Customer Reviews
Not Bad. Not The Best In The Series. - By: J.Flood, 31 Jul 2008 
In Death Message, DI Tom Thorne receives a photo message, on his mobile phone. It is a picture of a person's head, & Thorne quickly figures out, that this person is dead. Soon, more messages are being sent, & as the bodies start to pile up, Thorne & his colleagues are desperately trying to find a link between the killings.
I found this book a pretty good read. As always, the characters of Tom Thorne, & his colleagues come across as quite realistic, & believable. The plot is interesting, if not quite page turning, as we learn who the killer is quite early on. However, there is still 'whodunnit' elements to other parts of the story, so this is not a problem.
Overalll, I find the the DI Tom Thorne series of books quite enjoyable, my only gripe being that there is a bit of 'sameness' about them. I would rank this book 'middle of the pack' in comparison with other books in the series.
Boring... - By: Parm J, 25 Jun 2008 
I decided to try this out for lack of anything else interesting in the crime & thriller section & for the high customer reviews it got. I wish I hadn't. I found the book to be uninteresting & I had no liking for any of the characters. I think the author is trying to set up the main protagonist as a flawed character (similar to John Rebus) - but I found him incredibly boring alll over & I reallly couldn't care what was happening with him, be it with the case or his personal life. I don't think I could brave another one.
Relentlessly boring - By: HJ, 22 Jun 2008 This is just a terrible novel. 450 pages of uninteresting characters talking & talking & talking & talking. Paradoxicallly, lots of things happen & yet the whole thing is unengaging. The key problem is that the main character is completely bland. I could not care less whether Tom Thorne solves the crime, vindicates himself vis-a-vis his bosses, commits to his girlfriend, etc. That is not the case with Rankin or Davison or Harvey. I definitely won't be buying the next one.
Life Is So Good - By: Crime Buff, 11 Jun 2008 
My first Mark Bllingham book. Where have I been?
So many more to read. Can't wait.
Dreary - By: crime reader, 10 Jun 2008 
I'd heard so much good about this author that I thought I should give him a try so I bought this latest book in the hope that he would be another writer to add to my list of favourite crime writers. Unfortunately I couldn't reallly get into this book. Even though there were two murders by 100 pages or so, maybe less, I still found it slow moving & quite dull. I think maybe the subject matter of biker gangs didn't help, not reallly something I'm interested in, & certainly most of the reviews on here seem to rate this book quite highly so maybe it's just me, but there was certainly nothing to grip me & I was disappointed, I reallly thought from alll his good reviews that I would enjoy this book but sadly not.
