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Mark Billingham Crime Fiction Writer

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  • Books
    • Sleepyhead…
    • Scaredy Cat
    • Lazybones…
    • The Burning Girl
    • Lifeless
    • Buried
    • Death Message
    • In The Dark
    • Bloodline
    • From The Dead
    • The Demands
    • Rush Of Blood
    • The Dying Hours
    • The Bones Beneath
    • Time of Death
    • Die of Shame
    • Love Like Blood
    • The Killing Habit
    • Their Little Secret
    • Cry Baby
    • Rabbit Hole
    • The Murder Book
    • The Last Dance
    • The Wrong Hands
  • Reviews
  • Tom Thorne
  • Other Writing
  • Showing Off
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  • Contact
  • Meet Tom Thorne
    • Developing A Character
    • A Man Without a Face
    • Scars
    • The Tom Thorne Novels
    • Thorne On Screen
    • Good Cop/Bad Cop
  • Tom Thorne’s Music
    • It Don’t Mean A Thang
    • Coming In The Air Tonight
    • The Smiths
    • Music To Die For
    • A Few Of Thorne’s Favourites

Scars

Thorne is an unusually character-rich policeman who carries some of the gravitas of a George Pelecanos or a James Lee Burke protagonist.
Kirkus Reviews

It is very hard to describe the character of Tom Thorne, certainly as it is now, at the end of the book I have most recently completed. I have always wanted him to be a character who carries the events of his past with him; who is scarred, inside and out by the cases, and the people that have shaped him. Those of us who write crime fiction cannot put our charac≠ters through these dreadful ordeals without writing about how they are affected. Thorne is someone who deals with violent death, with terrible grief, and it would be ludicrous, inhuman, if he remained untouched by such things. He would be no more than a cartoon. With that in mind however, it is fiendishly difficult to describe his character without giving away things that have happened in earlier books and here I am just like every other fan of crime fiction; I hate spoilers.
So… a few key facts that don’t spoil anything

  • Thorne lives in north London,
  • He works on the Metropolitan Police Murder Squad.
  • At the time of the first book, he is forty-one years old.
  • He supports Tottenham Hotspur FC.
  • He likes country music…
     
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