The murder book, p.31
The Murder Book,
p.31
Thorne had told her that sounded great.
Nothing had been fixed until she’d called yesterday, told him that Alfie was having a sleepover at a friend’s house and asked if Thorne still fancied a trip down to Tulse Hill. He’d said that he did, though he’d tried not to sound too keen. He was probably being stupid, anyway . . .
Half an hour later, Thorne parked the car outside Helen’s house and lifted the plastic bag from the passenger seat. She’d said that they could get food delivered, so he’d only brought wine. A couple of bottles.
He rang the doorbell, then quickly leaned forward to check his reflection in the front door’s small window.
His hair needed cutting.
He’d missed some stubble on his neck.
Helen opened the door and smiled at him. She stepped forward and pulled him into a hug that felt anything but awkward. She said it was nice to see him and, for no reason whatsoever and for all sorts of reasons, Thorne burst into tears.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Some books are more fun to write than others and, while I’m fully aware that it can sometimes be the ones you enjoy least that turn out best, I will happily admit that I enjoyed writing this one immensely. Of course, I hope you enjoyed reading it every bit as much and, if you did, I would humbly suggest that there are a great many people whose help made The Murder Book much better than it might otherwise have been and to whom you should be almost as grateful as I am. That said, if you do feel compelled to send cakes or . . . cash or even just an email to express your gratitude, then they should come directly to me, obviously . . .
Thank you, as always, to my wonderful agent Sarah Lutyens for the furnishings and to Wendy Lee (the Queen of spin/spun/span). To everyone at Little, Brown/Sphere, most particularly: David Shelley, Charlie King, Catherine Burke, Robert Manser, Callum Kenney, Tamsin Kitson, Thalia Proctor, Tom Webster, Sean Garrehy, Hannah Methuen, Gemma Shelley and Sarah Shrubb. Thank you to Nancy Webber for continuing to spare my blushes, particularly when it comes to the correct spelling of Gehennah. On the same subject, an ear-splitting and growly thaaaanks is owed to Jack Brookmyre for his encyclopaedic knowledge of all things metal.
I’m grateful (daily) to my brilliant editor Ed Wood and to Laura Sherlock for being the best in the business. I got very lucky.
Thank you to Team Tom (North America Branch), by which of course I mean the fine folks at Grove Atlantic: Morgan Entrekin, Sara Vitale, Justine Batchelor and Deb Seager. I’m not sure if there’s a US equivalent of the nadgers, but if not, consider it my gift to you. You’re welcome.
On matters of police procedure, this is not the first time (and it almost certainly won’t be the last) I’m thankful for the advice and creativity of Graham Bartlett. His namesake Graham Lewendon was equally helpful when it came to the murkier waters of the dark web. His ‘tour’ was truly eye-opening though I have to say that 500 euros for certain Commercial Services seems very reasonable, and I have a list way longer than Tom Thorne’s. Talking of dark . . . I’m grateful for the work of two friends and colleagues in the plotting of Stuart Nicklin’s ‘business model’. Murderabilia by Craig Robertson and Still Bleeding by Steve Mosby were enormously useful, but are, more importantly, fantastic novels which I cannot recommend highly enough.
For their help with the workings and membership regulations of libraries, I have to thank Jo Neville, Caroline (aka @librarylady), Mobeena Khan, Melanie Noland and Robin Miller. I can only apologise for what Tom does to that library book. I’m fully aware that, second only to fictional harm done to fictional animals, fictional damage inflicted on fictional books is probably the most dangerous thing I could do to incur the wrath of a certain type of reader.
I honestly don’t know what else I could do to upset them more, other than fictionally murder fictional people.
Oh, wait . . .
Mark Billingham, The Murder Book
