"c2005. I ordered this as the author had given a very favourable blurb on one of the books that I have recently read (I think The Snowman). Not having read previous books with the protagonist, I didn't really get the character at all. Although the writing style could be describe as pithy - I did not like it. It seemed, well, contrived but perhaps I am being less than fair not having read anything by Mr Billingham before. And I managed to guess the evil doer way to early in the story... Amazon.co.uk ReviewIn Lifeless, Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne reaches something like the nadir of his police career, broken by the death--possibly the murder--of his demented father and shuffled off to a desk job of infinite tedium. When someone starts kicking the London homeless to death, he suggests going undercover, and those of his friends who care about him worry that he is looking for his own destruction as much as for the killer. Certainly Thorne finds compensations on the street for danger, cold, hunger and squalor--his friendship with two young addicts is nonetheless real for his deceit and their pragmatic ruthlessness. Yet the secret of the deaths he is investigating lies only partly in London's dark alleys and corners; it lies as well fourteen years in the past on the road to Baghdad... This is probably Billingham's best thriller yet--inventive and passionate and full of commitment and dark humour. In his vulnerability and shrewdness, Tom Thorne is gradually shaping up into a classic detective whose habit of breaking the rules is not so much a strength as part of a pattern of self-destructive behaviour. Billingham's writing gets better with each book, too--the rough tenderness for each other of Spike and Caz, Thorne's mildly deranged guides to the street, is delicate and moving. ---Roz Kaveney "" In my opinion, this review is way too generous but again...all topics covered by this book were of a depressive nature and perhaps I just wasn't in the mood!"
Put simply, this is an excellent DI Tom Thorne novel, after the disappointment of ‘The Burning Girl’ Billingham’s detective series has hit its stride again. This is both brutal and harrowing. London’s streets have never been meaner. With believable characters like Spike and Caz, together with its social commentary, Lifeless is a thought-provoking novel without ever getting preachy. I was worried that the series was running out of steam, but this one hits like a sledgehammer and attacks your conscience. Highlighting as it does, a very real, centuries old problem: homelessness. These are the invisible, maligned people wandering the streets; here vilified and abused. Billingham’s London is a city within a city: that of the affluent and that of the downtrodden (or just plain unfortunate through circumstance).Lifeless had me hooked right from the off. There is a real sense that everything really is on the line for Thorne this time – his life is in jeopardy as he lives on the edge. Clearly a novel that deals with war crimes, drug use and addiction, random savage beatings and murder, was never going to be an easy read. But thanks to his literary skill, Billingham draws you in to this very dark world, on a journey through London’s underbelly, light-years from the tourist guide version of the capital. As it races to a scorching grandstanding finale, this book put me in no doubt that it is the best in the series to date.
What do You think about Lifeless (2015)?
Not up to scratch! I can see the idea of intermingling two interesting themes - street homelessness and war atrocities committed by our own soldiers in the Gulf - but there is too much going on, what with two sets of flashbacks by two perpetrators, plus Thorne's own musings!Plus one bizarre paragraph featuring a fight Thorne gets himself involved in, which is suddenly written in the present tense! And a real error the proofreader should have picked up on - there is no such place as Bremenhaven - it is 'Bremerhaven' !
—Lynn
There is something odd about encountering a character first off on the TV and then in a book; usually for me it's the other way around. David Morrissey's portrayal of Tom Thorne in the TV adaptations of the first two Thorne novels captures much of the character's brilliance and craziness, but the novels go deeper. In this fifth novel we find Thorne adrift, hardly able to work, until the murders of two homeless men prompt him to ask his superiors to let him go undercover in search of information that might help catch the murderer. Since this is Tom Thorne the assignment doesn't go well, he and his colleagues make some serious mistakes, and Thorne becomes even more unsure of himself. What I particularly liked about this book was the development of Thorne's relationships with the homeless people he encountered, especially the young couple, Spike and Caroline, badly damaged but still struggling to make a life for themselves. A bit like Tom Thorne.
—Daniel Weir
Has DI Thorne sunk as low as he possible can sink? Not sure... but here, his father's dead, there's no love interest, and he's sent to do really boring, unnecessary work for Scotland Yard. To cheer himself up, or give himself something to do, he's volunteered to "live rough" to help find whomever is killing homeless people. The sad thing is, he finds it easy to fall into the life, finding a few friends to pass the time with and guide him to the best spots for free meals. Of course, he's not completely alone out there, as a few people in the force know where he is and he has a cell phone with which to check in daily. As always happens, it takes a flash of insight/coincidence for him to crack the case - all on his lonesome, even though he does have help from his colleagues. There are flashbacks here to the events that precipitated all the killings as well as the killer's POV interspersed with the investigation and I'm not sure why every Thorne book has to include that. It's a gimmick, and distracting.
—Laura
