through flashbacks is fascinating once again, as it was in Scaredy Cat (indeed, it's even becoming a kind of "Billingham trademark device".) The conclusion, too, is exciting and tense and dark, even if it's not exceptionally difficult to see it coming or guess "whodunnit".

Lazybones is disappointing, certainly, but it is ultimately still a worth a read, even if it's at times tiresome and not of the very highest class set by "Sleepyhead"; even if there is something lacking that I can't quite put my finger on...

Not quite the read I expected
Having read Mark Billingham's two previous books I was rather disappointed that this one was not quite as punchy and fast paced as its predecessors.

Still a very good read regardless. The storyline keeps you guessing and I found myself deciding it was one character then another and then back to the first one again. I still wasn't quite right at the end but did have suspicions.

I would recommend it but read Sleepyhead and Scaredy Cat first and you will probably see what I mean!

MARK BILLINGHAM'S BEST YET
Mark Billingham keeps getting better and better with each book. This is the third in the series available in the U.S. and is the best to date. The characters and atmosphere are wonderful and the suspense is truly gripping.

I had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Billingham on my radio show a couple of months back and he was a great guest. I look forward to the fourth when it is published here in the U.S.

Highly recommended.