Mark Billingham has twice won the Theakston's Old Peculier Award for Best Crime Novel and also won the Sherlock Award for the best detective created by a British writer. His books have been translated into twenty-five languages and were made into a hit TV series starring David Morrissey as Tom Thorne.
Billingham's new stand-alone novel is
Die of Shame.
Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. His reply:
I’m about to head off on a US book tour, so I’m catching up with the latest from some of the people I’m going to be in conversation with at the various events. This is an unalloyed pleasure as, aside from being friends, they all happen to be 
fantastic writers. What, you think I’m going to be friends with writers who aren’t fabulous? So, I’ve hugely enjoyed Laura Lippman’s Wilde Lake and while I would never use a phrase like “transcends the genre” because it’s one that both Laura and I dislike, this is so much more than a crime novel. It felt like a very personal novel on many levels and I love the fact that unlike many of her contemporaries, Laura eschews simple A-Z storytelling and is not afraid to weave a narrative that moves back and forth between past and present around a very flawed central character. I’m sure this is something we’ll talk about in Baltimore in a couple of weeks.
I’ve always got a music book on the go, and right now I’m engrossed in Never A Dull Moment by David Hepworth. Hepworth is one of our most respected music journalists, who presented the 
UK leg of Live Aid as well as a seminal music show of the seventies and eighties, The Old Grey Whistle Test. In his book, he argues that 1971 was, quite simply, the greatest year in the history of rock music. It’s hard to argue considering that this was the year that saw the likes of David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Elton John achieve stardom and albums such as Blue, Tapestry, Hunky Dory and What’s Going On released. It’s wonderful stuff and not just for music nerds like me. I don’t want it to finish…
Learn more about the book and author at
Mark Billingham's website.
The Page 69 Test: The Bones Beneath.
The Page 69 Test: Die of Shame.
--Marshal Zeringue
Mark Billingham has twice won the Theakston's Old Peculier Award for Best Crime Novel and also won the Sherlock Award for the best detective created by a British writer. His books have been translated into twenty-five languages and were made into a hit TV series starring David Morrissey as Tom Thorne.
Posts
