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. Mark Bellingham has pulled the rabbit out of the hat on this one. The Rabbit Hole is told in a way that strikes a perfect balance between sensitively dealing with PTSD and murder whilst injecting tasteful humour throughout the book. 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…). 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.

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... 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. 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 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."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. On the Fleet Ward of a psychiatric hospital for those that have been sectioned, a patient has been brutally murdered. Told and thought in the first person by DCI Alice Armitage, working alone, she deep dig investigates the murder; I suppose that there's one thing I should also mention, Alice is also an in-patient in the Ward! 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. 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

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. 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. Out of nowhere, there's some clunky Q&A-type dialogue thrown in regarding how the mentally ill are people too and what it's like to be afflicted, which I found pretty heavy-handed and lip service-y as well as structurally redundant, as it was the author's job to let us live inside the head of one such person -- I get that writing a coherent, structured novel from the perspective of a character who can trust neither her thoughts nor her recollection nor her perceptions is basically the toughest job imaginable, but, well, you know, if you take it on, you take it on, right? I could have done without that Deep Conversation with the café lady, as well as the cringe-inducing messaging between Alice and her former flatmate that added nothing to the narrative except a little padding (strings of emojis, anyone? I think I already used the word "juvenile", so I won't bring it up again).

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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 * Al thinks she’s ok some of the time but at other times she clearly struggles and you really feel for her. Brilliant, suspenseful, poignant, heartbreaking, surprisingly funny, and Mark Billingham, magician that he is, pulls that proverbial rabbit out of the hat at the end. More than just about any other book I've read, I HAD to know how it would all come together * Linwood Barclay * 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. 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 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.

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MY THOUGHTS: Mark Billingham is an amazing author. His depiction of Alice Armitage is brilliant, his forays into her mind, scary.