Multi-talented Mark Billingham (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Billingham#Novels_2, http://www.markbillingham.com/) began attracting admirers for his crime and mystery fiction in the early 2000’s with Sleepyhead (2001), Scaredy Cat (2002) and Lazybones (2003). He has produced a novel a year since that time, as well as writing for TV and being involved in comedy. His latest is Time of Death. The summary is as follows. Two schoolgirls are abducted in the small, dying Warwickshire town of Polesford. The effect is to drive a knife into the heart of the community where police officer Helen Weeks grew up and from which she long ago escaped. But Polesford is a place full of secrets, where dangerous truths lie buried. When it’s splashed all over the press that family man Stephen Bates has been arrested, Helen and her partner Tom Thorne head to the flooded town to support Bates’ wife – an old school friend of Helen’s – who is living under siege with two teenage children and convinced of her husband’s innocence. As the residents and media bay for Bates’ blood, a decomposing body is found. The police believe they have their murderer in custody, but one man believes otherwise. With a girl still missing, Thorne sets himself on a collision course with local police, townsfolk – and a merciless killer. This chilling mystery will keep readers guessing until the final page. Will you know the truth before the Merry Month of May is out?
Enquire at your local library or available at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Death-Tom-Thorne-Novels/dp/1408704811/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1430551057&sr=1-1&keywords=time+of+death
464 pages in Little Brown
First published 23 April 2015
ISBN 978-1408704813
Mark Billingham