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A Detective Miller Novel
Detective Miller is back and investigating his most perplexing case yet.
The Shadow Step: One taken simultaneously by a pair of dancers facing the same direction, one of them behind and slightly shifted leftwards ("in the shadow").
A perfectly executed shadow step demonstrates synchronized elegance. It showcases a couple in near telepathic harmony with one another. It does not normally end with someone stone-dead in a lake.
DS Declan Miller is a magnet for strange cases, but an innocent man confessing to the crime? That's a first. Things rapidly escalate when the murder that isn't really a murder attracts the unwanted attention of a drug Queenpin, a deranged ex-squaddie, and a lovesick gangland enforcer. And when a real murder follows – and a student is kidnapped – all evidence points back to the same innocent man.
Throw in a wobbly dog, a pair of ceramic leopards, and the distracting smell from a biscuit factory, and Miller's only option to save a young man's life is to waltz all the way into the shadows.
"Combining humor, pathos, and genuine surprise, it's another home run from Billingham." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"This is one rambling and wildly funny tale ... Not spiraling out of control, by any means, this is as carefully plotted as expected from Billingham." —Booklist
"The third story featuring the clever and acerbic Declan Miller (following The Wrong Hands) is the latest in a long line of sharp and intelligent detective mysteries crafted by the immensely talented Billingham. His lead is a wonderfully enigmatic character whose idiosyncrasies mask deep emotional pain." —Library Journal
This information about The Shadow Step was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Mark Billingham has twice won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, the Sherlock Award for the best detective created by a British writer, and in 2026, he was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger for an outstanding lifetime contribution to the genre. His books, which include the critically acclaimed Tom Thorne series, have been translated into twenty-five languages and have sold more than six million copies. He lives in London.
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