Mark Billingham's Detective Miller books are like a breath of fresh air for the discerning crime reader. As with The Last Dance, The Wrong Hands is full of Billingham's trademark humour, but coupled with a dark and authentic storyline.

Miller and his partner, Xiu are fast becoming my favourite duo in crime writing. Their differences are what bring them together and I can feel their friendship oozing off the page; even if neither of them would be likely to admit it. There is nothing I enjoy reading more than complex characters; because who amongst us is completely binary? I utterly admire Billingham's ability to write these sorts of characters without making them contradictory.

A fast-paced, funny thriller that leaves me looking forward to the next installment!

This is the second in longtime crime fiction author Billingham’s DS Declan Miller series. Miller’s backstory is that his beloved wife and dance partner has been murdered—though she still appears to him from time to time in their home and they “discuss” whatever case he’s working on. It’s made clear that she is not a paranormal being; just a manifestation of his yearning for her, and a way for him to work out his own thoughts.

The book gets off to a Keystone Cops pace, as bad guys and good guys chase each other, often ineptly, while the appalling—but somehow almost funny—mcguffin is a pair of severed and be-ringed hands in a briefcase. The plot settles down to a bad guy’s pursuit of the briefcase, while the police chase him. Miller’s additional purpose is to nail the mob boss whom he believes is behind the severed-hands killing—and, possibly, the murder of his wife, who was a member of the Serious and Organized Crime squad.

The setup is interesting, but the book became a bit of a slog. Miller’s character is not so much filled out as a collection of traits, quirks, and habits: he enjoys being a smartass, including at the expense of his colleagues, and he keeps a pair of pet rats named Fred and Ginger. Like so many detectives in crime fiction, he prefers to act alone and often needlessly forges ahead alone into dangerous situations. He is also filled with anger at the failure of his wife’s former squad to make any headway into the investigation of her death, and regularly goes upstairs in the police station—thought strictly forbidden—to accuse them of incompetence or worse.

About three-quarters of the way through, I was considering giving up on the book, but things finally wrap up in a fairly interesting way <spoiler>(though the police, including Miller, were way too slow to figure out where to capture the bad guy)</spoiler>after that. There is a glimmer of promise that Miller will develop into a more interesting and full-fledged character.

2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.

I truly enjoyed the first book in this series but had worried that the light touch wouldn't carry into the second book. What a pleasure to realize that it did carry over!

In some ways, Miller reminds me of Logan MacRae's involvement with the dangerous mob types in his town (in this case, Blackpool). However, in the more important ways, he's a completely new creation: ballroom dancing, partnering with a motorcycle riding-heavy metal loving woman, trying to maintain a relationship with his murdered wife's daughter, and keeping Fred and Ginger, his pet rats. And, of course, being a brilliant detective who manages to solve cases despite being consumed with rage over the homicide squad not doing their best to find who murdered his wife.

Despite that, as I said, there's a definite light tone here. He loves puns and bad jokes. The ballroom dancing group are charming, and good foils for the police colleagues (but not amateur detectives like those in the Thursday Murder Club). Of course the mystery in this book is wrapped up neatly - perhaps a little too neatly - but there are ongoing threads to be unravelled. Here's to book three!

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

“The Wrong Hands” is the second book in the Detective Miller series by author Mark Billingham. I read the first novel ‘The Last Dance’ sometime ago which was a good introduction to the latest series by this author. It took me a little while to get back into the swing of this series but by the end I was ready for another one. This series has a mix of humour, suspense and an intriguing plot held together by the writing of the author.

Detective Declan Miller is a little different from the usual detective, unconventional and still suffering emotionally from the loss of his murdered wife. The story starts when a young man turns up on Miller’s doorstep with a briefcase containing a pair of severed hands. This sets off a chain of events launching Miller into a world of contract killers and local crime syndicates. Miller investigations are always combined with the quest to find his wife’s killer.

Local criminal mastermind Wayne Cutler is suspected of been involved in both the severed hands case and the murder of Miller’s wife so is key to Millers investigations. On top of this we have a fast-food kingpin who is desperate to retrieve the briefcase.

I am enjoying this series but it still has some way to go to reach the high standards of ‘Tom Thorne’ which I love reading.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

In the 23 years since his superb debut Sleepyhead hit shelves, Birmingham-born storyteller Mark Billingham has become one of modern crime fiction’s greats, and his gritty, long-running DI Tom Thorne series is on my shortlist of best British series of the century. Last year, he swerved, returning to his stand-up comic roots with the raucous The Last Dance, which introduced rat-loving, ballroom-dancing detective Declan Miller.

Fumbling foxtrots, irreverent humour, and policing slapstick and serious are all on the menu again in The Wrong Hands, a wonderful sequel that may have readers laughing out loud in some passages and emotionally hooked in others. The cops in Blackpool think they finally have crime boss Wayne Cutler bang to rights, only for a sting operation to be upturned by a couple of local larrikins. When a young man turns up on Miller’s doorstep with a briefcase containing severed appendages, Miller realises he may finally have the upper hand to catch those behind the murder of his wife, dance partner, and fellow detective Alex. Not that he trusts the official investigation. So with heavy metal-loving Detective ‘Posh’ Xiu alongside a menagerie of pals, Miller tries to juggle investigations professional and private, hoping not to get dragged off life’s dancefloor, permanently.

Billingham expertly delivers another fantastic read, full of grin-inducing characters on both sides of the law. Here’s hoping for much more to come from DS Declan Miller.

[This review was first written for Good Reading magazine, in Australia]

This is the second book in the Detective Declan Miller series, and it's even better than the first. His partnership with DS Sara Xiu has developed, and I also thing DS Miller has grown as a character. Awesome plot, good humorous writing. Looking forward to book 3.

I am so pleased to have Detective Miller back again. The Wrong Hands is the second book in the series, and I thoroughly enjoyed it as much as The Last Dance.

The opening scene sets the tone for this wonderful book.
Miller is drawn into a case, that is not his to investigate, by the act of being gifted a briefcase. What makes this briefcase so unique, is that it contains a pair of severed hands, complete with the owner’s rings still in situ. Miller, Posh and the team are tasked with solving this grim crime, in spite of the disastrous leadership of DI Tim Sullivan, who would have been better suited to a role in the Keystone Cops.

As you would expect from Mark Billingham, the book is very well written, with so much dry humour dotted through the pages.
The characters are all fabulous, vivid and distinct. Miller is very amusing. So full of sarcasm and wonderfully useless information, with an almost scant regard for his ongoing career with the police; which is the only thing keeping him going, since the death of his wife Alex, apart from Fred and Ginger of course. The development of the working relationship between himself and Xiu, brought me many smiles.

I love everything about Miller, and can’t recommend The Wrong Hands, and the first book in the series, The Last Dance, highly enough. In a crowded genre, DS Declan Miller is a quirky breath of fresh air. I really hope Mark Billingham intends to bring us more from this dour hero.
The Wrong Hands is a light, engaging, entertaining read, which considering it involves finding severed hands, is quite an accomplishment.
Easily 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me.

Really enjoyed this!

I'm one of those fools who tends not to realise when they've stumbled onto a detective series only to realise it's been going for a decade. Thankfully, The Wrong Hands is only the second outing for DI Miller and I bought The Last Dance halfway through this because it was so much fun.

The storyline involves the discovery of a briefcase containing a pair of hands. DI Miller has ended up with prime evidence that everyone wants to (sorry) get their hands on too. There's two gang bosses, an assassin, the Police ... so is he going to hand it over to anyone or does the briefcase also hold the key to who murdered Miller's wife, Alex.

There's a lot packed into this book and the action plus the dancing and the often slapstick approach to policing and criminality doesn't leave much time for you to catch your breath.

DI Miller and DS Sara Xiu (aka Posh) are great characters and the surrounding cast of Alex's daughter, Miller's friends and ballroom dance group all provide excellent background material. The book is full of laughs but it managed to make me shed a tear or two as well.

I'm looking forward to reading The Last Dance and hope that it isn't too long before DI Miller #3 is published. Hint hint. Highly recommended. It is far different from Billingham's darker books but it's truly entertaining and well worth the read.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the advance review copy.

The Last year Mark Billingham introduced us to the unpredictable Detective Sergeant Declan Miller in The Last Dance, a book that takes a different tone to the author’s Thorne novels. The Wrong Hands continues Declan’s story along with the mix of genres seen in the first book – part police procedural and part grief manual with humour scattered throughout. As you read this book, you will get the sense that Billingham enjoyed writing it, creating a plot and characters that are anything but mystery novel stereotypes.

The setting is Blackpool, the seaside town in Northwest England, but Billingham avoids the bright lights and the seafront and chooses to share with us the less scenic parts of the town. In the train station, two hapless crooks are plotting a robbery that will take place in the men’s toilets. Despite their incompetence, they manage to steal a briefcase and what’s inside is of great interest to several key players both in the police and in the crime world – organised and otherwise.

Probably the most dangerous person in search of the briefcase is a hitman that goes by a variety of names all starting with the initials DD. He needs the briefcase as it contains evidence that he completed a job. No proof means no payment. He is not above killing anyone who gets in his way. On the surface, DD appears a cold-hearted killer, yet he is obsessed with the TV show Midsomer Murders. He also enjoys writing lists about diverse topics such as his favourite drinks and things people have said to him just before they died. Author Mark Billingham does a good job balancing the menace with the mirth.

Declan is haunted by his dead wife, Alex, and suspects that a criminal operator interested in the case has information about her murder. Ralph Massey started out as Miss Coco Popz, a drag queen. He uses his entertainment empire as a convenient smokescreen for his money laundering business. Don’t let his fun persona fool you. He is hard as nails but is also willing to share information about the case if it will help bring down his main competitor in Blackpool, Wayne Cutler.

Cutler is very protective of his territory. If someone crosses the line, he will take steps to remove that individual. The trouble is he’s under police surveillance and wants to ensure there is nothing in the case that can be tied to him. Of all the villains in The Wrong Hands, Wayne is closest to the stereotype.

Declan is an interesting man. He is a smart detective who doesn’t always play well with his colleagues. This is not to say that he fits the mould of the hardboiled loner detective. He is determined to discover who was responsible for Alex’s death. She was a detective too. In his spare time, he is not drinking himself into oblivion. Instead, he enjoys ballroom dancing with his friends; looking out for his step-daughter, Finn; playing with his pet rats Ginger and Fred; and conversing with Alex.

The missing briefcase is a chance for Declan to continue his personal investigation into her murder. He thinks the team assigned to her case are not making any progress and takes any opportunity he can to challenge the team. His relationship with his partner, Sara Xiu, has grown into a mutual respect of one another. She has become accustomed to his sense of humour and even makes the occasional joke herself. There are some genuine moments of friendship between Declan and Sara that give depth to their characters.

The Wrong Hands does lead us closer to the truth about Alex, though the intensity of the novel diminishes after information related to her case is revealed. There is a strong sense of closure at the end of the book but hopefully the series and Declan’s own story will continue.

The Wrong Hands a mystery detective thriller by Mark Billingham book 2 was not my cup of tea at all. I have not read The Last Dance which is book 1 of 2.

I found the storyline which filtered in and out of Detective Declan Miller's social dance classes and umteen monologue with his dead wife to be tedious and spoilt the enjoyment of the actual detective mystery. That said I did find Detective Declan's sense of humour quite amusing.

Everyone has different tastes in books and other readers may rate this very highly but as I said it was not for me.

Mark Billingham took a leave of absence from his popular detective Tom Thorne to start a new series last year with Blackpool Detective Declan Miller, and he has now followed it up with a second book, The Wrong Hands.

Set not long after the events in the first novel, The Last Dance, it opens in good fashion with an amusing theft gone wrong that sets the scene for the rest of the book. Very soon after the poorly targeted heist, Miller finds himself in possession of a briefcase containing a pair of hands, that supposedly serve as proof of a gangland execution. Not surprisingly, a number of people want to get their ‘hands’ on the briefcase and its contents, including the killer who needs the hands to claim payment, and the local crime boss who ordered the killing. Meanwhile, Miller sees the briefcase as a way to apply leverage to find out who killed his wife, a fellow detective who was murdered while working uncover just prior to the events of the first book.

It is a convoluted plot and certainly having read The Last Dance would help you to appreciate the intricacies of the story. It all moves along at a good pace, and although the mystery elements are muted there are still several good twists and turns. The entertaining cast of minor characters from the first book also feature again, including Miller’s death-metal loving partner, Sara Xiu, the ex-drag queen Coco Pops who is now a nasty major criminal and Miller’s pet rats, Ginger and Fred.

The ballroom dancing references are also present, as are Miller’s corny jokes and sometimes amusing references. Billingham has tuned down some of Miller’s eccentricities this time around, and I think the book is better for it.

Overall, The Wrong Hands is a very entertaining read. Some of it is over-the-top, but it works pretty well, and the book builds to a satisfying ending.

See full review at: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/j...

Detective Miller is back and we could all use a Detective Miller in our life.

Declan is quick witted and determined and underestimated at how tenacious he really is.

He is on a mission to solve his wife's murder sooner than later.

Declan is still ball room dancing with his cronies.

The book starts off strong and never lets up.

A job goes horribly wrong and the police are up against the top criminals as the bodies pile up.

Mark Billingham has cleverly left a trail of clues with twists and turns, murder, secrets and betrayal which lead the reader on a wild ride of danger .

I laughed out loud with Declan, I cringed for him but I mostly admired his tenacity and street smarts.

I cant wait to see what adventure Miller and Xiu take us on next.

Treat yourself to this fantastic read and series not to mention any of Mark Billingham books. He is one of my favourite authors.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic/Atlantic Monthly Press for the privilege of reading and reviewing The Wrong Hands.

What a great read. I really enjoyed The Last Dance which was the first in this series, but this one was even better. DS Miller is such a brilliant character. He’s a ballroom dancer who has two pet rats and drives a moped. His partner D S Xui is a heavy metal enthusiast. The story centres around a.briefcase with a pair of hands in it. The detectives need to find out who they belong to and why they were in there. It’s a very intriguing mystery which held my attention. As well as this we have the ongoing crime of who killed DS Millers wife and why. We meet his ballroom friends who knew his wife because she was his dancing partner. I just loved their conversations. It is a funny witty book and Miller is constantly telling jokes, but the sad thing is it’s a way of coping with the grief of losing his wife . It is so moving when he talks to her and he imagines her in his house. There are resolutions in the end of this book that ties everything together. I love the characters and hopefully there will be another one soon.

I’d like to thank Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Wrong Hands’, the second Detective Miller novel written by Mark Billingham, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

A briefcase is stolen from a public toilet by two inept criminals and one of them, Andy Bagnall, is so shocked to open the case and find inside four signet rings still attached to the hands that he takes the briefcase to DS Declan Miller. Meanwhile, it’s now five months since his wife Alex was killed and Miller’s still talking to her ghost while waiting for the Serious & Organised Crime Unit to solve her murder.

‘The Wrong Hands’ is a humorous police thriller with the main characters of ballroom-dancing DS Declan Miller and his rat-hating partner DS Sara Xiu. It’s well written with likeable characters and an unusual plot that’s had me laughing from page one. It’s been as enjoyable to read as the first in the series, ‘The Last Dance’, and a pleasure to have a police novel with a main character that doesn’t take himself too seriously.

I loved the first DS Declan Miller book but this one is even better! The title is a clue to what it's all about- a briefcase with severed hands inside and the cat and mouse chase to find the killer. It's full of hilarious dry one liners from Miller, especially his thoughts, and his partnership with Xiu (kick ass female character) strengthens. She even makes a couple of jokes! The story is really engaging, pacey and never gets dull. Roll on book 3.

It`s the second in the series with Detective Declan Miller.
Declan is a strange character who lost his wife recently when she was murdered but still likes to talk to her, he lives alone with his pet rats and loves going to dancing practice.
The plot deals with missing hands and hired killers.
Declan deals with things in unusual ways and his sense of humour is brilliant you just have to laugh out loud.
I have read lots of Mark Billingham`s books and this is another great series can`t wait for more.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC and I give my honest review.

The second Miller book is even better than the first and that was good! One minute genuinely laugh out loud, the next a touching, heartfelt moment. Mark Billingham seems to have great fun with this series, especially the Blackpool setting. I can almost forgive him for the Queen slight...almost 😉

Once again, Mark Billingham had me laughing within the first few opening pages of the second in the DS Miller series. It starts when two dim witted robbers make off with a briefcase lifted from a public toilet. When they open the lock, there are four massive signet rings inside. They just happen to be attached to two severed hands. They realize they really don’t want to keep this briefcase and find a way to put it in the hands of DS Declan Miller.
From there, folks start getting beaten up and dead bodies begin to mount up. The issue for Miller is proving who is ultimately behind the initial murder.
Miller is an unconventional DS, to say the least. He has a pair of rats as his pets. His hobby is ballroom dancing. Oh, and he still speaks to his dead wife and his number one priority is solving her murder. Billingham also fleshes out his partner DS Sara Ziu more in this story.
The story moves at a brisk pace and the writing was such that it was easy to envision each scene.
I adore an author able to write a jaunty turn of phrase and Billingham has that ability in spades. “He was wearing a shirt that wasn’t as much loud as deafening…”
I highly recommend this for folks who want a bit of humor with a strong police procedural. It’s not necessary to have read the first book but I strongly recommend it as well. I heartily hope Billingham is planning for there to be a third in the series.
My thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for an advance copy of this book.

Detective Declan Miller has his hands full. While still dealing with the unsolved murder of his wife, a young man appears at his door with a briefcase, containing a pair of severed hands. His gut tells him they result from a contract killing by a local criminal, but are they related to his wife’s murder? The same killer? THE WRONG HANDS has more unexpected twists and turns, dark humor, and edge-of-your-seat suspense than anything you’re likely to read. Jump on board. A great ride.

DP Lyle, award-winning author of the Jake Longly and Cain/Harper thriller series

Recently I read one of Marks books and loved it. This was no different. This is book 2 with the recurring character of Declan Miller. What I love about these books is that there is a sense of humour involved.