But I don't like serial killer books! (Scaredy Cat - Mark Billingham)

Member Name: elkiedee

Product:	Scaredy Cat - Mark Billingham
Date:	26/04/04 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting characters , Well developed plot, Excellent writing

Disadvantages: Not many I can think of

I don?t seek out serial killer books, in fact, I normally avoid them. I devour most types of crime fiction but until fairly recently, books about a hunt for a deranged psychopath chopping people up, novel or true crime, generally went straight back on the shelf. I assumed they were all sensationalist rubbish aimed at exploiting people?s fears in a really tacky kind of way. Then a small number of writers produced books that forced me to revise my prejudice. Now I have to say, I will only read serial killer books if they are by authors I trust not to write sick trash. Mark Billingham is one of those authors.

Scaredy Cat is the second book in a series (3 so far, with a 4th book due out later this year) about DI Tom Thorne, a police detective who pursues serial killers as a career. I read the first, Sleepyhead, because it had been chosen for discussion by an online reading group. It turned out to be a well written debut with characters I really cared about, and an interesting premise and plot, and I was soon looking for a copy of Scaredy Cat.

Thorne?s team investigates cases which are a little out of the ordinary (as tends to be the case in fiction about police detectives). This one starts off as a case of two killings by strangulation on the same day, and the obvious explanation is that the same person carried out both murders. Investigations into patterning turn up another pair of murders but with a problem ? the time of place of each makes it impossible for the same person to have killed both victims. It is Thorne who sees a possible answer ? there are two killers working together.

This being a serial killer book, there are more murders. However, as in his first novel, Billingham uses multiple viewpoints, with Tom Thorne as only the lead character. Several sections of the story are told from the point of view from Thorne?s colleagues, Dave Holland and Sarah McEvoy. This gives us an idea how others see Thorne, shows several different approac
hes to the demands of the job, and provides scope for a subplot or two. I cared more about what happened in the book because of this technique.

More controversially, we are also taken inside the head of one of the killers, in present day 2001 and in flashback pieces dating back 20 years to his childhood ? some crime fiction fans prefer to stick with reading about the good guys. The reader learns that Nicklin, currently living and working under a different name, has a past story, and that what he is doing now must somehow be rooted in the past. The suspense of the narrative is in whether Thorne and his team can piece together for themselves what we are being told in the Nicklin sections, and find out what we are not told, in time to prevent further deaths.

This is a very complicated narrative technique, and I did have to check back sometimes to keep a sense of what was happening. I rarely guess or try to guess whodunit, as often that is not what I am most interested in even when reading crime fiction, but I cared more in this one about such matters, as I was caught up in Thorne?s pursuit of the killers. As the team piece together a profile, they get an apparent big break. At the same time though, working relationships are becoming very strained within the team. Thorne is focused on the investigation, but are his subordinates?

I think that the characterisation in Scaredy Cat was better developed than in Sleepyhead. I enjoy a lot of the supporting characters in this nearly as much as I do reading about Tom Thorne ? my favourite is his best mate, wisecracking pathologist Hendricks. Thorne and Holland are very gradually becoming friends with each other too. In another life the author is a successful stand-up comedian and although the tone of this novel is pretty dark, there are some flashes of wit in the dialogue. I would be more disappointed in the depiction of the ambitious female sergeant, as she does at first seem like a rather ruthless, am
bitious and aggressive career woman type, but the men in the novel hardly seem to have a good balance sorted out in their lives either.

Although their books are usually far more violent, some serial killer writers seem to share the assumptions of the traditional mystery author who neatly wraps up her plot, with a detective who brings some kind of justice and closure. In a number of scenes in this book, though, we see that both this type of crime and the work of investigation have tragic after effects for many people concerned. Billingham?s social comment is not as explicit as in some of my favourite police procedural and PI fiction, but it is definitely there.

Finally, Mark Billingham?s books, including this one, challenge my preconceptions of the serial killer novel by being well written and sensitive in handling the issues involved. They are about character, interaction and motive just like the other books I like. I am currently looking forward to the 4th book in the series, The Burning Girl.

Scaredy Cat, Mark Billingham
ISBN 0751533955
Time Warner paperback 2003, 445 pages
RRP £6.99, #2 in series

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