A complete lack of any sense of urgency from the police or despair from the mother meant that I found this book totally unbelievable.
Reading other reviewers opinions ( most of them much more impressed than I was) I get the impression that if you are a Tom Thorne fan from other books he has featured in then you get more from this one but even so I can’t see where the five star ratings come from.

I had a text from a friend last week saying that she had just managed to catch up with the most recent of Mark Billingham’s novels about Met Detective, Tom Thorne. Extremely gently, I broke the news to her that he had a new one being published the very next day! However, in most respects Cry Baby doesn’t actually take Tom’s story any further forward, because with one exception (two if you count the initial dream) the action is set in 1996, a date easily worked out from the many references to the European Cup matches being played during that summer.  As a result, those of us who have followed Tom’s career from his first outing in Sleepy Head are able to fill in some of the background to aspects of his life that we have come to accept as givens, especially the breakup of his relationship with his wife, Jan, and the first steps in his friendship with the pathologist, Phil Hendricks. The focus of the book, however, is on the story of a missing child, seven year old Kieron Coyne, who is snatched from a local park while playing with his friend Josh Ashton.

Despite coming from socially very different backgrounds, the two boys are the best of friends and they are linked by the fact that both have absent fathers. Josh’s mother, Maria, is divorced from his father, Jeff, while Cat Coyne is bringing up her son on her own because her husband, Billy, is serving time for attempted murder. The boys don’t see as much of each other as they would like because catchment areas mean they can’t go to the same school and this appears to disturb Josh far more than it does Kieron. Josh’s behaviour is causing real concern and this is something that both his mother and the reader should have paid close attention to very early on.  But, we readers don’t always notice those things that we ought to, or interpret them properly, or give them due weight and police officers, being human like the rest of us, the same is true of them. When a witness describes seeing a boy dressed in the same way as Kieron, getting into a red car with someone he seems very comfortable with, Thorne and his fellow detectives neglect to give sufficient importance to one particular aspect of the man’s evidence. Of course, matters aren’t helped by Tom’s immediate boss, DI Gordon Boyle, latching onto the fact that Cat’s next door neighbour was once arrested for a sexual offence and the situation is complicated even more when Dan Meade turns up claiming that he is Kieron’s real father. Thank goodness Cat has Billy’s sister, Angela, a market trader, to stand by her and ease the situation between husband and wife.

Or does she? Because if the novel is about one thing it is about not relying on appearances; about how often we can be mistaken in what we believe to be the truth concerning other people. The force of this is brought home to the reader in 2020 as Thorne muses on the concept of ‘stranger danger’.

He remembered his conversation about it with Simon Jenner, and a book with that title doing the rounds, not long after he joined the force. Jimmy Savile on the front. A trustworthy face off the telly telling a story about nice fluffy rabbits to make the warnings a little more kid-friendly.
What you see isn’t always what you get.

Simon Jenner is Kieron‘s form teacher and if I was his Head, I would be worried about the attention that he appears to be paying to Cat.  Is he a suspect? A vital clog in the plot? Or simply a red herring? When you think about it, red herrings are all about appearances too.

In actual fact, I worked out very early who was behind the abduction, but as I thought it had happened for totally the wrong reason, I suppose I can’t congratulate myself for something that was almost certainly pure blind luck. And, probably because I formed my opinion so early on, I also doubted my original conclusion several times, although I never changed my view that the person I suspected was a seriously nasty piece of work. Perhaps appearances don’t always deceive, at least not those which are so clearly superficial in their nature.

Why Billingham has chosen to go back in Thorne’s past in this way, I don’t know. In one sense it isn’t really important. The crime is the central feature of the novel and the period in which it happened to a large extent irrelevant.  One thing that it does allow, however, is a retrospective view on the outcomes for the people concerned. Once a story like this has vanished from the papers the public in general tends to forget that those who lived through the experience are never going to be quite the same again and that this is true not only for the victims but also for the serving officers who have had to witness events and try to come to terms with the outcomes of the decisions that they made. For them, the well worn children’s fallback, and then I woke up and it was all a dream is more likely to surface in the shape of a recurrent nightmare.

With thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for a review copy.

It's the first book I read in this series and won't surely be the last as I thoroughly enjoyed.
The historical setting is vivid and realistic, the characters are well thought and interesting, the solid mystery kept me hooked.
I can't wait to read the other books in this series.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a big fan of Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne series and look forward to each installment. With this book being set in 1996 I was wondering how that might affect my enjoyment. It totally in enhanced it. The nostalgia was fantastic! Small but significant details like using phonecards and A-Z's were genius.

Great tension building and misdirection - I loved that! And getting to discovery how Tom and Phil met along with additional background information is great for the long-term invested reader like myself, but also perfect for those new to the series, albeit for totally different reasons.

Didn't want it finish, but needed to get the end!

So, surprisingly, this is my first Mark Billingham book. Not sure why I have never picked one up before, but I have already purchased the first 4 in this series and have become a firm fan.

While this is part of a series, it is a prequel and I did not have any issue with it as a standalone novel.

I loved the 1996 setting and all of the memories/nostalgia that came with that. Thorne is a great character and I thoroughly enjoyed his relationships with other characters.

The plot is simple, child goes missing from a park, but the plotting itself is anything but simple. Just when you think you have guessed what is happening, you second guess yourself, then third guess yourself! So many twists and turns and it is very very clever.

The only thing that knocked it to 4.5 stars, rather than 5, for me was that when we found out what had happened to Kieron, the missing boy, the motive was a little vague.

A thoroughly enjoyable crime novel and I am delighted that there are loads more for me still to read!

Thank you to Little Brown, Netgalley and the author for this eARC.

Cry Baby from Mark Billingham is the prequel to Sleepyhead which was first released in 2001 and introduced us to Detective Tom Thorne. In this book, we get to read about how Tom first met Phil Hendricks and disliked him from the start. Plus all things are not rosy for Thorn as he is going through a divorce and doesn’t get on with his boss, DI Boyle.

It’s Saturday, Maria and Catrin are in the park with their boys, Josh and Keiron. The boys are best friends. They drift from the park into the woods, flashing through the trees. Then Josh comes running up, Kiernon isn’t following. After searching the area, there is still no sign…..he’s disappeared. DS Thorne is involved with the case and a search party is formed as well as door to door to enquiries.

One witness reckons they saw a guy with a child get into a red car. Thorne is suspicious of a neighbour, Grantley Figgis, next door to Catrin’s flat. It turns out he has a bit of a shady past but was never charged. Forensics move in to see what they can find but it takes a while for the results to come back. Things were not so high tech in those days. Even mobile phones weren’t that common or the signal that reliable. In the line-up, the witness picks the neighbour. Although he says he’s innocent and has an alibi.

When Figgis is finally released and gets home, he knocks on Catrin’s door, she doesn’t know what to say to him. He goes home. When there is a knock at his door, he thinks Catrin has come to speak to him at last so he answers the door. It will be for the last time.

The next morning when Catrin is seeing Angie off to work, she glances round to see Figgis’ door open and realises something is wrong. They enter and find Figgis dead. They call the police. It looks like an overdose to Thorne but when he speaks to Hendricks, the new pathologist, he immediately gets his back up and it’s been a while since he’s taken an immediate dislike to someone. When the PM is done though, the pathologist actually tells Thorne it’s not an overdose but murder!

Dean Meade tells the papers that he is Keiron’s real father and has been shut out of the boy’s life without ever being able to see him. Not strictly true but he was thinking of the money he could make. He didn’t realise it would get him killed. Is this linked to Kieron’s disappearance and Figgis’ murder? Another headache for DI Boyle and DS Thorne to sort out.

Who could be behind Keiron’s disappearance? Will he be found alive? If DS Tom Thorne has anything to do with it, he will!

I think this book is absolutely fantastic. It’s old style Mark Billingham writing from twenty years ago. Very descriptive and well written, interesting plot with a good insight to Tom Thorne with his relationship with his wife and friend Phil Hendricks. Just brilliant!

Fantastic novel as always. Wasn’t too sure about a prequel but it didn’t disappoint. Was great to see some of the early character relationships.

What a refreshing read this was. Not only does this book have a very strong plot which moves with the twists and turns we expect of Mark Billingham, but this prequel holds so much pleasure. How Tom first meets Phil Hendricks, who at first he takes an instant dislike to; his early relationships with other characters who are developed over the years; the importance of music to Tom Thorne; the humour he always manages to inject into his writing. It is all there in his early career without all the advances of mobile phones and trackers and other sophisticated equipment A pleasure to read. It just makes me want to go back to Sleepyhead and read all the books all over again.
Very many thanks to Netgalley/Mark Billingham/Little, Brown Book Co for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Cry Baby is the latest book by Mark Billingham in his long-running and consistently excellent Tom Thorne series. By way of a change this one is set in 1996 ,before the first Thorne book "Sleepyhead" from way back in 2001.
The book begins with Thorne having a nightmare about a case where he ignored his gut feeling about a suspect who went on to commit an awful crime then kill himself to evade justice. Not only does this cause Thorn to doubt himself but colleagues use it as a stick to beat him with.
With this always on his mind Thorne is called to investigate the disappearance of a young boy, Keiron Coyne, in broad daylight. as he plays hide and seek with his best friend Josh Ashton in a local park. The boy's mothers are also best friends and Kieron's mother Cat blames Josh's Mum Maria for being distracted while supposedly keeping an eye on the lads.
From then on Mark Billingham skilfully weaves a tale of relationships,class,,conceptions , prejudices and complex family ties. A big part of the story is about how people seen as "different" are often viewed with suspicion purely on that basis,as one character eloquently explains.Thorn's worry about his instinct is a big part of the plot as a succession of potential perpetrators appear to be the "obvious" villain of the piece .
Something fans of Thorne will enjoy is seeing favourite characters appear in earlier times,not least the unlikely beginnings of his friendship with Phil Hendricks .
Cry Baby is classic Billingham and fans will love it. It can be read as a standalone and,as a prequel to the series ,is even a good place to start reading them all, and I'm sure readers new to Thorne will want to read a lot more.after reading this one.

Thanks to Mark Billingham, Little Brown Book Group Uk and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

A welcome addition to the Tom Thorne series - this one takes us back to the past when Tom was a DS. As with all Mark Billingham's books you know you are in for a cracking read. This one is no exception. I absolutely love all of his books. Mark Billingham is one of the best crime writers out there and his story telling is second to none. Gripping, detailed story telling at its best. 5 stars all the way.

I have read all of the Tom Thorne series and loved every one and this was no exception. It was good to read about a very young Tom and his first meeting with Hendricks the quirky pathologist who later becomes a close friend of Toms. It also brings back memories of a time when we wasn't so reliant on technology like we are today.
A great story line which kept me gripped and an ending i wasn't suspecting. If you haven't read this series you are missing out. i highly recommend the whole series.

One minute Kieron Coyne is happy playing hide and seek in the local woods with his best friend and then he can’t be found. Has he wandered off? Or is he missing?
DS Tom Thorne is put on the case to find the boy. Desperate to locate the boy, he can’t help but think of the case that still haunts his dreams. Tom can’t allow history to repeat itself.
Suspects soon start to pile up and the DS has to look in more than one direction, but then the suspects start dying. Tom must use his instincts to see the wood for the trees and save Kieron and maybe save himself in the process.
Mark Billingham takes us back to 1996 and a young Tom Thorne and a country dreaming of football coming home.
Twenty years since the authors first book and he is still at the top of his game.
Personally I think Mark Billingham is the best crime writer in the UK and this new novel is a perfect example of his ability to keep the reader guessing until the end.
An incredible book from a brilliant storyteller.

8/10

It’s always a pleasure to read a Mark Billingham book and this was no different with the added joy of returning to 1996 during the Euro’s which was the first football tournament I remember from growing up (it was in our backyard after all).

This is a prequel so has the difficulty of finely balancing enough for die hard fans like myself to enjoy and those new to the series who need to get a bit more information. It was nice seeing the introduction of the friendship of Thorne and Hendricks and even though it doesn’t seem like this was set a long time ago (I refuse to believe I’m old) there was enough differences to modern day policing that it made for a few interesting plot points. What are these crazy things called mobile phones???

I think this is one of the better books in the series of late but that could be down to the time period and the football atmosphere I mentioned although there was plenty of usual traits that make me enjoy the series as much as I do. I didn’t overly rate the ending but it was good enough to not spoil the book.

Well worth picking up for those new to the series or those who have enjoyed it. Because of the setting it could be picked up at any point really.

This is the first DI Thorne book I have read, and it won't be the last! I can't believe I have missed out on this great, award winning series. I enjoyed the modern history of this retrospective story; the days of smoky pubs and phone boxes. My favourite character is the spiky (in more ways than one) pathologist. He would have certainly stood out in those days. Great story telling and a fabulous sense of place and time. I loved it.

Loved it. Absolutely loved it.

I suppose I need to expand on that.

Firstly, I’m going to go off on a slight tangent and talk about Lee Child. I was an early fan of the Jack Reacher series, eagerly awaiting the release of each book but probably my favourite book has been “The Enemy” (the 8th book). A pleasant surprise with Child changing gear and reversing, taking us back to a time before Reacher arrived in Margrave, to a time when he was still in the Army, and in possession of more than the clothes on his back and a fold-up toothbrush. And it was a fun read.

And now Mark Billingham has done something similar with Tom Thorne. And it’s as welcome as that first Reacher journey down memory lane.

For this reader of a certain age, Cry Baby is one big nostalgia trip - and thankfully not always a rose tinted one. It’s set in 1996 at a time when England were hosting the UEFA Euro Cup (coinciding with my own early days as a London ‘incomer’) and, if I was an author, this would have been such fun way to spend a few months with my creation - adding a some meat to a back story, remembering London way back when, researching (to make sure you remembered correctly!), and then writing it all up.

I may have oversimplified the blood, sweat and tears involved a bit here.

The story itself is cleverly spun. A spider web that starts with a missing child - two children playing hide and seek in the woods with only one coming back - and from which a tale of redemption and retribution emerges. DS Tom Thorne is part of the investigating team and with the spectre of a previous case disturbing his sleep, he’s eager to make sure he does this one right. I loved Thorne’s interactions with his family, his colleagues, and his superiors but I especially liked his conversations with the boy’s mom - all the while focusing on what has happened to the boy and where might he be.

And for those already familiar with Thorne, there's a certain ‘getting the band back together’ vibe although actually it's more of how the band started as we are introduced to some very familiar characters at the same time Tom is.

I’d wholeheartedly recommend this book. It’s made extra special because we have a character that has been over 20 years in the making, going back to almost the start but it does stand well as a single book if this is a reader’s first foray into the world of Tom Thorne.

With thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown for the ARC.

I have loved Mark Billingham’s Tom Thorne series so was very excited to read this prequel set in 1996. It works brilliantly - I loved being back in Thorne’s world and as ever Billingham is a master of characterisation. The plot moves along at a good pace and the ending was a genuine surprise to me, I loved the nods to the period such as the reference to This Life and the crush many of us had on Miles! Billingham also highlights the lack of women in CID ( only one ) at this time.
I loved this and would highly recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC.

Cry Baby is set in 1996 and introduces us to Tom Thorne. We learn about his first meeting with Phil Hendricks and how they discovered what would become their favourite I dina restaurant The Bengal Lancers.
As with all Mark Billingham books Cry Baby is tightly written with such believable characters and with a really unexpected ending.

After reading other Mark Billingham books previously I was excited by this new release and, as anticipated, it did not disappoint.
Good storyline with plenty of twists to keep you engrossed.
It was intriguing to be introduced to a much younger Tom Thorne and being set some 25 years ago it was a pleasant reminder of a less technologically reliant time.
4.5 stars

I have previously read some of the books by Mark Billingham, mainly the first 5/6 of the Thorne series, and this book is a prequel to the series. This was good in that it re-introduced me to the characters that I had previously read about.

The basic story is about the investigation into a missing child set during the mid 90’s. It was interesting to read some of the historical elements, as I had context for remembering some of it as well and this brought the memories of that time back. There are also some amusing nods to people around at the time, and this comedy comes out well thanks to the authors standup comedy background.

I thought this story was engaging and thoroughly enjoyed following it through the twists (that from this reviewers perspective, didn’t see coming) to the very end. Would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys a detective story set in the UK, and for this novel especially, doesn’t rely on the wizardry of modern day crime solving.

This review is based on a free digital ARC copy provided by NetGalley. My views are provided based on the book content only.

Set in 1996 this is not Tom Thorne's first case but is a prequel to all the other cases Mark Billingham has written with such aplomb. Here again he proves there is no one better writing crime novels in England today.
It is nice to step back a quarter of a century to a time when crime solving wasn't quite so high tech & detectives could talk about a bit of intuition & a gut feeling or two.
A child's disappearance from a playground in Highgate is the starting point for a tense & intriguing case for Thorne. Phil Hendricks makes his first appearance & a friendship is born.
Crime writing doesn't get any better than this.