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

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Alice Armitage is a patient in an acute psychiatric ward following a debilitating bout of PTSD, self-medication with drink and drugs, and a psychotic breakdown. When one of Alice’s fellow patients is murdered she is convinced that she hunt down the killer. More than just about any book I’ve read, I HAD to know how it would all come together.”— Linwood Barclay

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. Mark Billingham was born and brought up in Birmingham. Having worked for some years as an actor and more recently as a TV writer and stand-upcomedian his first crime novel was published in 2001. 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. Mental patients are sometimes fascinating to read about, and Alice Armitage is one of them. She is a police officer, was a police officer, or imagines she was. She is now a long-term patient in an acute psychiatric ward after a mental breakdown. When one of the patients in the ward is murdered, Alice decides she is the perfect person to solve the crime since she has so much experience in investigations. She has identified the prime suspect, even though the police are ignoring her, but then the prime suspect is murdered as well. 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.British author Mark Billingham takes a break from his 17-novel series about DI Tom Thorne for his fifth standalone novel, which grippingly explores Det. Constable Alice Armitage’s psychotic breakdown after witnessing her police partner’s murder . . . The novel expertly delves into daily life in a psych ward where drugs and routine rule over treatment, and Rabbit Hole’s stunning finale puts a new spin on Al and the plot.”— Shelf Awareness 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. Billingham’s picture of the ward and its staff is full of humanity, leaving us with a clear sense that this kind of illness could affect any of us, and the story offers an excellent twist. He gets better and better.”— Literary Review

There are some good characters but I was never completely hooked and never really felt the authors usual magic. A decent read but not his best. The creator of DI Tom Thorne presents a stand-alone whodunit with a most unusual setting: the psychiatric ward of a northwest London hospital.MY THOUGHTS: Mark Billingham is an amazing author. His depiction of Alice Armitage is brilliant, his forays into her mind, scary. 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.

Ultimately, though, this is a mystery novel, and unfortunately that is the weakest part of the construct. You can’t fairly blame this on Alice. Setting aside her own unfortunate personal problems and delusions, she’s not able to effectively conduct a modern, professional police investigation --- and she has to come to grips with this. You might think that her unique point of view could lead to an unconventional insight that would solve the case. I certainly did and was somewhat disappointed. Billingham's picture of the ward and its staff is full of humanity, leaving us with a clear sense that this kind of illness could affect any of us, and the story offers an excellent twist. He gets better and better. * Literary Review * 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, 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. I really tried… honestly I did. To the tune of 60%. It was just too difficult to hook into, constantly felt as if there was some revelation coming but never happened. It may well reveal at the end but I just couldn’t wait for it. 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 (Al) Armitage previously worked in law enforcement but is currently confined to a psychiatric facility as the pressures of the job and the loss of her partner culminated in her abusing drugs and alcohol. A patient on the ward is murdered and Alice convinces herself that the police are in need of her help in the investigation.

Truly horrid as Alice is the one that tries to save her. Alice is disintegrating and becoming increasingly psychotic (is she really?) 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. This is a stand alone novel by Mark Billingham, with a slight nod to “Alice in Wonderland,” with the main character being called Alice Armitage and the suggestion that she has fallen down the rabbit hole. In this case, the rabbit hole is an acute psychiatric ward, or Fleet Ward, to be exact. Alice has been sectioned and is a patient on the ward and her musings, as she explains her surroundings and the cast of characters – both other patients and staff – are darkly funny. 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 The unreliable narrator has been a favorite vehicle for authors in recent years. Here, Billingham gives us perhaps the most unreliable narrator of all: A woman sectioned into a mental health ward following a psychotic episode brought on by PTSD. This woman is a former police detective who, although having been medically retired from the force, still sees herself as on the Job.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. Genres: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Police Procedural, Women Sleuths, Thrillers, Crime, Psychological, General, Suspense Rabbit Hole excels with its intelligent vivacity. A magnificent sense of gravitas with a terrifying exploration of mental health and guilt. Despite the suffering that goes on in the ward we witness so many strange and hilarious antics both before and after the murder of the patient but then a couple of weeks later a nurse is murdered....