Dig Deep (Buried - Mark Billingham)

Member Name: salem_witch

Product:	Buried - Mark Billingham
Date:	03/04/07 (416 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Something a little different from Billingham - a kidnapping rather than a murder.

Disadvantages: It's not as good as his previous efforts.

Having read all of Billingham’s books I was keen to get my hands on his latest book ‘Buried’ for a long time. I kept looking out for it in my library but it’s clearly a popular book and I’ve only just been able to get it even though it’s been out in hardback since May last year (for those of you interested the paperback is out this June). After loving all of his last attempts I was convinced that this was going to be a page-turner and I’d finish it in no time at all.

The book opens with a prologue, which had me hooked and wondering what relevance it had to what I read on the back of the book. It’s only short but it shows an argument between a man and a woman. What it’s all about is unclear but the woman is furious and it leads to the man pushing her. This leads to her death when she falls on a glass coffee table. From this dramatic start I was hooked and was curious to what the argument was about. I even read it again just to make sure I hadn’t missed anything but I was still left wanting to find out what it all meant.

Six months after being undercover on the streets DI Tom Thorne is bored of not having anything interesting assigned to him. To keep him out of trouble he had been given mundane things to do which really doesn’t suit him at all. He’s then asked to help out in a kidnapping of Luke Mullen along with his colleague Dave Holland. He isn’t too happy about working else where and for another department at New Scotland Yard but at the same time he is intrigued when he hears that the victim is a sixteen year old boy whose father Tony Mullen is an Ex-Detective Chief Superintendent. The age of the boy is unusual for a start and he wonders if he has been taken as revenge for someone his father put away in the past. Another thing, which is strange, is the fact that the kidnappers haven’t contacted the parents for a ransom. So the idea of it being an act of revenge seems more concrete.

Working alongside DI Louise Porter of the Kidnapping and Specialist Investigations, Thorne tries to fathom out whether it is a kidnap at all. He learns that Luke was seen getting into a car with a woman but he wasn’t forced so it isn’t clear if he has disappeared because he wants to or not. Then a video of Luke being held by his kidnapper turns up. He says he is being treated well that that they’re ‘fairly nice’ to him. He even jokes that he still has a sense of humour and that it can’t be that bad if he still has that. However, the video ends on a sour note as a man steps towards him with a syringe.

Thorne asks Tony Mullens to compose a list of all the people he thinks he has upset enough for them to hold a grudge. The list isn’t very big and Mullen claims he can’t remember everyone even though Thorne thinks to himself he can remember clearly all those he has rubbed up the wrong way over the years (and this is more than a few people!) After digging a bit deeper and asking his colleague Carol Chamberlain name pops up that Mullen didn’t mention which strikes Thorne as very odd. He can’t think why he wouldn’t tell him and he is convinced that this person has some baring on the kidnap. Also Thorne finds out that they never reported Luke’s disappearance straight away. Will Thorne and Porter get to the bottom of it or will Luke be unlucky?

This is an unusual case for Thorne as he usually investigates murders. After first thinking he wished he had another case to work on he gets stuck into finding out as much as he can. Thorne is like many detectives in crime fiction and doesn’t have a family to speak of and likes his drink. He also speaks his mind and he has often stepped on the toes of his superiors that lead to his ‘gardening leave’ in the past. I find Thorne hugely likeable and from the first Billingham I read I found his character interesting, In ‘Buried’ he is much the same although I found because he was working more with others he wasn’t so brash. Having said that when he speaks to Mullen he wasn’t beating around the bush. Being an ex copper Mullen knows how an investigation is run so Thorne doesn’t try and make things sound better than they are to him. He is also finding it hard to deal with the death of his father. This shows his vulnerable side and that he has more depth to him as a character.

Dave Holland doesn’t feature as much in this novel as he has done previously. Personally I thought this was good, as he isn’t a particularly interesting character. He has settled down with his girlfriend Sophie (who doesn’t appear in ‘Buried’ but she is mentioned) after having a rocky relationship with her in the last few years. He now has a baby and he empathises with the Mullens as he can understand how they’d feel. He does recognise a boy in relation to another crime, which has been committed, though so he does have an important role. DI Louise Porter is very knowledgeable in kidnaps and she and Thorne get along well. Not much about her is revealed but her part in the case is important although Thorne is more of the focus. As the novel goes on we see more of her and for that reason I don’t want to say much as to give anything away.

My favourite has to be Hendricks, the gay Mancunian pathologist. He is described as a Goth and wears dark clothes as well as having piercings and tattoos. He and Thorne are close friends and they share a beer or two when Hendricks is having boyfriend trouble and Thorne attempts to cheer him up. It’s a strange relationship and I can’t say I’ve read a novel with a similar one to compare it to. Although they are good friends when they are working they are very professional and you wouldn’t necessarily know that they were friends.

Throughout the book there are shorter chapters headed with characters names and information about them or to do with them. This is a new style Billingham is using and in the case it works well. Luke is one of these people and I won’t spoil the story and tell you who the others are as it would ruin it if you did want to read it. These snippets of information get you thinking and although they do give out a lot of information the whole picture isn’t painted. What I liked about the way this was done was the way the reader knows more than Thorne does so it feels like you have extra knowledge, not that this helped me work out the ending!

Billingham is easy to read and the chapters aren’t overly long so reading short bits is ideal. Compared to his other novels I didn’t find ‘Buried’ as riveting and I found myself reading less each night than I would usually. I found it slow moving and I found no urgency to get to the end to find out what happened. I think this is because I was comparing it to his previous novels and I did feel a little disappointed. Towards the end my mind was changed slightly and I did reach the last part of the book and couldn’t stop until I had finished. The end is really good and it didn’t pan out how I thought it would and I was surprised in a nice way. Although I wasn’t compelled to read loads to find out what happened I did still enjoy ‘Buried’. I’m trying to work out why I wasn’t as impressed with this book and I think it’s because Thorne seems to be mellowing with age.

There is also a sub plot which makes you wonder if it’s connected to the kidnapping. One of the schoolboys where Luke goes to school is suspected in a race related murder that was committed a few month back against an Asian boy. It’s Holland that recognises him and he informs Kitson who was on the original investigation 6 months ago. At times I found this more interesting than the main plot probably because more seemed to be happening and they actually had a suspect. In all Billingham’s novels music features heavily. Thorne loves his music but his taste isn’t favoured by all of them. He likes country and western and it’s referred to as ‘twangy guitar shit’ by Holland and this seems to be a running joke throughout the novel. What I like most about Billingham’s novels is that they’re set in London so when places are mentioned you can visualise them (assuming you know where they are!)

This is the sixth book in the series so anyone who hasn’t read any of them before I suggest you start with his debut novel ‘Sleepyhead’ where Thorne is first introduced. Also if you have read his previous books but haven’t done so for a while then you may want to re-read them before giving ‘Buried’ a go. I felt I could have benefited from re-reading ‘Burning Girl’ and ‘Lifeless’, as it had been a while since I’d read them both.

Summary: The sixth DI Tom Thorne novel