Buried by Mark Billingham

BURIED is the 6th novel in Mark Billingham’s Tom Thorne series.

When Luke Mullen, the 16 year old son of a former DCI is kidnapped, Tom Thorne is lent to the kidnapping unit. Here he works with DI Louise Porter and they begin an interesting relationship.

One of their first tasks is to obtain a list of criminals who may hold a grudge against Luke’s father Tony. But as they begin to investigate the names on the list, they find a notable absence. Thorne is sure that the answer to the case lies with the man whose name has been left off the list. And Thorne’s questioning certainly doesn’t endear him to Tony Mullen.

Of course, working for the kidnapping unit means that Thorne doesn’t get to deal with dead bodies. But this soon changes with a number of murders related to the kidnapping. Soon the kidnapping and the murder units are combined and Thorne is once again working with his regular team including Dave Holland, Yvonne Kitson and pathologist Phil Hendricks.

As time goes by without Luke Mullen retrieved or the murders solved, the obvious suspects lead nowhere. Thorne and his colleagues follow a series of subtle leads to find their way.

 

I didn’t enjoy this novel as much as some of the others in the series and at times I found the story wandering a bit and failing to keep my attention. Some parts were excellent and there were some very realistic characters and situations.

There was a side story involving a racially motivated murder. I think this was a distraction from the main story and the novel may have been better without it.

I’m still enjoying Thorne and the other characters and I’m looking forward to reading the next novel in the series – DEATH MESSAGE.

 

Book Published 2006

 

See a full list of books by Mark Billingham

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