Book Summary and Reviews of In the Dark by Mark Billingham

In the Dark by Mark Billingham

In the Dark

A Novel

by Mark Billingham

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  • Published:
  • Oct 2008, 384 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A Deadly Crash.

A rainy night in south London. A gun is fired into a car, which swerves onto the pavement and plows into a bus stop. It seems that a chilling gang initiation has cost the life of an innocent victim. But the reality is far more sinister. . . .

A Dangerous Quest.

One life is wiped out and three more are changed forever: the young man whose finger was on the trigger, the ageing gangster planning a deadly revenge, and the pregnant woman who struggles desperately to uncover the truth. How will she, two weeks away from giving birth, now cope in a world where death is an occupational hazard?

A Shocking Twist.

In a city where violence can be random or meticulously planned, where teenage gangs clash with career criminals and where loyalty is paid for in blood, nothing is possible. Secrets are uncovered as fast as bodies, and the story's final twist is as breathtakingly surprising as they come.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Best known for the Det. Insp. Tom Thorne series, Billingham does for South London what Richard Price does for Manhattan's Lower East Side in Lush Life.

"Americans who think the bleak world George Pelecanos brings to life is limited to the nation's capital will find Billingham's atmospheric maze of London byways just as sprawling and squiggling with desperate cops and robbers." - Kirkus Reviews.

This information about In the Dark 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.

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Author Information

Mark Billingham Author Biography

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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