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Ian Rankin may be Britain's best-selling male crime writer but he had better look to his laurels – Mark Billingham is biting at his heels.

For some time now, Billingham's lean and gritty urban thrillers featuring his DI Tom Thorne have been massive successes.

But those expecting In The Dark to be another outing for Thorne will be in for a surprise – this is a stand-alone novel in which the detective makes only a cameo appearance.

Billingham admirers shouldn't hesitate, however. Unmissable though the Thorne books are, this is the writer's most ambitious work yet.

A woman driving in Hackney notices that a car full of young men has its headlights switched off so flashes her lights to warn them. To her horror, she is met by a hail of bullets and swerves, killing a young man waiting at a bus stop. The dead man is an off-duty policeman and his violent end will set in train a lengthy catalogue of carnage.

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