Quick Review – The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham

Publisher: Sphere (Trade Paperback – 25 June 2024)

Series: DS Declan Miller – Book Two

Length: 405 pages

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

Bestselling crime fiction author Mark Billingham continues his DS Declan Miller series with the highly entertaining read, The Wrong Hands.

Billingham is an intriguing British crime fiction author who has an impressive catalogue of books to his name. Best known for his long running DI Tom Thorne series, Billingham has also written an array of compelling standalone novels and audiobook exclusives. His latest body of work is his DS Declan Miller series, which is a light-hearted crime fiction series focusing on an array of over-the-top characters. Starting with The Last Dance, the DS Declan Miller books follow an eccentric police detective as he investigates unusual crimes in Blackpool, including the murder of his own wife. The Wrong Hands is the second book in the series, and it proved to be another cooky investigation with a highly entertaining plot behind it.

Plot Synopsis:

This is one case Detective Miller won’t want to open . . .

The second rip-roaring mystery from multi-award-winning number international bestseller Mark Billingham starring Detective Miller: unique, unconventional, and criminally underestimated…

Unconventional Detective Declan Miller has a problem. Well, two problems. First, there’s his dead wife and her yet-to-be-solved murder. He really should stop talking to her ghosts…

Second, and most pressing, a young man has just appeared on his doorstep with a briefcase . . . containing a pair of severed hands. Miller knows this case is proof of a contract killing commissioned by local ne’er do well Wayne Cutler—a man he suspects might also be responsible for his wife’s death. Now Miller has leverage, but unfortunately, he also has something that both Cutler and a villainous fast-food kingpin are desperate to get hold of.

Sprinkle in a Midsomer Murders-obsessed hitman, a psychotic welder, and a woman driven over the edge by a wayward Crème Egg, and Miller is in a mess that even he might not be able to dance his way out of.

The Wrong Hands was a highly entertaining and slightly outrageous crime fiction read that sets the author’s distinctive police detective protagonist against an unlikely assortment of criminals in a wacky, fast-paced plot. Starting off with a very entertaining opening sequence that sees a world-class assassin and a local crime boss severely embarrassed by two local youths who managed to steal vital evidence, the book only gets even more fun from there as DS Declan Miller comes into possession of a pair of hands that could prove the key to locking up his rival and solving the murder of his dead wife. However, to get there, Miller must first catch a dangerous killer, determine who the hands belong to, and protect anyone associated with the thieves responsible for the whole debacle.

I had an amazing time with this story, as Billingham loaded his plot with a huge array of over-the-top characters, each of whom proved fun to follow. The plot moves at a very fast pace, and the author loads up some interesting clues and set-ups that result in some fantastic twists. Much of the plot turns into an unlikely game of cat and mouse as Miller and his colleagues try to find the assassin before he strikes down everyone involved with the case. I liked the captivating tension and unique story moments that led up to the big confrontation and the eventual solution to the book’s main plot proves to be quite enjoyable, especially as the villains are brought down from an unexpected source. However, I must admit that I felt the author’s solution to the big crime of the series, the murder of the protagonist’s wife, didn’t get the epic solution it deserves, especially as the culprit kind of comes out of nowhere. Still, this was an overall fantastic read and you really get wrapped up in the clever story.

Billingham utilises a distinctive stye that combines humour with compelling crime fiction scenarios. While slightly derivative of the current craze around comedic murder mystery novels, The Wrong Hands still proved to be extremely entertaining, and I found the entire oddball scenario to be very compelling. The quick change in focus between the various memorable figures involved in the case helped to give the novel some additional depth and comedic power, and I loved seeing the different angles to this entertaining narrative. In addition, I felt that Billingham did a great job making The Wrong Hands a very accessible and easy to read book. While The Wrong Hands does serve as a sequel to The Last Dance, new readers can easily dive into this latest book from Billingham without any issue, and the author ensures all the key plot points are expertly rehashed, allowing anyone to come in and have a great time with this fantastic novel.

While I loved the plot of The Wrong Hands and the way it was presented, the real fun lies in the unique characters themselves, as Billingham brings together an amazing and varied cast of niche crooks, crazed killers and troubled cops. While I did think that Billingham may have tried a little too hard to make his protagonist, the dance-loving, unusual fact-spouting, rat-owning DS Declan Miller seem as quirky as possible, he still proved to be a great character to follow, and I felt that the author perfectly captured his grief, guilt and obsession with finding his wife’s killer. His partner, DS Sara Xiu, proved to be an excellent foil to Miller, and even with her issues she worked as an enjoyable straight figure to Miller’s eccentric persona. However, it is Billingham’s villains that really make The Wrong Hands stand out, as the author utilises an excellent collection of outrageous rogues. This includes two crime bosses with alternate product focuses, whose neglectful family life proves to be their downfall, an elite assassin with a less-than-perfect naming convention and a love for Midsomer Murders, and a psychotic welder with some major issues. These fantastically dark characters added a lot of impact to The Wrong Hands, and I loved seeing how their entertaining and often ironic storylines came together.

Overall, The Wrong Hands was an awesome and very fun new book from Mark Billingham, who let his ridiculous side loose to produce a fantastic crime fiction read. Fast, funny, and loaded with outrageously complicated characters, The Wrong Hands is an easy book to get lost in, and I am glad I decided to pick it up.