What the Night Brings: A Tom Thorne Novel

by Mark Billingham

Overview

What the Night Brings by Mark Billingham is the latest mystery in the bestselling Tom Thorne series, and this time, a killer is targeting the police. Is it payback? And is it justified?

“Three dead coppers, Tom, maybe four by lunchtime…”

The targeted murder of four officers is only the first in a series of attacks that leaves police scared, angry and, most disturbingly of all, vengeful.

As Tom Thorne and Nicola Tanner dig into the reasons for the violence, a deeper darkness begins to emerge: the possibility that these murders are payback. The price paid for an unspeakable betrayal.

To uncover the truth, Thorne will be forced to question everything he stands for. He can trust nobody, and the shocking secrets revealed by one terrible night will fracture his entire world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802164582
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	07/08/2025
Series:	DI Tom Thorne Series , #19
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Mark Billingham has twice won the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award and also won the Sherlock Award for Best Detective Created by a British Author. His books, which include the critically acclaimed Tom Thorne series, have been translated into twenty-five languages and have sold over four million copies. He lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for What the Night Brings:

"Incandescent with its brilliant plotting and much needed doses of gallows humor, the story proceeds with considerable speed to a staggering ending that may not be the one readers will be expecting."—Jane Murphy, Booklist (starred review)

"Detective Inspector Tom Thorne returns for the 19th installment of Mark Billingham’s critically acclaimed suspense series . . . Do not under any circumstances peek at the ending . . . Joy, along with its antithesis, heartbreak, should never be foreshadowed."—Bruce Tierney, BookPage (starred review)

"If you prefer your police procedurals spiked with an extra-dry dash of bitters, Mark Billingham is your man. Over the course of 18 books, the aptly named Detective Inspector Tom Thorne has become the English writer’s Harry Bosch. Billingham briefly stepped away from the popular character, but now Thorne is back in an explosive mystery-within-a-mystery . . . The revelations that end the book are genuinely upsetting, leaving major unfinished business on the table and readers wanting more."—Lisa Henricksson, Air Mail

"London police detective Tom Thorne and his colleagues — including the irreverent and ever-entertaining pathologist, Phil Hendricks — race against the clock to pursue a deadly, highly focused criminal who appears to be targeting police officers, possibly as acts of terrifying revenge."—Daneet Steffens, Boston Globe

"The more attached you are to this standout franchise, the harder its final revelations will hit you."—Kirkus Reviews

"Even though the guilty party behind the website and the majority of the killings is revealed fairly early in the book, I will not disclose those details here. That information, as well as a number of jaw-dropping revelations, really makes What the Night Brings a special novel. It is so good and hyper-realistic that longtime readers naturally will be concerned about how Thorne and his team handle whatever the fallout and end result is surrounding a case where there truly are no winners. Either way, it makes for some terrific storytelling and a novel you will not soon forget."—Ray Palen, Bookreporter

"Mark Billingham is still showing up with his A game . . . another hard-charging, no-mercy police procedural . . . written with verve, plotted with ingenuity, and spiked with the author's signature relief-valve humor . . . the ultra-dark, ultra-good 19th thriller in the DI Tom Thorne series."—Nell Beram, Shelf Awareness

Praise for Mark Billingham and the Tom Thorne Novels:

“Masterly… the intricate plot matches superior characterizations. Thorne fans will eagerly await his next outing.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review), on The Murder Book

“This is the eighteenth book in a series that began in 2001 and has established Thorne as one of British crime fiction’s most iconic characters. Billingham is a masterful plotter, and here he supplies a few alarming teasers before delivering one of his most amazing endings ever.”—Booklist (starred review), on The Murder Book

“Mark Billingham’s Detective Inspector Tom Thorne books are consistently excellent: easily some of the best police procedurals in print, with a complicated lead sleuth at their heart. But The Murder Book raises the bar considerably.”—BookPage, starred review, on The Murder Book

“A fantastic thriller, combining a gripping plot and lead characters of remarkable depth…Readers who grab this one but aren’t familiar with its predecessors will be seeking them out. A series to savor.”—Booklist (starred review), on Their Little Secret

“The twisted plot unfolds gradually, with a maximum of suspense. Billingham never strains credulity in this thoughtful page-turner.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review), on Their Little Secret

“Morse, Rebus, and now Thorne. The next superstar detective is already with us—don’t miss him.”—Lee Child

“Billingham is a world-class writer and Tom Thorne is a wonderful creation. Rush to read these books.”—Karin Slaughter

“With each of his books, Mark Billingham gets better and better. These are stories and characters you don’t want to leave.”—Michael Connelly

“Mark Billingham has brought a rare and welcome blend of humanity, dimension, and excitement to the genre.”—George Pelecanos

From the Publisher

2025-05-16
Someone seems to have declared a vendetta against London’s Metropolitan Police, and it’s up to DI Tom Thorne and his mates to find out who—that is, if he can actually trust his mates.

The arrest of Nick Cresswell for murder is utterly routine until the sequel: Four officers from Wood Green who made the pinch acting on Thorne’s intelligence celebrate by sharing some doughnuts left in the back of their car with a cheery note—“Thanks for everything you do!”—and end up poisoned, three of them fatally. The stabbing of PC Adam Callaghan in Hendon Park moments after he’d turned off his bodycam to avoid showing the woman who’d lured him there makes it clear that there’s a larger pattern at work. More deaths will follow, presumably at the hands of LoveMyBro, the dark-web habitué who called PC Christopher Tully, one of the doughnut victims, and PC Craig Knowles, now imprisoned for rape, “two peas in a pod.” But who is LoveMyBro? Is he an antirapist vigilante or a rapist himself? And how can he possibly have learned everything he must know in order to strike so many targets without leaving a trace? Working once more with pathologist Phil Hendricks, his partner DI Nicola Tanner, and his old friend DI Dave Holland, who’s back at the Met after a few years away, Thorne fights colleagues and regulations to build a case against the man he’s convinced is behind the mayhem, only to see it collapse in a spectacularly depressing way. Even more disturbing is the growing likelihood that their quarry is either getting assistance from a highly placed police officer or is such an officer himself.

The more attached you are to this standout franchise, the harder the final revelations will hit you.

Kirkus Reviews