The Shadow Step
The remarkable Detective Miller is back with a riveting new mystery
Will be published approx. on 2. July 2026
Book
Hardback
400 pages
978-1-4087-2202-2 (ISBN)
Description
The new Detective Miller thriller from bestselling author Mark Billingham, full of tension, wit and incredible twists.
'I'm excited to have found a new favourite detective' CLAIRE DOUGLAS
'Edge-of-your-seat tension, wit and heart - fantastic!' LISA JEWELL
'Funny, moving, and full of surprises. An absolute treat' MICK HERRON
? 'Combining humor, pathos, and genuine surprise, it's another home run from Billingham.' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, STARRED REVIEW
It's Detective Miller's deadliest dance...
The Shadow Step: One taken simultaneously by a pair of dancers facing the same direction, one of them behind and slightly shifted leftwards ('in the shadow')
Typically, such a step perfectly demonstrates synchronized elegance. It showcases a couple in near telepathic harmony with one another. It does not normally end with someone stone-dead in a lake.
DS Declan Miller is a magnet for strange cases, but how can he catch a killer when the man confessing to the crime is clearly innocent? Things rapidly escalate when the murder that isn't really a murder at all attracts the unwanted attention of a drugs Queenpin, a deranged ex-squaddie and a lovesick gangland enforcer. Then a student is kidnapped...
Throw in a wobbly dog, a pair of ceramic leopards and the distracting smell from a local biscuit factory, and - if he wants to save a young man's life - Miller has little choice but to waltz all the way into the shadows.
'I'm excited to have found a new favourite detective' CLAIRE DOUGLAS
'Edge-of-your-seat tension, wit and heart - fantastic!' LISA JEWELL
'Funny, moving, and full of surprises. An absolute treat' MICK HERRON
? 'Combining humor, pathos, and genuine surprise, it's another home run from Billingham.' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, STARRED REVIEW
It's Detective Miller's deadliest dance...
The Shadow Step: One taken simultaneously by a pair of dancers facing the same direction, one of them behind and slightly shifted leftwards ('in the shadow')
Typically, such a step perfectly demonstrates synchronized elegance. It showcases a couple in near telepathic harmony with one another. It does not normally end with someone stone-dead in a lake.
DS Declan Miller is a magnet for strange cases, but how can he catch a killer when the man confessing to the crime is clearly innocent? Things rapidly escalate when the murder that isn't really a murder at all attracts the unwanted attention of a drugs Queenpin, a deranged ex-squaddie and a lovesick gangland enforcer. Then a student is kidnapped...
Throw in a wobbly dog, a pair of ceramic leopards and the distracting smell from a local biscuit factory, and - if he wants to save a young man's life - Miller has little choice but to waltz all the way into the shadows.
Reviews / Votes
? Combining humor, pathos, and genuine surprise, it's another home run from Billingham. * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, STARRED REVIEW *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Little, Brown Book Group
Product notice
Trade binding
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-4087-2202-2 (9781408722022)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
approx. 07/2026
Sphere
€10.99
Not yet available
Person
Mark Billingham has twice won the Theakston Old Peculier Award for Crime Novel of the Year, the Sherlock Award for the best detective created by a British writer and in 2026 he was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger for an outstanding lifetime contribution to the genre. Sleepyhead and Scaredy Cat were made into a hit TV series on Sky 1 starring David Morrissey as Tom Thorne, and a series based on the novels In the Dark and Time of Death was broadcast on BBC1. Mark lives in north London with his wife and two children.