Rabbit Hole: The new masterpiece from the Sunday Times number one bestseller

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Mark Billingham is a multi-million copy bestselling author who is best known for his gripping Tom Thorne crime series. Virtually everyone: the other patients, doctors, nurses, the actual police officers is assigned Alice’s special nicknames as she keeps concocting bizarre scenarios to justify her suspicions.

Alice explains that she was a detective constable in North London (one of the reasons why I do warm to Billingham’s novels must be that his characters inhabit my local area) with the homicide unit, before an event led to PTSD and her career, and personal, downfall. As Alice launches her investigation, we listen to the raucous banter between residents, none of whom takes Alice’s quest seriously, and we gradually realize that finding the killer is only an entrée into the real mystery here, which is taking place inside Alice’s head. Rabbit Hole is the latest enthralling standalone from the master that is king of crime Mark Billingham. There's a Twist at the end (*sigh* of course there is) that's apparently supposed to shock us, and then Another Twist I'm pretty sure was intended as a jaw-dropping surprise, but, well, both of them really weren't that surprising at all, especially the second one; I had my doubts about that one pretty much from the beginning.The truth is, these are public institutions --- we as taxpayers built them, staff them and keep them running --- and they have the potential to be dangerous places.

Billingham’s picture of the ward and its staff is full of humanity, leaving us with a clear sense that this kind of illness could affect any of us, and the story offers an excellent twist. The story was slow moving but I enjoyed the book on the whole and liked Alice's descriptions and nicknames for the other patients.After witnessing her police partner’s murder, Alice Armitage experiences a psychotic episode and is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. I’ve long been an admirer of Mark Billingham’s work and, with this highly original novel, he’s added yet another string to his bow. I thought things were being wrapped up in the run up to the final pages, and was caught off guard by an unexpected twist. Told and thought in the first person by DCI Alice Armitage, working alone, she deep dig investigates the murder; I suppose that there's one thing I should also mention, Alice is also an in-patient in the Ward!