Love Like Blood by Mark Billingham

Love Like Blood by Mark Billingham
Buy Love Like Blood by Mark Billingham at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Crime
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: A top-class police procedural with a twist in the tail which I didn't see coming (but all the clues were there). It's also informative about the honour system and HBV (honour-based violence) cases. Highly recommended.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 432	Date: June 2017
Publisher: Little, Brown
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-0751566888
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DI Nicola Tanner's lover, Susan, was brutally murdered as she entered the hallway of their home. She'd been driving Nicola's car and it seemed obvious that this was a case of mistaken identity: Nicola was working on honour killings and was convinced that many of the cases were contracted out to the same people. Was she getting too close? Tanner wants the killers and the go-betweens, but it's not as easy as it might be as there's no obvious route to take: several faiths are involved so it's not just a case of tracking the killers down through a family's place of worship. After Susan's death Tanner is angry and wants revenge - then she's frustrated when she's taken off the honour killings cases and put on compassionate leave. She has a solution though: she calls on the services of D I Tom Thorne who - in policing terms - is everything that she isn't.

It seems incomprehensible that a family would see the death of a child as the solution to the child's wayward behaviour, but partying, drinking, dating and possibly even taking drugs - or refusing to agree to an arranged marriage - is seen as bringing dishonour on the family. Before reading Love Like Blood I'd heard of HBV (honour-based violence) and been horrified by the concept, but I'd failed to appreciate the extent to which behaviour in young people which most of us would see as normal, perhaps as 'something they'll grow out of' is perceived as bringing dishonour on the family, even when that 'child' is well into their twenties. And 'dishonour' in some communities is not something which will pass, soon be forgotten about, but something which needs to be avenged, brutally if necessary.

Much honour-based violence goes unreported to the police for fear of reprisals: the Association of Chief Police Officers estimates that the number of victims of HBV may be up to thirty-five times higher than that reported and that the annual figure of offences is closer to 20,000. How many more people are forced to conform for fear of what might happen to them? Mark Billingham has done his research and for a work of fiction he's surprisingly informative about a problem which occasionally makes the headlines but is otherwise largely unnoticed.

We met DI Nicola Tanner in Die of Shame and Love Like Blood follows on from the end of that book. There are no major spoilers, although you will know who dies. D I Tom Thorne had a cameo appearance in Die of Shame, but he and Nicola Tanner don't actually meet until she asks for his help with regard to the honour killings. I suspect that the investigation of particular cases could be manipulated into the hands of a particular police officer in the way that's suggested, but even if it's not (or shouldn't be) possible it's worth the necessary suspension of disbelief in pursuit of such a good story.

And it is a brilliant story: I spent much of the book worrying about Nicola Tanner - that's always a sign that you've really engaged with a character. She and Thorne make a good combination, not least because they're so different: Tanner abides by the rules, worries about things like sloppily-completed expenses forms. Thorne sees the rules as a framework which can be broken if necessary. It's been remiss of me not to have read any of the D I Thorne series before and it's certainly something to be remedied.

There's quite a twist in the tale which I really wasn't expecting. Love Like Blood was a great read which I finished all too quickly and I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

Authors don't often get two of their lead characters together in a story: it's a brave move with a lot to risk. Ian Rankin brought John Rebus and Malcolm Fox together in Saints of the Shadow Bible.

Mark Billingham's D I Tom Thorne Novels in Chronological Order

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You can read more book reviews or buy Love Like Blood by Mark Billingham at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Love Like Blood by Mark Billingham at Amazon.com.

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