April 30, 2012
A hostage situation turns personal in Billingham’s crackling 10th suspense thriller featuring Det. Insp. Tom Thorne (after 2010’s From the Dead). Javed Akhtar is convinced that his 16-year-old son, Amin, was recently murdered in the Barndale Young Offenders Institution—where Amin was serving an eight-year sentence following the death of another boy during a scuffle—even though everything points to suicide. Akhtar snaps one morning and takes two hostages in his London news shop, including Det. Sgt. Helen Weeks, who appeared in Billingham’s stand-alone In the Dark. As tactical teams and a hostage negotiator gather outside, Akhtar stands firm: he’ll only talk to Thorne, who originally investigated the case that put Amin away. At Barndale, Thorne uncovers secrets Amin kept from his parents, secrets involving powerful people who would do anything to keep certain information under wraps. Billingham never lets the tension lag as the hours tick by, the desperation and Thorne’s dogged determination palpable.
Starred review from June 1, 2012
The clock is ticking for London detective Tom Thorne. A news agent, Akhtar, is holding detective Helen Weeks of the Child Protection Unit hostage in his shop, demanding justice. A year ago, Akhtar's teenage son Amin died in a juvenile detention center in what was wrongly ruled a suicide. Unless Thorne finds who killed the boy, the grieving father will do something terrible. In what could be his commercial breakthrough novel in the States, British author Billingham serves up suspense on multiple fronts. In the shop, Weeks and a frightened male banker are handcuffed to a radiator and subjected to the normally pleasant news agent's dangerous mood swings. Immediately outside, a battery of armed, high-tech cops are chomping at the bit to do their thing, impatient with a female hostage negotiator's slow, by-the-books methods. And Thorne, re-investigating a case involving a clash between bullying white kids and Pakistani youths that resulted in Amin killing a white kid with the kid's kitchen knife, immerses himself in the corrupt culture in and around the Barndale Young Offenders Institution. Secrets are revealed, notably that Amin was gay and frequented clubs where he took money for sex from men with reputations to protect. The book is an ingeniously constructed effort that unfolds with pinpoint timing, building to exciting finishes on all fronts. Thorne draws on his own rough beginnings to empathize with the young victims and his own busted relationship with a fellow cop following her miscarriage to empathize with Weeks, mother of a baby son. Billingham does an especially good job in his descriptions of Weeks' steadfast efforts to remain calm at gunpoint and in the face of Akhtar's polar inconsistencies. Thorne's sidekicks are winning. This great novel should put Billingham in the same league as Ian Rankin, Peter Robinson, John Harvey and Denise Mina.
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May 1, 2012
Billingham's procedurals about London police detective Tom Thorne have been a bit uneven in recent years, but the tenth series installment is a rock-solid, fast-paced entry that should please fans and newbies alike. Detective Helen Weeks, a single mother we first met in In the Dark (2008), stops at a newsagent for her usual chewing gum and chocolate, only to find herself held at gunpoint by shop owner Javed Akhtar. Akhtar's son, Amin, has died in prison, an apparent suicide. But Javed thinks it was murder and wants Thornethe man who sent Amin downto prove it and will hold Weeks and another hostage captive until he does. Thus begins a frantic race as Thorne reinvestigates both Amin's death and the original crime and concludes that Javed just might be right. Meanwhile, Weeks tries to keep her fellow hostage from putting them both in further danger. Billingham's twisty coincidences may be a bit much for hard-nosed realists, but he's a pro, and this is well-crafted, page-turning entertainment. Thorne and his compatriots are flawed, compelling, and utterly human, making this several notches above much similar fare.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)