The Burning Girl

Tom Thorne #4

by Mark Billingham

A contract killer is carving his way through North London's criminal underworld, leaving a bloody X on his victims' backs and taking Billy Ryan's gang down one thug at a time. Detective Inspector Tom Thorne and his team know there's a turf war going on, but who's attempting to take over Ryan's racket isn't quite clear. When DCI Carol Chamberlin comes out of retirement to work on the cold case squad and asks Thorne for help solving an old murder, the past and present catch up in what looks like a continuation of a twenty-year-old gang war. And when someone carves an X in Thorne's door, a fuse is lit that stretches from the eponymous burning girl of the title--Chamberlin's old case--to the gang war that's lighting up the London sky. It's a clunky plot that relies on telling more than showing, slowing down the pace and makeing it difficult for the reader to care about any of the principals involved--either the victims or those who seek justic for them. Billingham has written better thrillers (Lazybones, Scaredy Cat), but this one doesn't live up to their promises. --Jane Adams

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Detective, British Literature, Procedural

450 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Also writes as Will Peterson with Peter Cocks.

Mark Billingham was born and brought up in Birmingham. Having worked for some years as an actor and more recently as a TV writer and stand-up comedian his first crime novel was published in 2001. Mark lives in North London with his wife and two children.

Reviews

[Jaksen · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, I only read this book one time if it says anywhere I read it twice.

Second, I'd never choose this book to read twice. (Sorry, Mr. Billingham.)

After reading books 1, 2 and 3 in this series I looked forward to #4, but seriously it was a disappointment. Jumbled. Confusing. With one of my favorite detectives going hither and thither, not to mention breaking a law here or there, it was an uninteresting, kind of pale read in a series which I was really enjoying. Will one book destroy my interest in continuing? Nah.

Thorne is on the hunt for whoever is killing people and marking their backs with a giant X. To complicate matters we have a sort of feud/war/dispute going on between rival gangs involved in prostitution, people smuggling, as well as ordinary graft and crime like selling illegal CD's etc. Thorne spends a lot of time with an 'older woman' who was once a DI and though retired, is working on some cold cases. (She's the best part of this book.) There's also this fellow in prison who claims he didn't burn the girl in the title. He's soon to be released and wants a deal of police protection if he names the 'real killer,' or helps the police with the gang issues.

But seriously, I can't be bothered going into the myriad reasons I gave this one a C+ rating, or three stars. It's an all right read, just kind of dull and as for the ending? Meh.

Yeah, Meh.

Three stars.

[Best Crime Books & More · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have thoroughly enjoyed the Thorne series up until now, however I have to be honest and say that I struggled a little bit with this latest book (the 4th in the series). The writing itself is still great although in this particular book I found it more difficult to get into the story. When corpses appear with an X marked into their skin, Thorne is as usual tied up with the case. Enter the organized crime Boss Billy Ryan and the stage is set. However, for some reason the booked lacked the spark that previous books have had.

Recurring characters such as Chamberlain and Tughan appeared but I just felt like they didn’t go anywhere. I’m actually struggling to review this book as although it was far from terrible, it almost felt like it was written in a hurry or without any real spark, which is certainly a world away from the usual Billingham style. The chapters flowed relatively well but the overall feeling was that it was failing to spark any real interest, beyond completing another stage of the Thorne books.

I’m still certainly a fan of Chamberlain and hope we continue to see her in future books. However, I was disappointed with the lack of characters featured such as Holland and Hendricks. It may sound like I am being really picky and I promise you I’m not. I’m sadly failing to be all that articulate either, but I think you get the gist.

Overall, it seems like this book was solidly written but lacked its usual oomph. Having said that I will eagerly move on to book 5 as soon as my ridiculously long reading list

[Ian Mapp · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series is getting a bit stupid... I thought the last one was stupid and this follows the pattern completely. Here we have a really over the top body count (if this was any way based on reality, the army would have bee ncalled in) and has our useless police actually torturing a criminal with an iron! Highly likely.

The story has london gangland members and turkish people trafficers at its core. The burning girl refers to an historical where one of the gangland members daughters was targetted to be killed by being doused in petrol and set alight at school. Unfortunately, her friend was targetted by mistake. On the eve of her killers release from prison, there is a copy cat event and the man arrested denies his involvement, taking a spell inside for murder to get away from people looking for him.

All hokum. And the people trafficing story does not even warrant discussion.

There are two things going for series - one is its quite nice that the police are portayed as so usual, but going as far as the iron torture seems a bit ott... the other is the london locations. Pubs that I know are well described.

[Baba · Rating 2 out of 5]

2012 read: Tom Thorne book No. 4. Sees DI Thorne cross the line in his search for the X-Man contract killer and working on the cold case of the burning girl. Although darker than the first two books in this series, not as good. 6 out of 12

2004 read: The fourth in the Tom Thorne series after Sleepyhead, Scaredy Cat and Lazybones. Dead case expert Carol Chamberlain, returns as Thorne's latest case has striking similarities to a case she supposedly solved years before - So if a criminal has been caught and convicted so long ago, has she also been receiving phone calls about the crime? Chamberlain turns to Thorne for help. A bit of shark jumping in this book (like a number of Brit serials) harkends the beginning of the end of what was once a great series? 4 out of 12!

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am still a fan of Billingham but this story of a girl burned badly twenty years ago was meandering. The perpetrator Gordon Rooker was caught and imprisoned but now claims he was innocent. There also is a gangland war between an Irish and Turkish gang with a brutal hitman called the X killer.

Thorne reunites with Chamberlain and she wants to resolve the burning girl case. The three Turkish brothers and their father versus the cold blooded Ryan gang is entertaining if improbable. We have dodgy videos snd human trafficking.

Thorne also crosses the moral line twice in this story. I felt the story lacked the complexity and surprises of his previous novels. I still will stick with the series as I like the location being London with some familiar landmarks.

SPOILERS AHEAD

In the end we find Rooker is the arsonist and in collusion with the Turkish gang not run by the brothers but the Baba or father. Thorne works it out and after sleeping with Ryan’s ex tells her Ryan was responsible for the burning girl and ultimately her suicide. She then proceeds to stab Ryan to death. Thorne then tells the father where Rooker is and that he is the arsonist.

[Sharon Mccall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am glad I have finally gotten around to reading Mark Billingham and they only get better as we get on in the series.

In The Burning Girl a past case that has haunted cold case worker Carol Chamberlain is brought to attention after she starts receiving notes and calls hinting that the person who is currently in jail for the murder may not be the killer.

Bringing this to Thorne who is currently working on a case with a killer who likes to carve an X into the back of his victims throw in some gangland rivalry stir it up and you get past and present muddying the waters in both cases.

But how far will you go to get answers? is there a line you wont cross? And could you live with yourself if you crossed it? Could you live with the possible consequences? This is the questions Billingham asks at the end of the novel of Thorne.

We also have Thorne's father and his alzheimers and how Thorne realises the circle of life when the child's role is no longer that of son but that there comes a time when the parent is the one who needs looking after.

Thorne's reticence in dealing with this is a good representation of the frustrations of a lot of people going through this with their own families and having to deal with the pressures of work as well.

I look forward to book 5 :)

[LJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE BURNING GIRL (Police Procedural-London-Cont) – G+
Mark Billingham – 4th in series
Little Brown, 2004 – U.K. Hardcover
Detective Inspector Thomas Thorne is in the middle of an investigation of what appears to be contract killings. A former colleague asks for his help with an old case of a girl, mistaken for the daughter of a mob boss, is murdered. It shortly becomes clear the two cases are, in fact, linked.
*** Billingham is a very good writer, but I always feel as though I’m missing bits of background. It’s hard to pinpoint. The character of Thorne is all there, but I still don’t feel I know him. Certainly the plots are tight, the settings well done, the dialogue realistic but there is always something that leaves me just a touch unsatisfied.

[Val Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the English novelist Mark Philip David Billingham and I enjoy his books so when my daughter gave me The Burning Girl for Christmas, I was delighted. He was born and brought up in Birmingham, England and worked for some years as an actor, TV writer and stand-up comedian before his first crime novel, Sleepyhead, was published in 2001. His series of "Tom Thorne" crime novels are best-sellers in this particular genre.Mark now lives in North London with his wife and two children.

The Burning Girl was Mark Billingham's fourth novel led by his protagonist, Detective Inspector Tom Thorne. It tells a tale of turf warfare between gangs in London. Billy Ryan is the organised crime boss who is moving into someone else’s patch but that someone is not best pleased. In The Burning Girl Thorne agrees to help out ex-DCI Carol Chamberlain rake through the ashes of an old case that has come back to haunt her. It is the case of schoolgirl Jessica Clarke was turned into a human torch twenty years ago. Jessica was the victim of mistaken identity. The intended target was the daughter of a gangland boss, a woman who would grow up to marry a man named Billy Ryan.

Now, Gordon Rooker, the man Chamberlain put away for the crime, is up for possible release, and it seems there’s a copycat at large. Or perhaps it is someone trying to right some wrongs. So, Thorne and Chamberlain face a contract killer who carves and X into his victim's back. The X is carved in blood. When DI Tom Thorne finds a man's corpse he believes this is the latest victim of a singularly vicious contract killer. It involves more killings, protection rackets, human cargoes, and a murderous family without and then an X is carved on his front door.

For Thorne, what starts as a tenuous link becomes two pieces of the same puzzle. Past and present fuse together to form a new, and very nasty riddle. This is a morbid and messy mystery with plenty of clues and Tom Thorne knows that the smouldering embers of a long dead case are about to erupt into flames.

Billingham also makes Thorne more real by dealing with his father's alzheimers. The reader experiences Thorne's qualms as he realises the circle of life when the child's role is no longer that of son but that now his father is the one who needs looking after. Thorne is reticent in his dealings with this problem. Billingham shares Thorne's frustrations experienced by a lot of people going through this with their own families and having to deal with the pressures of work as well.

Mark Billingham's books never disappoint. Several others are reviewed on this site, including: Sleepyhead, http://bookreviewstoday.wordpress.com..., The Dying Hours http://bookreviewstoday.wordpress.com... and In The Dark, http://bookreviewstoday.info/2013/04/.... I really enjoyed The Burning Girl and highly recommend it.

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many of the leading police procedural writers such as Ian Rankin and Michael Connelly, Billingham has an easy but engaging writing style and a well developed, flawed, driven but sympathetic main character. The pages flip past without any real sense of the reader having do any work. This I think is a strong positive; clear, engaging, economical prose, with realistic scenes and dialogue. The Burning Girl is a solid piece of storytelling, but for me the book lacked the bite or spark that would have given it some needed suspense. The plot seemed a little aimless at times, as if Billingham wasn’t quite sure where it was going, and there were a couple of plot devices I didn’t really understand, such as the investigation being wrapped up and the team being disbanded even though the case was clearly not over. And the internal police tension amongst team members seemed staged. In contrast, the lives, politics and tactics of gang rivalry and prison life was more convincing. Overall, a solid, entertaining read, but not quite out of the top draw.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

One star ratings from me are a did not like, two stars are 'it was okay'. I feel like one star is low but it wasn't okay for me.

Way too long, the plot was lost amidst chapters of wanderings about the lives of random characters, of Thorne just moving from place to place moaning about life and eating or drinking. It needed such a good edit and would have been better 200 pages lighter.

The book was called 'The Burning Girl' but she was such a minor part of the book that I kept forgetting that she was even involved. A genuinely interesting plot hidden in gangland wars and a cast of names so large I couldn't tell individuals apart so in my mind they were just one.

There were some twists but only because they had no context or bwvause we didn't see into the lives of some of those involved.

I don't know. There were parts I enjoyed, some of the dark, wry humour and some of the twists and turns, and overall I did stick with it, but it just fell flat for me.

[Louise McAuliffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fourth DI Thorne instalment and I’ve got to say this one lacked oomph or any real spark. The plot was slightly silly- gangland murders, rivalry between a 2 families and an old case of a burning girl still as haunting as it was 20 years ago.
The writing was great but I felt that the characters weren’t really developed- and the plot just went through the motions. The dead body count also seemed unrealistic in trying to add excitement and drama. I wanted more of the relationship between Thorne and his dad as these parts were realistic, and humorous. Hopefully book five is a bit more enjoyable.

[Bluedaizy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a little tough to read. Not because of the subject matter or the "action" but because there was quite a bit of "Englishisms" I didn't understand. Once I got past that it was a very quick read. But I can't remember the end....hmmmmm. You know what? I'm not done with it yet. geesh...be back later.

[Mark Harrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Big fan of the series but not this book. Caught in a gang war and looking at the horrific murder of a girl years earlier Tom Thorne faces many challenges. All very disjointed I thought with long passages of the narrative wasted on trivialities. Normally the stories race along and are totally compelling but this just failed to grip. I am sure book five will be a welcome return to form.

[Maria Moska · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boring and confusing, too much going on, things just left, I kept thinking where are we going with this, what was the point of telling us that. I had to finish it as I don't like to leave a book half read, but it certainly took some reading.

[Carey · Rating 2 out of 5]

My least favourite so far.

[Sandie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gang war has broken out in the town where Thorne works. There are the old school English gang and the new Indian gang. Can the police step in before everything explodes? Four men have also been murdered, their backs carved with a huge X. Is this more of the gang rivalry or is a serial killer at work?

Everything seems to lead back to twenty years ago when a twelve year old girl was burned on her school playground. She survived but the scars and life afterwards was so horrific that she killed herself later. The ironic part is that the target wasn't even her; it was the English gang's leader's daughter. Back then everyone assumed it was the second in command who hired it so that he could push out the leader and he did take command after the attack.

But now the man who has been in prison for twenty years for the crime is saying that he never did it, that he knows who was behind it and will testify and let the police bring down the gang. Can he be believed?

This is the fourth Tom Thorne book. It is different as it portrays a police force in what is probably much more common in their work than the capture of serial killers. Most cities have gangs and the police are in constant battle with them. Thorne has a romance but like most of his romances, it seems doomed to be short term. This book is recommended for mystery readers.

[Icy_Space_Cobwebs · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE BURNING GIRL is Book 4 in author Mark Billingham's DI TOM THORNE Series. Appropriately named, DI Thorne is "a thorn in the side" of many, including his superiors, colleagues, as well as criminals; and occasionally the reader as well. He is not a character I've been able to warm up to, nor are there many in this mystery to whom I did, except possibly Carol, retired DI, assigned to cold cases, who can never forget one particular case, her first; and pathologist Phil Hendricks, "a real character. " (smile)


This is my first exposure to Thorne. I've seen a lot of praise, but I am unsure as to whether I will try to continue this Series: maybe not soon.

[CarolineFromConcord · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this author because someone said he was good, and I admit the story of vicious gangland wars and compromised London policemen was well done -- if you like noir. I really hate noir. I stuck with the book because Detective Tom Thorne's cogitations interested me. It just turned out they were headed to a place that didn't interest me. I skimmed the last couple chapters to avoid having nightmares.

The basic plot: A 14-year-old girl was badly burned 20 years ago and now someone is claiming he did the deed even though there's a guy in prison who confessed. Meanwhile disgusting murders are occurring with frequency, apparently part of two London gangs fighting for supremacy, one that is Turkish. It's all "tit for tat." If one side kills someone, you can be sure that the other side will retaliate. This is not usually my kind of mystery, but I wanted to see why people I admire liked it, and it did fit the current need to get lost in stories while I wait for the Covid vaccine!

I always enjoy learning more slang from the UK.

[Gregoire · Rating 3 out of 5]

un polar honnête sur la guerre des gangs à Londres et la police au milieu qui essaie de savoir qui tue qui et pourquoi ...
il s'agit d'une série mais je n'ai lu que cette enquête (la 4e) de l'inspecteur Thorne qui me semble assez réaliste quant à la description des milieux mafieux actuels mais aussi de ses états d'âme, de son entourage, leurs motivations etc bref dans l'ensemble un bon moment de lecture

[Paul Holden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hugely enjoyable as always, but the ending let it down.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written but not as good as his other mysteries. It was a little slow with no resolution of certain plot lines. It didn’t engage me and I missed the development of some of the characters that I liked in his previous mysteries. Not sure if I will read another of his books though the descriptions of some of them sound good.

[Paul Shepherd · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the di thorn books, but this one rambled a bit

[Billy Ferguson · Rating 3 out of 5]

**Some spoilers**

I mean, I liked it, it was good, but I didn't turn the pages with the same determination as I have done with previous books in the Tom Thorne series.

I'm usually a sucker for gangland related story-lines, and I really enjoyed Billingham's stand-alone novel "In The Dark" which is centred around gangs. However this didn't really do it for me, even if it was still fairly enjoyable.

Usually, when I finish a book, there is always something that sticks with me - either good or bad. In this case it was good, and it was the extracts from Jessica's diary. The words were moving and do raise issues and questions regarding public perception of burn victims.

Further, the ending to the novel has a sense of realism to it all. In modern day gangland and organised crime, rarely do the men at the top, the men organising it all, find themselves caught out, at least not by the law anyway, and so it was here.

So, in that sense, the realism portrayed is definitely a plus point,no dramatic ending that seems unbelievable and unrealistic, but I guess you could look at it in a way that that realism has prevented any major twist occurring, thus the lack of suspense.

It is a mark, though, of how good the Thorne series are and a credit to Mark Billingham as a writer that a book I didn't fully enjoy can still come away with 3-stars.

[Old Man Aries · Rating 2 out of 5]

Partiamo dicendo che vorrei sapere chi è quel genio che ha deciso di tradurre un titolo come "The burning girl" in "Segni di sangue" che, tra l'altro, non c'entra una fava col contenuto del romanzo.Detto questo passiamo a parlare del secondo romanzo di Billingham da me letto... e purtroppo non posso dire granché.Non che sia scritto male, tutt'altro, ma semplicemente non è riuscito a coinvolgermi: la vicenda, piuttosto promettente all'inizio, finisce poi per mettere tanta carne al fuoco da non riuscire a generare una suspence adeguata; la sensazione che ho avuto è stata di continuare a leggere un prologo fino a quando non è arrivata la fine del romanzo: il che, me lo concederete, lascia un po' spaesati.Inoltre i personaggi, che hanno tutte le potenzialità per diventare tridimensionali, spesso e volentieri rimangono piatti, poco vivi.Peccato, perché gli ingredienti perché venisse fuori un bel thriller c'erano ed anche perché il romanzo che avevo letto in precedenza dello stesso autore non mi era affatto dispiaciuto: questo raggiunge (ovviamente nei miei gusti personali) la sufficienza scarsa solo perché comunque non è scritto male.Ora il dubbio è: quale dei due è stata l'eccezione? Mi toccherà probabilmente concedergli un'ultima possibilità... speriamo.

[Mona · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's no wonder a television series was recently built around Mark Billingham's Detective Inspector Tom Thorne. "The Burning Girl" is the fourth in a gritty series about the hardboiled police detective, who works in a Serious Crimes unit. Someone sets fire to a playground, seriously harming a 14-year-old girl. Is it the work of a psycho, or is it a contract hit? Amid gang wars breaking out in greater London, DI Tom Thorne investigates, and opens a can of worms.

Each of the Tom Thorne novels features a different heinous crime. All four that I've read so far have been fast-paced and full of action. Billingham's characters are memorable and leave a lasting impression, even the minor ones. Tom Thorne has his quirks (doesn't get along well with some of his colleagues), but he grows on you. The villains are indeed villainous and are worthy opponents. The recurring supporting characters, particularly DC Holland, ex-DCI Carol Chamberlain and pathologist Hendricks, each have their own interesting back stories. I'm looking forward to the other books in the series.

[Shan W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

He's definitely toned it down. On the gore. On the grit. But still a brilliant read. The ending definitely eats at you, and you'd feel like ripping the book apart, because it's not going to give you even the tiniest fraction of closure.

His writing style is amazing most of the time. The few times that I got truly annoyed was when he kept switching POV. It's usually written in that specific character's POV. And then out of the blue he'll switch to omnipresent POV, so he can foreshadow about something that'll happen. It's very annoying, and honestly a bit amateurish. This didn't stop the book from being bloody awesome though.

As usual, the characters are extremely well drawn out, and they each have their own backstory, and their own personalities. This is what makes Billingham's books believable - his characters. More than anything else.

Not as impressive as Sleepyhead or LazyBones.

[Jenn Mather Nessen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never heard of this book or author before, so I jumped into book four of this series. It was nothing like I had predicted it would be! I expected your predictable detective chases serial killer, in this case over burning bodies, and then the detective becomes victim at the end and ends up a hero blah blah blah... that is so typical of detective series books. I was in for a treat. It did not matter if I had ever read a book in this series, the main detective was just one of many characters that this story revolved around. There were several sub-plots that went on in the story...were they linked? Or how many? And did this book have to do with serial killers burning girls at all? Thats what I probably liked best, I was completely proved wrong about so many things and kept guessing and coming up with new theories that I couldn't put the book down.

[Tracey Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A man who kills for money...A brutal vendetta...A cop who is playing with fire"
The overriding question in my mind on finishing this book is: How on earth is DI Tom Thorne still in a job? As this is book 4 in the Thorne series and I have another 8+ to catch up I guess I'll be asking this for some time.
The Burning Girl is set against the background of London gangland warfare dating back over 20 years.There's some very nasty violence but not so much that I couldn't read on (as has been the case with some gangland crime novels).
The reader (and no-one else) gets to see through some chinks in Thorne's hard man armour to the human being inside. Since the TV adaptations I've been unable to visualise Thorne as anyone but David Morrissey, but that's not such a bad thing.
A cracking read with more twists and turns than a corkscrew. Highly Recommended

[Anetq · Rating 2 out of 5]

Feels a bit like mid-season in a tv-series: Ourhero just keeps moving further and further into the darkness... And it' season three or four, so they seem to have turned everything up a bit too high and overdone it. The murders, the gangland plots (past and current) the murderers, the going off book, the personal drama... And does every single woman he sleeps with have to turn out to be a murderer? It's getting to be a cliché
And he is REALLY not having much luck with the ladies - they keep being even more trouble than he is.

[Ralph Blackburn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Burning Girl by Mark Billingham(Tom Thorne#4)- Very slow going this police procedural. I've enjoyed a half dozen of these books, but this one just put me off. Too much wool-gathering and self absorption. I expect in most detective novels a momentary lapse of action and brief flashes of insight- here they drag on forever until all you're left with is filler. If it was edited down to a novella then it would have a more substantial impact. Just my opinion. I'll no doubt keep reading the series as Thorne and his milieu still interest me and the other entries were well above par.