To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. p>Sign up to the Little, Brown newsletter for news of upcoming publications, competitions and updates from our authors. However the book is still full of the usual world weary cynicism and sarcasm that we have come to know and love and Thorne and Hendricks make a great double act. To sum up, Time of Death is a bloody excellent thriller with real depth of character, and Tom Thorne, Billinghams's main character, has become an excellent creation - an Everyman copper, who you'd quite like to sit down and share a pint with, but keep him away from the jukebox or you could end up line dancing down the high street after a bellyful of strong ale. La lecture de 'Time of Death' est très agréable, mais je n'ai pu m'empêcher de ressentir une certaine frustration à certains moments: une enquête dépourvue d'action, qui ne repose que sur des spéculations, une impression de remplissage avec des banalités, un manque de crédibilité quant au mode opératoire du coupable, .

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. The books here are primarily of the Historical Fiction or Science Fiction bent with some Thrillers and Crime thrown in - but there are happy exceptions. I've written so many reviews recently complaining about too many commas, too many similes, appalling spelling and grammar, having to go back through a book due to not remembering who So-and-So is. If you enjoy police procedural novels with great characterisation then this series is the one for you.Despite having no official roll to play, Thorne investigates on his own and becomes convinced that, despite overwhelming evidence of his guilt, the police have got the wrong man. Though the plot was reasonably interesting, and the writing witty and entertaining, it all seemed a bit unrealistic an idea.

And it was not a “cosy mystery” – which I rarely like – and there was not much graphic violence – which I also don’t like. Yes, it did get better once Hendricks, Thorne's pathologist best mate, pitched up half way through and no, I can't say I've particularly taken to Helen, even though I now know much more about her. There are detailed forensics which also adds to my enjoyment as I love the finer points that lead to the police getting their man! Thorne and his partner police officer Helen Weeks are on a trip to the small Warwickshire town of Polesford where an old school friend of Helen's is in trouble and in great need of comfort and assurance, her partner Stephen Bates having been arrested and accused of murder.The novel is very well-written and the mystery thoroughly satisfying – I didn’t guess what would happen and that’s always a bonus.