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Scaredy Cat (Hardcover)

by Mark Billingham (Author)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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2 new from CDN$ 61.20 12 used from CDN$ 1.26

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Product Details

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada / Fiction (Jun 7 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0066213002
ISBN-13: 978-0066213002
Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 16.3 x 3.1 cm
Shipping Weight: 676 g

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product Description

From Amazon.co.uk

Mark Billingham's Scaredy Cat is as inventive his previous serial killer novel a Sleepyhead. Detective Inspector Tom Thorne has the job of watching out for patterns and thinks he spots one--two similar killings on the same day; women followed from a mainline station and then strangled. Rapidly, though, it becomes clear that the methods differed in all sorts of ways--one killing was controlled, the other frenzied--and the timings do not work out. On a hunch, Thorne checks for other such pairings and finds them--this time two killers are working as a team, one setting the other challenges.

We know what Thorne does not, that all of this has to do with things that happened at school years ago; we also know a lot more than Thorne about the demons that drive some of his own investigating team. Billingham sets himself some complicated technical challenges here--flashes back and forwards, and closeups of killers' minds that keep crucial information from us--and some of the complications don't quite work. Overall, though, this is a terrifying exploration of brutal madness, made all the more so by touches of compassion for the killer's victims--the killer may think this a game, but we and Thorne know it is not.--Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Billingham's second thriller (after Sleepyhead) featuring London Det. Insp. Tom Thorne offers a twist on the serial killer subgenre. Brooding, melancholy Thorne heads a team of detectives who are alerted to the death of a young mother brutally strangled as her three-year-old son looks on. The body of a second murder victim, strangled in the same manner, turns up the same day, and Thorn and his team surmise they have a serial killer on their hands. The first half of the book deals with Thorne's discovery that there are really two killers at work and introduces the childhood backstory of the murderers. The second half picks up speed as the actual hunt commences. Billingham is adept at creating believable characters with ordinary and not-so-ordinary personal problems, then weaving them into the plot in surprising ways. At times, though, he pushes too hard to make Thorne's colleagues quirky: "Thorne stared at the figure in black fleece, with shaved head and a startling collection of facial piercings. Phil Hendricks was not everyone's idea of a pathologist, but he was the best Thorne had ever worked with." Thorne's gloomy internal musings on death and guilt tend to slow things down, but Billingham's handling of the plot is deft, fair and scattered with enough red herrings to open a fish and chips shop. When the mastermind behind both sets of killings is revealed in a dramatic denouement, readers will give the author his due and settle back to wait for the next installment of this dependable series.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Thorne in Your Side, Jan 25 2007

By	Craobh Rua "Craobh Rua" (N. Ireland) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Scaredy Cat (Paperback)

Mark Billingham is a former actor and stand-up comedian whose first crime novel - "Sleepyhead" - was published in 2001. "Scaredy Cat" is his second novel and, like his first, also features DI Tom Thorne as its central character. It won the 2003 Sherlock Award, and was also nominated for the CWA Golden Dagger Award. In 2005, he won the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award for "Lazy Bones".

Thorne is a member of London's Metropolitan Police and works with the Serious Crime Group - officially, they investigate crimes that don't quite 'fit' anywhere else. Known to some as 'The Weeble', he's stubborn, can be a little tactless and doesn't always play by the rules. Thorne is also divorced - he currently lives alone, is having trouble with his dad and doesn't socialise a great deal. Occasionally, he will take in a football game and a few beers with Phil Hendricks, the team's pathologist. Hendricks, it has to be said, isn't quite Quincy : he has plenty of piercings (one for each ex-boyfriend), is shaven-headed and certainly appears to be the best friend Thorne has. (As this is the first book by Billingham I've read, I have no idea what part - if any - Hendricks played in Thorne's divorce). The two officers Thorne works most closely with are Sarah McEvoy and Dave Holland. Holland, despite having a girlfriend called Sophie, has taken a serious interest in both his career and in McEvoy. McEvoy, on the other hand, has taken quite an interest in <ahem> 'someone' called 'Charlie'.

The team has been assigned to a suspected serial killer. Two women have been killed in remarkably similar circumstances. One, a single mother called Carol Garner, was strangled at home in front of her three-year old son. She had just returned from visiting her parents in Birmingham and it's believed the killer followed her from Euston Station. The other, Ruth Murray, was found on a street just behind King's Cross Station. However, a close examination reveals some strange differences between the two victims. When the details of two unsolved stabbings about six months previously are added, it becomes clear the team have two serial killers working together. The identities of the two killers - Dave Palmer and Stuart Nicklin - are revealed very early in the book. It's clear, however, that Nicklin has always been the one very much in control - he plans the killings and has somehow manipulated Palmer into taking part. We only gradually learn of their past and the importance of a girl called Karen to both of them.

Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a bit - it was very easily read and Thorne reminded me a little of Harry Bosch, Michael Connelly's LAPD investigator. However, the mood in "Scaredy Cat" seems a little lighter than in anything I've read by Connelly. I would possibly suggest reading Billingham's books in order - there were a few nods to the events of "Sleepyhead", the first book to feature Thorne. While I haven't read it just yet - though I do plan to - I have the impression that Billingham gave away a little more about that book than I would've liked. Recommended all the same.

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