Books like Lifeless

I like Tom Thorne, I like all his cronies, associates, colleagues, pain-in-the-neck superiors and others. He lives in a tough and violent world, modern London. But this book seemed to go and on and there were times I wondered if I could finish it. Things seemed, to me, to be a bit s t r e t c h e d out.Someone is killing homeless men in the city, at night, finding them, hunting them down, kicking them to death. Random serial killer? Maybe. Or is there a link of some kind between/among some of the victims? Are some of them killed just to hide whatever this 'link' might be? Well, in order to find out, Tom willingly goes undercover, and starts 'sleeping rough,' or as we'd say in the US, 'sleeping on the streets.' Whichever. In the process he learns a lot about this community, makes friends with a homeless young man and his girlfriend, and waits and waits and waits...And waits for something to happen. It does, eventually. With help from other members of the police, clues are slowly, almost grudgingly, put together which points Thorne in the right direction. But, the ending - I had trouble with as it involves one character in particular turning inside out to become someone WHO HE ISN'T all through the book. No spoilers, and maybe this does happen. A coward can become a hero, or vice versa. A person who has trouble putting thoughts in order can also suddenly take part in a complex scenario which leads to...Nah, it was too much, so for that and the tedium (at times) of reading this one, I downed it to three stars. It doesn't keep me from the series though, or liking Tom and company. Nope, I'm moving on to Book #6.Three stars