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Mark Billingham Roundup

So this serial killer walks into a bar…

Mark Billingham admits that crime writing and stand-up comedy are two different species—you don’t get advances for stand-up, and as a writer you don’t get heckled in person (at least not very often)—but they do share some common elements. Strong openings are essential, as are big finishes, and in-between there’s the all-important reveal. For more about Billingham's books, scroll down. For more about his alter ego, visit his official website.

When 24-year-old Alison Willetts winds up in the ICU on life support, detective Tom Thorne thinks a serial killer, who’s already claimed the lives of three young women, has made a massive mistake. But Thorne is wrong. The villain in Sleepyhead, Mark Billingham’s first novel, doesn’t want to kill his victims. He just wants to cause a stroke so severe that they’re left in a permanent comatose state. To read more, click here.
A young woman is strangled in front of her children. Across town, another woman is strangled, her body dumped behind Kings Cross station in London, England. Months earlier, two women are stabbed to death on the same day in different parts of town. For Tom Thorne, the killings can mean only one thing—two different killers working in tandem. Read more about Scaredycat.
A killer is luring serial rapists to seedy hotel rooms and leaving behind some of the most spectacular crime scenes Thorne has ever seen. How are they doing this and getting away unseen, and just who do the victims think they’re going to meet? The police force and Thorne have little sympathy for the dead, but as their investigation continues, Thorne finds a victim worth fighting for. Click here to read more about Lazybones.

Twenty years ago, a schoolgirl named Jessica Clarke, while talking with her friends in the schoolyard, was set on fire. Carol Chamberlain, the DI from Lazybones put the hired hit man who did it behind bars. Only now, the hit man says he knows who the real killer is. In Burning Girl, the past and present gradually fuse together to form a new and nasty riddle. Read more about the book, then check out this video footage of Billingham reading from the first chapter.

Want more Mark? You're in luck—he's coming to Canada this fall!
Billingham will be at the Bourchercon World Mystery Convention in Toronto, Ontario, from October 7-10, 2004, and will appear with Ian Rankin at the Vancouver Writer's Festival on October 13, 2004. For regular updates on book news, upcoming events, contests, and the author's fifth novel, join his mailing list.