Rabbit Hole: The new masterpiece from the Sunday Times number one bestseller

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Alice Armitage is a police officer living in a secure psychiatric hospital. She has been sectioned following a major breakdown caused by the traumatic death of a colleague that she feels responsible for. While she is in hospital a patient is murdered and Alice takes it upon herself to investigate. The story is narrated by Alice who describes her thoughts, ideas and memories throughout. It is during the telling of the story that we discover how unwell Alice is. She is paranoid and delusional, suffers with memory lapses and has huge mood swings. It soon becomes clear that nothing Alice describes can be taken as fact as so many of her memories and experiences are affected by her illness. Is she actually a Police Officer or could she have committed the murder herself even? Overall, I guess this won’t be everyone’s cuppa but I think it’s extremely good. There’s a well balanced mix of humour combined with the state of a persons mind and a crime. It flows well considering the narrators condition and kudos to the author for that. As Alice launches her investigation, we listen to the raucous banter between residents, none of whom takes Alice’s quest seriously, and we gradually realize that finding the killer is only an entrée into the real mystery here, which is taking place inside Alice’s head. Resting his award-winning Tom Thorne series, Billingham delivers a confoundingly compelling psychological thriller that, unlike many in the genre, doesn’t slight the psychology.”— Booklist Al thinks she’s ok some of the time but at other times she clearly struggles and you really feel for her. Alice (Al) Armitage previously worked in law enforcement but is currently confined to a psychiatric facility as the pressures of the job and the loss of her partner culminated in her abusing drugs and alcohol. A patient on the ward is murdered and Alice convinces herself that the police are in need of her help in the investigation.

Mark Bellingham has pulled the rabbit out of the hat on this one. The Rabbit Hole is told in a way that strikes a perfect balance between sensitively dealing with PTSD and murder whilst injecting tasteful humour throughout the book. Alice Armitage is (or, at least, believes she is) a former police officer who is now a patient on a psychiatric ward, suffering from PTSD after her partner Jonno is stabbed to death during a routine investigation. When one of her fellow patients is murdered, Alice secretly mounts her own investigation and becomes convinced she knows who the killer is. Unfortunately, a few days later, Alice’s suspect becomes the second victim. A gripping standalone thriller from the internationally bestselling author of the Tom Thorne novels. I did finish it & part of me definitely enjoyed it, but I also felt confused and was often irritated by the characters and the way it was written. Tom Thorne is one of the most credible and engaging heroes in contemporary crime fiction.”—Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus novels and The Travelling CompanionRabbit Hole is authentic, raucous and deeply compassionate. Expertly balancing humour, tension and pathos, it'll do for the psychiatric ward what The Thursday Murder Club has done for retirement villages. A deeply compelling read * Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange * Whatever the truth is, following a debilitating bout of PTSD, self-medication with drink and drugs, and a psychotic breakdown, Alice is now a long-term patient in an acute psychiatric ward. The book took me a long time to read which is never a good sign. Alice was hard to engage with although I did care what happened to her and was curious about how the book would end. Billingham is a world-class writer and Tom Thorne is a wonderful creation. Rush to read these books.”—Karin Slaughter, international bestselling author

The series of crime novels featuring London-based detective Tom Thornecontinued with Scaredy Catand was followed by Lazybones, The Burning Girl, Lifeless, Buried, Death Message, Bloodline, From The Dead, Good As Dead, The Dying Hours, The Bones Beneath, Time Of Death, Love Like Blood, The Killing Habit, Their Little Secretand the most recent Cry Baby. Mark is also the author of the standalone novels In The Dark, Rush Of Blood, Die Of Shameand his latest, Rabbit Hole. A gripping standalone thriller from the “first-rate British crime writer” and internationally bestselling author of the Tom Thorne novels ( The Washington Post ). They were meant to be safe on Fleet Ward: psychiatric patients monitored, treated, cared for. But now one of their number is found murdered, and the accusations begin to fly. A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. Immense skill and heart'Eve Chase ' Brilliant, suspenseful, poignant, heartbreaking, surprisingly funny'Linwood Barclay 'One of the most consistently entertaining, insightful crime writers working today'Gillian FlynnMY THOUGHTS: Mark Billingham is an amazing author. His depiction of Alice Armitage is brilliant, his forays into her mind, scary. Well this book is a step away from the norm ... Not in a bad way at all, and to be fair, if you are used to the author's Tom Thorne series then you will recognise nods to not only some of the characters (including a brief cameo), but also the sense of humour that is infused throughout the books. Now it is more than 'infused' in this tale - it is well and truly embedded in Rabbit Hole, a books whose setting in a secure psychiatric unit gives readers not only a whole host of potential suspects, but also a whole range of characters who will make you smile even though, in truth, you know you probably shouldn't.
At the centre of everything is out protagonist, Alice Armitage, who used to work for the police but who has found herself sectioned for the safety of both herself and those around her. A traumatic event 'on the job' led to a complete breakdown and a number of worrying occurrences which mean that, whilst being incredibly forthcoming and forthright as the narrator, also lead you to take all that she says with a pinch of salts. Afterall, few people are sectioned without due cause, and the more we learn about Alice, the more reason we have to doubt that everything she sees, everything she tells us, is entirely on the level.