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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
A lot
A child kidnapping; the threat to the child is sustained; family deception complicates the investigation
Language
Some
Some strong language
Sexual Content
Barely any
Mild content
Substance Use
Barely any
Heavy drinking
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The psychology of a family that protects its own secrets even when doing so endangers a child; Thorne's frustration at the specific kind of obstruction that comes from the victims' own people
What this book is about
A child is taken. DI Tom Thorne investigates alongside the family and discovers that the family's account of events doesn't fully hold together — and that the ransom demand points toward connections they are concealing. Mark Billingham's seventeenth Thorne novel is his most interested in the dynamics of a family under the pressure of a kidnapping — what people conceal from investigators even when concealment works against finding the child — and the investigation is conducted with the specific awareness that time is the thing Thorne cannot afford to lose.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
seventeenth Tom Thorne novel by Mark Billingham
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