In the Dark: A Novel

“A stand-out thriller….[A] remarkable achievement.”
 —Chicago Sun-Times

Hailed as one of the UK's strongest contemporary thriller writers—the British Dennis Lehane—Mark Billingham may be the most exciting author to hit the noir fiction scene in years. With In the Dark, Billingham steps briefly away from his bestselling series featuring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne (Sleepyhead, Scaredy Cat, Lazybones, et al) and delivers a powerful story of cops, street gangs, and career criminals that twists and turns into dark, unexpected areas. In the Dark is a magnificent achievement  by a modern master who’s been compared enthusiastically to Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, and George Pellacanos, and whose latest novel, Death Message, has recently been named the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.

On a rainy city night, a handgun is fired at random. A struck car swerves and plows into a bus stop, killing an unsuspecting bystander. In an explosive instant, a cold-blooded gang initiation ends one life and forever changes three others: the desperate teenager who pulled the trigger . . . a policewoman on maternity leave . . . and an aging gangster plotting a terrifying revenge.

The truth about the shocking incident will tie them all together in a lethal blood knot. And nothing is what it seems.

In the Dark is the most powerful and unflinching crime novel yet from the remarkable Mark Billingham—a gripping journey into the modern urban darkness where violence is both indiscriminate and meticulously planned, and youth gangs take on established criminals for rule of the streets.

“One of the best new hard-boiled voices. . . . this superb suspense thriller cements Billingham’s place along with such American heavyweights as Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane.” - Publishers Weekly, starred review, in praise of BURIED