Lazy Bones by Mark Billingham (2004, Hardcover)

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.