Die of Shame
A Novel
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
A brutal murder casts suspicion on a London therapy group in this thriller from the author of The Bones Beneath: “One of my favorite new writers” (Harlan Coben).
Every Monday evening, six people gather in a smart North London house to talk about shame. Among them are a grieving surgeon, a betrayed housewife, a taunting gay model, a barely recovered heroin addict. All they have in common is a history of pain and compulsions—until they’re linked by the brutal murder of one of their members. Det. Inspector Nicola Tanner is drawn into this intimate circle to find the killer. Unfortunately, not a single one of them is willing to share.
Now it’s up to Tanner to delve into their pasts on her own. But what secret could be so shameful as to kill for it? Or die for it? And how can she possibly find the truth when lies and denial are second nature to her suspects?
From British thriller master Mark Billingham comes “one of the best crime novels of the year . . . Shocking, frightening, gripping” (The Independent).
“Billingham is one of the most consistently entertaining, insightful crime writers working today.” —Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl
“Keeps the reader guessing, and second-guessing.” —Tampa Bay Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this solid standalone from Billingham (Rush of Blood), London therapist Tony De Silva, a recovering drug addict, leads an often tense weekly session with five clients whose only connection is a history of substance abuse. When the body of recovering heroin addict Heather Finlay is found in her flat weeks after her murder, Det. Insp. Nicola Tanner takes on the case. Tanner perhaps a less compelling but no less competent copper than the author's series lead, Tom Thorne learns that Finlay was last seen after an incendiary group meeting and immediately suspects that De Silva's group is linked to the murder, but she's stymied by uncooperative group members such as anesthetist Robin Joffe, who wants to keep his past drug use hidden at work, and jilted housewife Diana Knight, who now shops instead of drinking. Shifting between past group sessions and Tanner's present-day investigation, Billingham builds a complex plot that is as much a whodunit as it is an examination of addiction and the lies people tell themselves to survive.
