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Summary
Summary
En el mar viven millones de criaturas de una belleza asombrosa. Especialmente adaptados a su medio, sus formas y colores les ayudan a moverse, ocultarse y sobrevivir en un mundo de peligros. Conócelos y, si quieres descubrir mucha más información sobre algunos de ellos, levanta las lengüetas que encontrarás en cada página del libro, lleno de increíbles ilustraciones.
Summary
Thorne knew when he was looking at something out of the ordinary. This was a significant murder scene. This was the work of a killer driven by something special, something spectacular ... He looked at the dead man on the bed -- the position of him, as if he were praying ... Thorne guessed that at the end, he probably had been.
The body is found in the grubbiest of North London hotel rooms. Kneeling, naked on a bare mattress, the head is hooded and the hands tied tight with a brown leather belt. And then there's the oddest detail of all: the call from the florist to check arrangements about the wreath ... It's been only ten days since convicted rapist Douglas Remfry was released from prison. Someone knew he was coming out. Someone wanted to hand out some punishment of his own. When a second sex offender is discovered dead, the police believe they have a vicious, calculating vigilante on their hands. But how does the killer lure his victims to their deaths? Who do the victims think they are going to meet in these hotel rooms? And then the police find the letters ...
Detective Inspector Tom Thorne always works best when his emotions are involved in the case, when his anger flares him into action -- but he's having trouble finding any sympathy for the dead. It is only as his investigation continues that Thorne finally discovers a victim worth fighting for, a victim whose identity becomes crucial to cracking this most twisted of cases ...
From its chilling opening to its shocking climax, Lazybones confirms Mark Billingham's place as one of today's master storytellers and is certain to be one of the most thrilling and talked-about suspense novels of the year.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Fans of public television's various BBC Mystery programs would do well to tune into this third in Billingham's series (Scaredy Cat; Sleepyhead) featuring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne and his fellow officers of the London Metropolitan Police Service. After the body of a strangled and sexually violated male is found in a seedy hotel room, Thorne quickly learns that the victim was a convicted rapist. When a second recently released rapist is discovered in the same condition, Thorne believes he has a serial revenge killer on his hands. While some of his fellow policemen feel that the victims deserved their fate, Thorne's commitment to justice remains unfailing. Another murder follows, this time of a pornographer whom the detectives link to the other dead men. Billingham does not delve as deeply into either Thorne's personal issues or those of the other policemen as he did in his last book; the detective's dark brooding on the nature of death is replaced here by a healthier, less obsessive introspection. It's a wise move, making Thorne a more accessible character. He still has problems with women and commitment, and his father is still struggling with Alzheimer's, but Thorne has lightened up enough to get himself a girlfriend (though that doesn't work out quite the way he thought it would, to put it mildly). The structure is much like that of the other books, with the anonymous killer alternating chapters with Thorne and his partners until all of them come together in a shocking climax. This is a mature, intelligent novel by a writer who's as thoughtful as his main character, and the series grows better with each new addition. Agent, Kim Witherspoon. (June) Forecast: Consistent quality, solid publisher backing, inclusion in several recent anthologies and a six-city author tour should continue to bring Londoner Billingham new readers stateside. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
In this third engrossing police procedural from the talented Billingham, Detective Inspector Tom Thorne and his London-based serious crimes unit must track down a serial killer of rapists. Exploring the lasting effects of childhood trauma, as have the other books in the series, this entry similarly keeps flashing back to the triggering sequence of events. So the question isn't so much who the killer is, as it is who that killer grew up to be. When the forensics team can't find the life sentence hidden in a dustball, Thorne must follow up a mountain of less-than-promising leads while generating a sea of new ones in an investigative cycle that starts afresh with each body found bound, gagged, mutilated, and violated. Already beset by slow-witted bosses, minuscule resources, and a tabloid press rooting for the killer, the detectives are further hobbled by relationship problems that illustrate why dating cops can be such hazardous duty. So even as they plow into the investigation, they fail to ask obvious questions and feel increasingly ambivalent about their jobs. In short, they're recognizably human. These compelling characters--along with Billingham's gift for coupling canny observations with effective plot misdirection--mark this a series for long-term success. Next time, though, he should take care not to neglect Phil Hendricks, the multiply pierced medical examiner who ranks just behind Thorne as the most interesting member of the team. --Frank Sennett Copyright 2004 Booklist
Kirkus Review
London police inspector Tom Thorne (Scaredy Cat, 2003) goes up against another sadistic killer--though this time the pulse hardly quickens. Just as grumpy as he was in his previous outing, Thorne is also a little lonelier and randier: a combination that won't serve him well in the trap that's set for him. A murderer with a hard-to-suss motive has started snuffing convicted rapists who've been released from prison. He (they think it's a he) likes to whet the rapists' appetites with suggestive correspondence and pictures, then lure them to a hotel and--well, the details are a bit rough. Let's just say there's little for Thorne and his all-too-human squad at the Metropolitan Police Service (normally a pretty sensitive cop, Thorne fondly remembers a time when they were a "force" and not a "service") much to go on. Compounding the lack of workable clues is the fact that it's hard for most people (readers included) to whip up much sympathy for the victims, and when Fleet Street gets a whiff of the story, the tabloids can't congratulate the killer enough for his deeds. And, just to make Thorne's personal life (a long, sad round of takeout curry, football on the telly, and cans of lager) even more desolate, his apartment gets burgled and his car stolen. About the only thing looking up for him is the sputtering flirtation he's carrying on with Eve, a florist who telephoned in the first murder scene Thorne was called to (the killer likes to order bouquets). What the author has going for him is an unusually character-rich policeman who carries some of the gravitas of a George Pelecanos or James Lee Burke protagonist without those authors' tendencies toward morose self-involvement. Frustratingly, though, the plot is stalled as often as Thorne's relationship with Eve, and the climax's big surprise is telegraphed about a hundred pages too early. Written with care, though Billingham may need to switch the formula soon. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
In his third novel (after Sleepyhead and Scaredy Cat), Billingham delivers a remarkable combination of police procedural and psychological thriller. Detective Inspector Tom Thorne is faced with a case that no one wants to solve: someone is killing convicted rapists as soon as they are released from prison. The only clues that Tom and his team have are the supposed name and pictures of a woman being used to lure the rapists to their death. As the investigation progresses, the case connects to a 25-year-old murder/suicide. If Tom can figure out why, he'll have his killer. Billingham builds the tension slowly as time runs out. And though serial murders have become fairly ubiquitous in crime fiction, the addition of solid and realistic police investigation by a very human detective serves to balance the horribly unreal. Recommended for all public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/04.]-Jane Jorgenson, Alicia Ashman Branch-Madison P.L., WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.