Mark Billingham is usually a good bet for a reliably gripping story told in a distinctive voice, and this standalone novel is no different. For existing readers of the author, this is not a Tom Thorne novel but is set squarely in the Thorne-iverse - there are references to one or two of Thorne's previous cases, and a fleeting cameo from one character as well as reference made to another.

The book is written from the first person perspective of unreliable narrator Alice, a patient on a psychiatric ward who makes the most of her previous career with the Met to investigate a murder on the ward. Almost all of the action takes place in the closed psychiatric ward, references to the world on the other side of the 'airlock' are largely only tangential, but Billingham builds the confined world excellently - the almost claustrophobic atmosphere of the ward is well defined. However, what is less well drawn is the supporting cast. The patients, despite all their idiosyncrasies, are almost interchangeable, and certainly the 'informals' are not differentiated from each other. One thing that does not work is the epilogue - the big reveal therein does not come as a surprise and was somewhat of a letdown.

Nevertheless, this is a very entertaining novel with an unusual premise, and one that most readers of this type of writing will enjoy.

OK, I've given such a lot of thought to how to rate this book and so I'm going to firstly outline my 'what I really enjoyed' and then 'what I didn't'.

Firstly; I generally enjoy Mark Billingham books and Alice, the main character is a complex and interesting one. It's a stand alone about a woman trapped in a psychiatric hospital and who as an ex police woman is interested in solving a recent murder.
The characters are well written and rounded.
The humour is fantastic - made me laugh out loud at times and want to cry at others - just as excellent good humour should.
I liked the conclusion.
It's such a cracker of a setting for a book and it works really well.... to a point.

That leads me on to the things I didn't like:
Overall, I think this is more like an elongated short story; it's a good one, but, jeepers, it's longwinded and I lost the will to live a few times in the middle. As a short story it's great.
The setting works really well, but, in a full book it's claustrophobic . There's only so much the main character can experience and it shows.

So, overall, I think it's fair to say I felt this to be a 3* Good Read. I struggled with it at times, but, at other times I thought it was fantastic.

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the opportunity to preview and I wish the author every success.

4-5 stars

In this stand-alone psychological thriller from the talented Mark Billingham we go down the rabbit hole into the mind of Alice Armitage. She’s currently in an Acute Psychiatric Ward suffering from PTSD following a traumatic event. As Alice informs us herself, it all starts with a mêlée, three days before the body is discovered.

In some ways this is a tough read as you are inside Alice's mind which has been hijacked by PTSD. However, the author handles all that Alice sees with sensitivity and portrays her well. It’s extremely well written and is a good mixture of dark with the murders and with the state of Alice's fluctuating mind, delusions and memory. She tells her story, frequently with humour and as to whether it’s truthful or not we can’t know for sure for obvious reasons but that’s what makes it so immersive. I love her assessments of those on the ward with her, they are suffering from a variety of conditions and her acuteness of observation and commentary is good. All the characters are conveyed well and are easy to visualise. This is a mystery wrapped up inside a troubled mind and it poses some good philosophical questions with Alice the vehicle. You get a strong sense of place too and an idea what it may be like on just such a ward.

The tensions build well both with the police investigation and between the patients and staff and via Alice you get a sense of foreboding and fear. Her thoughts, sensations and feelings come across in a powerful way. There are some clever misdirections because of Alice’s state of mind and so the big reveal and ultimate ending is a surprise. You feel a whole range of emotions for Alice and the others.

Overall, I guess this won’t be everyone’s cuppa but I think it’s extremely good. There’s a well balanced mix of humour combined with the state of a persons mind and a crime. It flows well considering the narrators condition and kudos to the author for that.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Little Brown Book Group for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

This is a stand alone novel by Mark Billingham, with a slight nod to “Alice in Wonderland,” with the main character being called Alice Armitage and the suggestion that she has fallen down the rabbit hole. In this case, the rabbit hole is an acute psychiatric ward, or Fleet Ward, to be exact. Alice has been sectioned and is a patient on the ward and her musings, as she explains her surroundings and the cast of characters – both other patients and staff – are darkly funny.

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. She is an admittedly unreliable narrator, as the prescription medications make her woozy and unable to focus and then there are those disturbing blackouts.

Although there is always a lot happening on the ward, things are about to become even more intense, when one of the patients is found dead. Missing her previous life desperately, Alice throws herself into investigating the case, to the annoyance of staff and the amusement of the other residents of Fleet Ward; while you can understand Alice’s extreme frustration and annoyance as she is not taken seriously.

This is a sometimes poignant, often funny, very intelligent thriller. I loved the cast of characters that Billingham has cleverly constructed in this, very modern, locked room mystery – for those on Fleet Ward remain the suspects and the possible victims… I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review. It has been a long while since a book engaged me as thoroughly as this one. Highly recommended.

Alice has been sectioned and sent to Fleet Ward after suffering PTSD from an incident that happened at work. When one of her fellow patients is found dead, she can't help but put her powers of investigation that she learned from her time at the police to good use and find the perpetrator.

This is a really good book, and one I was very excited to read. The characters are well-realised and the plot zips along nicely. My one quibble would be that I don't know if the ending lands as well as it could - when the perpetrator is revealed, they are not necessarily accused. An easy 4* choice for me.

This is a really original read told from the perspective of Al (Alice) a former Police Officer who suffered PTSD from an incident at work that led to her behaviour and mental health spiralling out of control and she ultimately became detained under the Mental Health Act. When one of the other patients on her ward is found dead Al cannot resist investigating.

I thought this was told very well from the mindset of a mental health patient with a good balance of humour thrown in and the variances in her level of lucidity worked well. The relationships she had with the other patients were well mixed and her feelings about the staff rang true. It’s not the easiest to read simply because Al’s mind can be variable but that’s what made it all the more compelling.

I enjoy reading Mark Billingham’s Tom Thorne series so I was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately it was an ok read but not up to the previous high standard. This is a stand alone novel that I did enjoy and is different to his other books.

Alice Armitage is a patient in an acute psychiatric ward following a debilitating bout of PTSD, self-medication with drink and drugs, and a psychotic breakdown. When one of Alice’s fellow patients is murdered she is convinced that she hunt down the killer.

There are some good characters but I was never completely hooked and never really felt the authors usual magic. A decent read but not his best.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

When a patient in a secure mental health facility is found murdered, suspicions naturally fall on patients and staff. Alice Armitage is determined to put her training and experience in the police to use to discover the culprit, the problem is she’s also one of the patients.

This whole story is told from Alice’s point of view, which immediately puts the reader in an uncertain position. Is the perspective of someone who has been sectioned and is now regularly medicated, really to be trusted. After all Alice was already suffering from PTSD and dreams of witnessing the murder of her police partner Johnno, is getting involved in another murder case the best thing for her now.

Despite the restrictions of a novel where almost all the actions take place within a locked wing, Mark Billingham has brought his signature humour and sense of mystery to this story. The lace of writing follows Alice’s mood, high spirited and funny at times, sometimes slow and dampened down as she wonders if the ward staff have upped her meds to calm things down.

The supporting cast of characters mean life is never dull. Alice is quick to describe and assign nicknames to her fellow patients and the staff, although as the story progresses we get to see the nuance of their personal stories which go beyond their medication and surface issues

Interesting and intriguing, the true story here is about Alice and whether she will get the help she needs to manage her symptoms and return to the world. The murderer is a secondary concern.

Well this book is a step away from the norm ... Not in a bad way at all, and to be fair, if you are used to the author's Tom Thorne series then you will recognise nods to not only some of the characters (including a brief cameo), but also the sense of humour that is infused throughout the books. Now it is more than 'infused' in this tale - it is well and truly embedded in Rabbit Hole, a books whose setting in a secure psychiatric unit gives readers not only a whole host of potential suspects, but also a whole range of characters who will make you smile even though, in truth, you know you probably shouldn't.

At the centre of everything is out protagonist, Alice Armitage, who used to work for the police but who has found herself sectioned for the safety of both herself and those around her. A traumatic event 'on the job' led to a complete breakdown and a number of worrying occurrences which mean that, whilst being incredibly forthcoming and forthright as the narrator, also lead you to take all that she says with a pinch of salts. Afterall, few people are sectioned without due cause, and the more we learn about Alice, the more reason we have to doubt that everything she sees, everything she tells us, is entirely on the level. I love the way in which Mark BIllingham has developed her character and the use of first person narration to tell Alice's story. You can't help but like her, the nicknames she gives all her fellow patients, and the nursing staff too, and whilst you know that at least as part of her is as mad as the rest of them, there is a certain amount of credibility to her assertions too.

Sorry. Mad probably isn't the most politically correct way of phrasing it but I'm not sure how else to describe Alice or her actions. The increasingly erratic and sometimes manic behaviour is without a doubt a symptom of her condition (PTSD - definitely no laughing matter) but the way in which the author has framed the story is with the perfect blend of humour and empathy. Yes, some of the conditions of Alice's fellow patients may feel exaggerated, maybe not, but you feel as though you are laughing with them, not at them, and I loved them all, even toughnut Lauren. Each one had their quirk, their reason for being there, but there were few if any characters I didn't feel some affinity for by the end of the book. And, all of that aside, there is a serious undertone to the book too. Murder, afterall, is no laughing matter.

I don't want to go into too much detail of the story - you know all you need to know from the blurb. This is not simply a (air)locked room murder mystery, nor is it a straight up story about psychiatric hospitals and patients a'la Cuckoos Nest. Alice's conversational, almost confessional narration keeps the mystery mysterious and the humour flowing, as well as allowing us a brief glimpse of some of the more sobering elements of life in care. The fears, the paranoia, the endless cycle of food, meds, sleep repeat that the patients undertake giving the whole book a sense of authenticity. It certainly added to the sense of the terribly unreliable narrator and meant that in terms of the who the why and the how (well - okay not actually the how), readers are kept guessing to the end.

A refreshingly original read that left me with a smile on my face. What are you waiting for?

Rabbit Hole - Mark Billingham

I was very eager to read this, having read all of Mark's Billingham's previous books, one of the authors who got me into Crime fiction.

Told from Alice's perspective. Alice was when in the Police before being sectioned following a PTSD related breakdown.

It is mainly a locked room murder mystery following the murder of a fellow patient. It gets more psychological later on as Alice's paranoia increases and she is convinced she will be the next target, while trying to solve the murder from on the inside.

There is a colourful cast of characters, patients and staff and visitors.

Entertaining as it was, I found it lacked pace, although the tension does increase towards the end.


Thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group

I don't know how Mark does it but he has excelled himself yet again with Rabbit Hole. The story follows Alice who is a patient in a mental ward who tries to solve a murder or 2 on the ward.

Mental illness is a taboo subject here in the UK so Mark has to be congratulated on his tackling of the subject. It is very much a conversation between Alice and the reader, with some humor. But the chatty style of writing makes Alice and the other patients likable. Mark obviously put a lot of effort into researching PTSD meaning that the book not only entertained but educated too!!!

A must read for all Mark Billingham fans.

As someone who used to work in acute psychiatric wards I can confirm that this book is fairly accurate in its descriptions and scene setting. We used to often say a shift felt like herding cats!
A really cleverly written plot; the reader is led to believe Alice despite knowing that she's a patient

I'm not always a fan of unreliable narrators,but it works well in this book.
You go in knowing Al is in a mental ward and has drink and drug issues.
Of course you're not going to trust all they say.

It's definitely the humour in the book that makes it so readable,thrown in with the odd surprise or two along the way.

Definitely a good way to pass a few hours.

You're meant to be safe in a hospital. But they're not.

So when a patient on a psychiatric ward is murdered, DC Alice Armitage is on the trail of the killer.

But there's a big problem....

...Alice is a patient too...

#RabbitHole #NetGalley
Thank you NetGalley and Little Brown Book / UK Sphere for a copy of this book
Well what can I say - The title certainly lives up to it's name. Full of suspense and takes you this way and that way .
Mark Billingham you've wrote a fantastic novel !
DC Alice Armitage is a great character, and I loved the way she is slotted into the story line.
She finds herself on Fleet ward in a psychiatric ward firstly as a patient and then her day job kicks in when there is a murder on the ward.
It's twisty , tense , and unputdownable, and has everything about it to become yet another best seller.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the chance to read this ARC
I very much enjoyed the book. Alice is a great character , although a bit "blokey" I did like her sense of humour
The other characters were well drawn and fleshed out and the atmosphere on the ward felt authentic.
I did feel that Alice wasn't quite what she seemed and the ending wasn't a total surprise. Banksy is a wimp but perhaps understandably so. A different take on the usual thriller even if shades of Shutter Island poked through.
Different to the DI Thorne books I've read and enjoyed but enjoyable nonetheless

#RabbitHole #NetGalley
Awesome.
Fleet Ward: psychiatric patients monitored, treated, cared for. But now one of their number is found murdered, and the accusations begin to fly. Was it one of his fellow patients? A member of staff? Or did someone come in from the outside? DC Alice Armitage is methodical, tireless, and she's quickly on the trail of the killer. The only problem is, Alice is a patient too.
Pulse pounding book. Loved it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown Book UK Sphere for giving me an advance copy.

Being an Alice in Wonderland fan, I just had to pick this one up immediately.
Sadly the title and character name were the only direct references.
Alice is a complicated character. She's mysterious.
Whilst I liked it, the pace felt a bit lacking for me, and too many characters were introduced too soon for me to have a handle on everyone.
Felt a bit long winded and too people watching than lets solve a crime.