Thorne pruned?

In Mark Billingham’s latest newsletter he confirms word that Death Message, his sixth novel featuring London inspector Tom Thorne, due out in September 2007, “will be the last Thorne novel for a while. I’m not sure how long that while will be, but with the books appearing in print a year or so after they’re written, even if I return to the series immediately after the standalone I am writing now [called In the Dark and scheduled for publication in 2008], there will be no new Thorne novel in the shops until 2009. I hope that those of you who have followed the series will understand my wanting to give myself and the poor old bugger I write about a break, and that you will enjoy what comes next. I think you’ll find it exciting. I can promise that whatever happens, Thorne will not: die just yet; start supporting Arsenal; buy any CDs by you know who.”