Depressed by the recent loss of his father and berated for seriously overstepping the mark on his last case hes been encouraged to take gardening leave.

For an ambitious detective especially one without so much as a window box its a fairly dire situation.

But not as dire as the situation for Londons homeless.

Three men sleeping rough on streets paved with anything but gold have been murdered each victim kicked to death and found with a 20 note pinned to his chest.

Were these men just random alcoholics junkies and jetsam Or were they targeted for a reason Thorne is perfectly placed to find out and is seconded to the streets.

Not as a policemen on the beat but as one of lifes rejects.

It fits he looks the part and feels it as well.

In a harsh and harrowing netherworld with its own rules an moral code Thorne discovers the horrifying link between the homeless victims and the perpetrators of a fifteenyearold atrocity.

Those that know are saying nothing.

But the word on these streets is that the killer is a cop.

A policeman it seems was sniffing around long before Thorne came on the scene.

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Lifeless is also available on Book Bargains in hardcover About the Author Mark Billingham won the first Theakstons Old Peculier Award for the Best Crime Novel of the Year with Lazybones and has also won a Sherlock Award for the Best Detective created by a British Writer.

His series of novels featuring DI Tom Thorne have all been Sunday Times bestsellers.

Before becoming a fulltime writer he was a standup comedian and he still appears regularly at the comedy store.

He lives in north London with his wife and two children.