Rabbit Hole: The new masterpiece from the Sunday Times number one bestseller

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I think I should be handcuffed after reading Rabbit Hole. I am guilty of loving this novel so much. I’m guilty of disliking character after character so much. I was an ex mental health worker am deliriously pleased with an accurate account of just how complex PTSD can be. Not long after her arrival in the ward one of the patients is found murdered. It is from here that things become extremely tangled and our viewpoint within Alice’s brain becomes heightened with delusions, fragmented memories, and deep-seated pain. 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. Mark is also a regular contributor to radio and TV and is a member of the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a combo of bestselling crime and thriller writers who performed at the Glastonbury Festival in 2019. Now, what do think when you hear the title? Merriam Webster defines a rabbit hole as "a complexly bizarre or difficult state or situation conceived of as a hole into which one falls or descends." Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Grove Atlantic for an e-copy of this book. This was released August 2021. I am providing my honest review.

Considering that the adventures of Lewis Carroll’s original Alice have been interpreted (in the 1960s, at least) as the fantasies of someone who has ingested a surfeit of magic mushrooms, this isn’t so much a psychological thriller as a psychedelic one. With the Alice here as narrator, we often get the feeling that reality is just beyond our grasp. Winner of this month’s contest for Most Unreliable Narrator (sorry, no prize) is Alice “Al” Armitage, who woozily guides readers down Rabbit Hole, a novel of suspense by English author Mark Billingham . . . a one-of-a-kind narrative and a finale that resolves most matters but preserves a measure of tantalizing ambiguity.”— Wall Street Journal Another standout part of the novel was the psychiatric ward setting. While already an eerie place, once patients start becoming murder victims, you’ll feel the dread alongside Alice as she’s trapped inside and races to catch the killer. Billingham knows how to play with the expectations of the reader, making every plot twist hit hard and fast.Alice Armitage is (or, at least, believes she is) a former police officer who is now a patient on a psychiatric ward, suffering from PTSD after her partner Jonno is stabbed to death during a routine investigation. When one of her fellow patients is murdered, Alice secretly mounts her own investigation and becomes convinced she knows who the killer is. Unfortunately, a few days later, Alice’s suspect becomes the second victim. I loved the sense of looking out for each other that Al had with some of the other patients and whilst there are two murders, I found this to be a heartwarming story. My name is Alice. I'm a police officer.I'm trying to solve a murder on a psychiatric ward.But I'm also a patient... Alice, is a former Police Officer – or was she !!! who has been retired on medical grounds. Alice draws on her life’s experience in the Forces to solve the murder of her friend Kevin, who is killed in a mental institution. The problem is, Alice is also a patient, but that doesn’t hinder her, nor does the dismissive nature of the investigating team. Instead, Alice begins her own investigation and goes about her duties with the prowess, proficiency, and know-how one would expect from a competent police office who has solved so many crimes during her distinguished career.

A unique scenario and place, some dry humor and a character one can't help but pull for make this an interesting, though albeit long read. I seem to be having problems with ending lately in the books I've read and the who in this who done it I felt rather anticlimactic. There was one revelation though that surprised me and made sense of what came before. So, mixed for me but worth reading for the novelty of the setting and characters. Rabbit Hole is authentic, raucous and deeply compassionate. Expertly balancing humour, tension and pathos, it'll do for the psychiatric ward what The Thursday Murder Club has done for retirement villages. A deeply compelling read * Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange * Reading Rabbit Hole was a nostalgic experience for me. It reawakened a lot of memories of patients and incidents from my psychiatric nursing days, some amusing, some not. Billingham has done his research well.The series of crime novels featuring London-based detective Tom Thornecontinued with Scaredy Catand was followed by Lazybones, The Burning Girl, Lifeless, Buried, Death Message, Bloodline, From The Dead, Good As Dead, The Dying Hours, The Bones Beneath, Time Of Death, Love Like Blood, The Killing Habit, Their Little Secretand the most recent Cry Baby. Mark is also the author of the standalone novels In The Dark, Rush Of Blood, Die Of Shameand his latest, Rabbit Hole. Immense skill and heart'Eve Chase ' Brilliant, suspenseful, poignant, heartbreaking, surprisingly funny'Linwood Barclay 'One of the most consistently entertaining, insightful crime writers working today'Gillian Flynn Alice (Al) Armitage is in an intermediate length ward in London for mental health and addiction treatment. We are told she has PTSD, substance misuse issues and intermittent paranoia (is this truly her diagnosis?) She is a former copper (is she or isn't she?) Her life has fallen apart and she ends up mandated to have long term treatment for her mental illness and anti-social behaviors (is she a criminal as well?)

The creator of DI Tom Thorne presents a stand-alone whodunit with a most unusual setting: the psychiatric ward of a northwest London hospital. I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Rabbit Hole by Mark Billingham After witnessing her police partner’s murder, Alice Armitage experiences a psychotic episode and is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. She is suffering from PTSD and has been self-medicating with alcohol and drugs. While living on the psych ward, Alice befriends the other patients. When her new friend, Kevin, is brutally murdered on the ward, she decides to begin her own investigation into the case. She is an expert at this because she is a police officer. Or is she? Who murdered Kevin? Rabbit Hole is a mind-bending psychological thriller that puts protagonist Alice Armitage through the toughest investigation of her life. Billingham plays the unreliable narrator card brilliantly here, as we never really know the truth about what’s going on, leading to an electrifying conclusion. Alice is a complicated and intriguing protagonist, and Billingham’s portrayal of her PTSD is realistic yet sensitively handled. Her state of mind is always in a constant state of dismay, so everything she says or does has to be taken with a grain of salt. Rabbit Hole excels with its intelligent vivacity. A magnificent sense of gravitas with a terrifying exploration of mental health and guilt.We are introduced to the cast of Fleet Ward which is amusing in itself. It sounds like snow white naming the seven dwarfs (The Waiter, The Singer, The Sheep etc..), or naming the characters from the film the dirty dozen (Tiny tears, the Grand Master, L-Plate…). This is a book that truly delivers the goods in one of the best mysteries that I have read in a very long time. An acclaimed television series based on the Thorne novels was screened on Sky One in Autumn 2010, starring David Morrissey as Tom Thorne. A series based on the novels In The Dark and Time Of Death was screened on BBC1 in 2017. There are a number of supporting players in Rabbit Hole - both residents and staff. The book is told from Alice's point of view and that's how we get to know the others. I have to applaud Billingham's description of those residents and their illnesses, as well as the setting and the every day life on the ward. We learn bits and pieces of what came before for Alice from interactions with some ex colleagues, friends and family. There's some dark humour scattered thoughout.

Billingham creates the dark, claustrophobic world of the psychiatric ward with immense skill and heart.”— Eve Chase, author of The Glass House 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.When one of her fellow patients is murdered, Alice becomes convinced that she has identified the killer and that she can catch them. Ignored by the police, she begins her own investigation. But when her prime suspect becomes the second victim, Alice's life begins to unravel still further as she realizes that she cannot trust anyone, least of all herself. Alice Armitage is a police officer. Or she was. Or perhaps she just imagines she was. Whatever the truth is, following a debilitating bout of PTSD, self-medication with drink and drugs, and a psychotic breakdown, Alice is now a long-term patient in an acute psychiatric ward. Alice Armitage find herself in a rabbit hole. She's a "medically retired" police officer. After witnessing the death of her partner, she develops PTSD and starts self medicating with drink and drugs. Which lands her sectioned into a secure psychiatric unit. What I would have liked to read, based on the synopsys: a complex, realistic depiction of life and (unnatural) death on a mental health ward, driven by complex, well-rounded characters and suffused with atmosphere, with maybe some sarcasm, darkness and/or social commentary thrown into the mix.