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Mark Billingham

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The Burning Girl (Tom Thorne Book 4) Kindle Edition

by Mark Billingham (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.0 3,386 ratings

Book 4 of 18: Tom Thorne

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Some fires never go out ...

X marks the spot -- and when that spot is a corpse's naked back and the X is carved in blood, Detective Inspector Tom Thorne is in no doubt that the dead man is the latest victim of a particularly vicious contract killer. It's morbid and messy -- but it's a mystery with plenty of clues. This is turf warfare between North London gangs. Organized crime boss Billy Ryan is moving into someone else's territory, and that someone is ready to stand up for what he believes is his.

Thorne's got plenty on his plate when he agrees to help out ex-DCI Carol Chamberlain rake through the ashes of an old case that has come back to haunt her. Schoolgirl Jessica Clarke was lit on fire twenty years ago. Now, Gordon Rooker, the man Chamberlain put away for the crime, is up for parole, and it seems there's a copycat on the prowl.

Or perhaps it's someone trying to right a serious wrong: Jessica Clarke was the victim of mistaken identity. The intended target was the daughter of a gangland boss, a woman who would grow up to marry the current leader, Billy Ryan ...

Thorne quickly identifies a tenuous link between the two crimes, and past and present fuse together to form a new, horrifying riddle. One that involves more killings, violence, greed, and a murderous family with no values -- except gain at any price.

When an X is carved into his front door, Tom Thorne realizes that fires, once thought to be out, continue to burn.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A contract killer is carving his way through North London's criminal underworld, leaving a bloody X on his victims' backs and taking Billy Ryan's gang down one thug at a time. Detective Inspector Tom Thorne and his team know there's a turf war going on, but who's attempting to take over Ryan's racket isn't quite clear. When DCI Carol Chamberlin comes out of retirement to work on the cold case squad and asks Thorne for help solving an old murder, the past and present catch up in what looks like a continuation of a twenty-year-old gang war. And when someone carves an X in Thorne's door, a fuse is lit that stretches from the eponymous burning girl of the title--Chamberlin's old case--to the gang war that's lighting up the London sky. It's a clunky plot that relies on telling more than showing, slowing down the pace and makeing it difficult for the reader to care about any of the principals involved--either the victims or those who seek justic for them. Billingham has written better thrillers (Lazybones, Scaredy Cat), but this one doesn't live up to their promises. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

The engrossing fourth novel by British TV writer Billingham to feature London police detective Tom Thorne (after 2004's Lazybones) has a solid, traditional structure and plot, and a whiff of noir sensibility. Thorne is the solid reliable cop whom witnesses trust and colleagues appreciate. Of late, he's taken in his temporarily homeless pal, pathologist Phil Hendricks, and Billingham has fun with this odd couple (Phil is gay, messy and heavily pierced; Thorne is a Lucinda Williams–loving neatnik). Thorne's also willing to help out another friend—prickly, middle-aged ex-DCI Carol Chamberlain—who's uncovered new evidence about a case from the 1980s in which a schoolgirl was set on fire. Moral complexity clouds the picture: the man wrongly imprisoned for that heinous act is a career criminal; empathetic Thorne drifts into an affair with a key witness. A second case, equally complex, involves the murder of a Turkish video store owner, which proves to be just one of an alarming series of killings whose pattern Thorne must determine. Billingham delivers an edgy, ambitious novel with an excellent cast—just as BBC America's Mystery Monday offers a character-driven alternative to the current spate of forensics-heavy American TV police procedurals—and Morrow's betting on this one, with its hardcover-at-a-paperback-price, to break him out big.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The fourth entry in the Tom Thorne series once again finds the chip-shouldered London detective inspector and his investigative team tracking down a child predator. In this case, a prisoner who years ago confessed to dousing a schoolgirl with lighter fluid and then setting her afire claims he wasn't the perp. The fact that someone's now up to similarly gruesome tricks on the outside gives the man's story enough credibility to draw Thorne and a retired colleague into the hunt. Because the original crime was designed to spark a mob war, the cold-case investigation soon dovetails with the team's current focus on tensions between old-school British gangsters and upstart Turkish Kurds (not to mention a contract killer who carves Xs into his victims). It's a solid plot, and Thorne fans will enjoy the book. But it fails to deliver much of the intriguing personal interplay that makes the series stand out--save for a moving subplot involving Thorne's Alzheimer's-afflicted father. The detective's abnormally strident tone in the second half also makes one hope Billingham can recapture the magic next time out. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“A ruthlessly compelling novel.”

About the Author

Mark Billingham worked as an actor, a television writer, and a stand-up comedian before becoming one of the most critically acclaimed crime novelists in the world. He has written numerous bestsellers and has twice won the Theakstons Old Peculier prize for Best Novel of the Year. He lives in North London with his wife and two children.

Graeme Malcolm is an actor and Earphones Award-winning audiobook narrator. He has performed on Broadway as Pharaoh in Aida and as Sir Edward Ramsay in The King and I. His television appearances include Law & Order, Follow the River, and Mr. Halpern and Mr. Johnson (with Laurence Olivier). His film credits include A Further Gesture, The Adventures of Sebastian Cole, and Reunion.

From AudioFile

Mark Billingham weaves a morbid story of North London gang wars between the Irish Ryan and the Turkish Zarif families, and the horrific aftermath of a decades-old torching. Graeme Malcolm breathes three-dimensional life into the characters by using both syrupy and strident Irish accents, the pure Cockney of internal monologue, and the terrified gibberish of an informant with a hot iron held micrometers above his chest. When DCI Thorne asks his father--"Where would you be if you ordered a stuffed prostitute?"--Malcolm's narration makes the question sound belly-laugh funny, rather than obscene. K.A.T. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0015KGX1E
Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins e-books (October 13, 2009)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 13, 2009
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 392 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 445 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #418,927 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #6,156 in Police Procedurals (Kindle Store)
- #7,255 in Crime Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- #11,943 in Women Sleuths (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.0 3,386 ratings

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Mark Billingham

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Mark Billingham is one of the UK's most acclaimed and popular crime writers. A former actor, television writer and stand-up comedian, his series of novels featuring D.I. Tom Thorne has twice won him the Crime Novel Of The Year Award as well as the Sherlock Award for Best British Detective and been nominated for seven CWA Daggers. His standalone thriller IN THE DARK was chosen as one of the twelve best books of the year by the Times and his debut novel, SLEEPYHEAD was chosen by the Sunday Times as one of the 100 books that had shaped the decade. Each of his novels has been a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller.

A television series based on the Thorne novels was screened in Autumn 2010, starring David Morrissey as Tom Thorne and a BBC series based on the standalone thrillers IN THE DARK and TIME OF DEATH was shown in 2017.

Mark is also a member of Fun Lovin' Crime Writers. Performing alongside Val McDermid, Chris Brookmyre, Stuart Neville, Doug Johnstone and Luca Veste, this band of frustrated rockers murders songs for fun at literary festivals worldwide.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5

3,386 global ratings

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Kindle Customer

The Burning Girl

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2012

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Every one of the Tom Thorne mysteries that I have read have been outstanding. I love the British mysteries because of their complex plots (several going on at once) and how they all seem to come together. I will purchase all of the Tom Thorne mysteries as time permits

One person found this helpful

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Robyn Healy

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2017

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Very good, easy read, interesting character development. I would recommend and also read other books by the author

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2018

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I love Tom Thorne ..that being said, this book was just too long without any real closure. I will keep reading the series though. Such great writing!

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Gideon Reed

Random review of random Billingham book

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2010

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It is impossible for ANY author to **eventually** write a book that does not stink.
Suffice it to say that is NOT the case to date with Mark Billingham's work.
They are ALL top quality.
EVERY BOOK he has written to date is superior on many levels.
Subtle levels.
I have purchased (and read) every one of his Tom Thorne series and find each them to be as totally satisfying as a Don Tomas Classico,
an extra large Lagavulin and a heavily garliced Eggplant Parmigiana.
They (the books) are NOT as good as sex. Not even close.
But for police procedurals, close is not too shabby.
Coming from over thirty years; nearly thirty five years of Criminal Investigative background, I find that Mark's efforts do not disrespect the reader.
A very important element many authors ignore, at their literary and qualitative peril.
As we say in certain circles: "Kol HaKovod" Mark.
Continue writing. I'll continue buying and reading.
Oh yes,... I DO like his books.
All of them.

5 people found this helpful

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A. Ward

I really like Tom Thorne

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2012

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I am reading all the Tom Thorne novels because I like him a lot. He is flawed, often confused and self-doubting - but somehow his personality resonates with me. In this book, the young women involved are also people with whom I feel a great sympathy. The book is a bit slow in places, and a bit frustrating, because I want Tom to get to it. The conclusion, involving his father, is a surprise. I can see that it will lead to more angst in Tom's mind.

One person found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Excellent even with a BIG cliffhanging question.

Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2021

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Hopefully there will be a sequel as I enjoyed getting acquainted with all the characters; the good, the bad and the ugly. I didn't want the book to end and it didn't. I never knowingly read nor promote a cliffhanger book. This book isn't a cliffhanger but it does have a carryover which I hope is resolved in a future publication. Meanwhile, I really enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading much more from this favorite author.

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2021

Verified Purchase

I've read my last 2 MB novels and I'm afraid I was dying for both books to end. Cheesy, corny lines don't help the serious reader. I don't think I'll be coming back, unfortunately.

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2017

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Interesting characters and enjoyable story

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Top reviews from other countries

Dobroman

A good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 6, 2023

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I enjoyed this book. Definitely a good read.

AdamV

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on September 14, 2015

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Another great Tom Thorne novel.

Amazon Customer

Thorne & Billingham get better with age

Reviewed in Australia on April 28, 2014

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I'm a narrow-minded reader; once I discover a book that keeps me riveted from page one, it's difficult to try a different author. In Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne series, I'm certainly glad I took a chance. The fourth in the series, The Burning Girl, is the best so far.

Amazon Customer

A good read

Reviewed in Canada on September 16, 2015

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I enjoyes this one but not as much as the previous 3

Stacey

A great re-introduction for me...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 18, 2013

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I love reading crime fiction and began reading Mark Billingham's book quite a while ago. After taking a break, I recently picked up again with book for in the Tom Thorne series, The Burning Girl. I can't really think now why I took such a long break, but I'm so glad I got back into them.

The Burning Girl opens with a quite harrowing scene in which a girl is set on fire in her school playground and it turns out that this is being remembered by former DCI Carol Chamberlain who investigated the case of the burning girl, Jessica Clarke, years before, and put away Gordon Rooker for doing it. The twist is that she has been getting suspicious phone calls and midnight visits from a man who claims that he was the one that burned her. Has she got the wrong man?

When Chamberlain turns to Tom Thorne for help he is willing to lend a hand, but has enough on his plate with a gangland feud and bodies turning up marked with an X on their backs. Can Tom give his attention to both the old and new cases without dropping the ball?

As I said, I was really pleased to pick up this book and I've since read the next one (more later...) too. It was a really good re-introduction to Tom Thorne, who is still as oddly likeable, despite his best efforts, than ever. His traumatic last case has left physical and mental scars on him, but he is trying his best to keep it all together, including supporting his Dad who has Alzheimer's disease.

The supporting cast - Dave, Phil and Russell - are present too and offer Thorne counsel whether he wants it or not, but it was actually nice to learn a little more about their personal lives too.

What I liked best about the novel was the short pieces we were shown from the point-of-view of Jessica Clarke, the victim in Carol's case. It turns out that Jessica was not the intended victim of the original attack, but still had to live with the consequences. Thorne visits her father to get some background on her and he gives Thorne Jessica's diary. The snippets we get to read are the thoughts of a typical teenage girl, yet tinged with bitterness at her situation, and at other times with humour in the normal process of coming to terms with what happened to her. It really feels quite wrenching when you realise that the last few snippets are leading up to Jessica's eventual suicide, but these parts are nice additions, breaking up the focus on the bad guys and adding a human face to the whole thing.

Mark Billingham's books are definitely back on my reading list - I'll have to start catching up, as I see from his Twitter page that there is a new Tom Thorne novel currently at the proof stage. *must read faster*

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