Donna Langford has spent the last ten years of her life in prison, found guilty of conspiracy to murder her violent husband Alan. His body was found charred beyond recognition in his burnt-out car, the victim of a killer paid by Donna to end her living nightmare as his long-suffering wife. But now she has served her time, and even has someone waiting on the outside for her – a fellow inmate, Kate, to whom she has become close.
Just before her release, however, Donna is sent the first in a series of photos showing her husband alive and well, apparently living the good life overseas. Even worse, her daughter has disappeared from the home of her foster parents, and Donna is worried that the two events are linked – so much so that she enlists the help of Anna Carpenter, a private detective, to help her trace the man she thought was safely gone from her life forever.
New Case for Tom Thorne
Meanwhile, life isn't easy for Detective Inspector Tom Thorne either. His relationship with girlfriend Louise is not going smoothly, and his professional life is no better, enmeshed as he is in an attempt to convict a man of murder with no body. Yet when Anna comes to him for help, he cannot resist the lure of a case he was involved in a decade ago, particularly as the photographs seem to have triggered a fresh wave of killings. This bloody trail eventually leads Thorne to Spain, in a bid to track down Alan Langford and see that justice is done.
From the Dead is the ninth of Mark Billingham's novels to star Tom Thorne, and is one of the best. All the regular characters - Thorne, his plain-talking pathologist friend Phil Hendricks, the infinitely patient Louise – are all present and correct, but the addition of the likeable young Anna brings fresh impetus to the character relationships as Thorne finds himself unavoidably drawn to her. The plotting is as tightly paced as ever, with several shocks along the way, and most readers will be tempted to get through the book in one sitting.
Thorne Sky 1 TV Series
The first two Tom Thorne novels, Sleepyhead and Scaredy Cat, have recently been televised by Sky 1, with David Morrissey as Thorne and Aidan Gillen as Hendricks; any new readers who have turned to the books as a result of the hit show will surely not be disappointed with From the Dead.
Source:
- From the Dead by Mark Billingham is published in paperback in the UK by Sphere (2011), ISBN 978-0-7515-4003-1.
Elizabeth Gregory - Liz graduated from Manchester University with a BA (Hons) in English Language & Literature, and also holds an MA in Literature from the ...
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