Mark Billingham is an English crime writer best known for his long-running Tom Thorne police series. He also writes a newer, lighter-toned (but still dark) Detective Miller sequence, plus several standalones and a separate YA trilogy under the joint pen name Will Peterson.
If you stay inside one continuity at a time, reading order is straightforward.
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Continuity compass
Read in order (recommended):
- Tom Thorne (major character carryover; later books assume earlier history)
- Detective Miller (ongoing personal thread)
Read anytime:
- Standalones (In the Dark, Rush of Blood, Die of Shame, Rabbit Hole)
Separate continuity (YA, different genre/audience):
- Triskellion trilogy (as Will Peterson, with Peter Cocks)
A practical starting point (choose one)
- Start long and classic: Sleepyhead (Tom Thorne #1)
- Start modern and offbeat: The Last Dance (Detective Miller #1)
- Start with a standalone: Rabbit Hole (self-contained psychological thriller)
Tom Thorne books in order (Publication order)
Sleepyhead (2001): A pattern of “stroke” deaths reveals a calculated killer, introducing Thorne’s investigative style and the series’ psychological edge.
Scaredy Cat (2002): Two linked murders point to a terrifying partnership, pushing Thorne into a case where every new body implies another still waiting to be found.
Lazybones (2003): A killer targets convicted rapists, forcing Thorne to dig into an old tragedy and confront how little sympathy can complicate good police work.
The Burning Girl (2004): A reopened attack from decades earlier collides with present-day violence, pulling Thorne between an old confession and a new threat.
Lifeless (2005): With his career wobbling, Thorne goes undercover among London’s homeless as a predator targets the vulnerable, raising the personal risk and moral pressure.
Buried (2006): A missing teenager with police ties turns the spotlight onto buried secrets, testing Thorne’s ability to investigate a family with power and omissions.
Death Message (2007): Photos of dead men arrive on Thorne’s phone, driving a hunt that weaponizes technology and revenge with a killer who has nothing left to lose.
Bloodline (2009): A domestic killing opens into a grim legacy case, as Thorne races to stop a murderer targeting the children of past victims.
From the Dead (2010): A man presumed murdered appears alive, forcing Thorne to re-examine an old case as disappearances and fresh violence spiral out from the lie.
Good as Dead (2011): A hostage crisis forces Thorne to reinvestigate a death in custody, turning a single demand into a rapidly rising body count.
The Dying Hours (2013): Thorne is knocked back into uniform and treated as expendable, then finds himself chasing a sinister pattern the people who “matter” don’t want to see.
The Bones Beneath (2014): Thorne escorts a sadistic killer to a remote island for a supposed confession, walking straight into mind games designed to trap him.
Time of Death (2015): While visiting his partner’s hometown, an abduction case becomes painfully personal, pushing Thorne to challenge “obvious” evidence and local certainty.
Love Like Blood (2017): Nicola Tanner’s world is shattered by a brutal murder, and Thorne joins her pursuit of contract-style killings that expose a ruthless hidden system.
The Killing Habit (2018): Tanner’s drug case and Thorne’s predator case collide, locking two investigations together and forcing both detectives to risk everything at once.
Their Little Secret (2019): A “routine” suicide won’t sit right with Thorne, leading him to a cold-blooded con artist and a deception-driven hunt that tightens the net around vulnerable targets.
Cry Baby (2020): Two boys vanish into the woods in 1996 and only one returns, a prequel case that shows an earlier Thorne while still feeding the series’ later emotional fallout.
The Murder Book (2022): A string of brutal murders threatens Thorne’s hard-won stability, dragging up a ruinous secret and pushing him toward choices that could destroy his closest bonds.
What the Night Brings (2025): A killer targets police officers and the force turns fearful and vengeful, forcing Thorne and Tanner to question whether the violence is payback, and what it’s really for.
Chronological option for Tom Thorne (only if you want timeline-first)
Cry Baby is explicitly set earlier than the rest. If you prefer “young Thorne first,” read:
- Cry Baby (2020)
- Sleepyhead (2001)
- Scaredy Cat (2002)
…and then continue in publication order.
This approach is valid, but it changes how you meet Thorne and it can flatten the intended “debut-to-maturity” progression.
Detective Miller books in order
The Last Dance (2023): Declan Miller returns to work after his wife’s murder and investigates a double killing with a new partner, establishing his maverick methods and his unresolved personal case.
The Wrong Hands (2024): A briefcase containing severed hands pulls Miller into contract-killing territory, turning his leverage into danger as multiple criminals want the same object back.
The Shadow Step (2026): A death tied to a dance-world “shadow step” escalates into false confessions, organized crime pressure, and a kidnapping, forcing Miller to solve a case where the obvious story is wrong.
Standalone novels (no series order)
In the Dark (2008): A London shooting and a “random” death trigger a chain of secrets and retaliation, following several lives as violence exposes who’s really in control.
Rush of Blood (2012): Six holiday friends bring their secrets home, and when another girl goes missing the social façade collapses into suspicion and a widening circle of blame.
Die of Shame (2016): A therapy group becomes a closed-room suspect pool after a member is murdered, pushing DI Nicola Tanner into an investigation where shame is both motive and weapon.
Rabbit Hole (2021): A former police officer in a psychiatric ward tries to solve a murder everyone dismisses, turning the investigation into a fight over reality, memory, and trust.
Triskellion trilogy (as Will Peterson) – Separate continuity
These are YA mystery-fantasy adventure novels written under the joint pen name Will Peterson (Mark Billingham and Peter Cocks). Read them in order.
Triskellion (2008): Twins are uprooted to an isolated English village and pulled into an archaeological mystery with a paranormal edge that resets what they think they know about themselves.
The Burning (2009): Pursued across Europe, the twins are forced to rely on their unusual abilities and make alliances under pressure as the danger stops feeling local.
The Gathering (2010): The trilogy’s endgame expands the chase and raises the stakes into a full-scale confrontation, designed to close the series’ central mystery rather than continue it.
Short fiction and collections (Optional)
These do not change the main reading order and are best treated as extras:
- Dancing Towards the Blade and Other Stories (2013): A short-story collection for readers who want more of Billingham’s tone without committing to another series arc.
- Thorne at Christmas (2013): A seasonal Tom Thorne piece that’s easiest after you already know the cast.
Latest release status (as of February 23, 2026)
Latest Tom Thorne novel: What the Night Brings (2025)
Next confirmed novel: The Shadow Step (2026) – Detective Miller #3 (commonly listed for July 2026)
FAQs
Do I have to read Tom Thorne in order?
If you care about character relationships, yes. The cases are self-contained, but the consequences aren’t.
Can I read Die of Shame without reading Tom Thorne?
Yes. It’s a standalone (even though it uses DI Nicola Tanner, who also appears in Tom Thorne books).
Is Cry Baby “Book 1” because it’s a prequel?
Only by timeline, not by publication intent. If you want the cleanest introduction to the series, start with Sleepyhead.
The simplest plan
Pick one lane and stay in it: Tom Thorne from Sleepyhead, Detective Miller from The Last Dance, or a standalone like Rabbit Hole. If you want the full Thorne experience with minimal friction, follow the publication list and treat Cry Baby as a later-added look back.
Frank is the editor of BookSeries.blog, focusing on publication order, chronological timelines, and spoiler-free reading guides for book series and fictional universes.