Sleepyhead - Softcover

Mark Billingham

Softcover

ISBN 10: 075154891X ISBN 13: 9780751548914

Publisher: Sphere, 2012

Synopsis

The first book in the Tom Thorne series, from bestselling author Mark Billingham.

A WOMAN UNLUCKY TO BE ALIVE
Alison Willetts has survived a stroke, deliberately induced by a skilful manipulation of pressure points on the head and neck. She can see, hear and feel but she is completely unable to move or communicate. In leaving Alison Willetts alive, the police believe the killer's made his first mistake.
A KILLER UNLIKE ANY OTHER
Then DI Tom Thorne discovers the horrifying truth: it isn't Alison who is the mistake, it's the three women already dead.
A COP'S WORST NIGHTMARE
Thorne must find a killer whose agenda is disturbingly unique, and Alison, the one person who holds the key to the killer's identity, is unable to say anything . . .
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The outstanding new Tom Thorne thriller, THEIR LITTLE SECRET, is out now!

About this title

About the Author:

Mark Billingham has twice won the Theakston's Old Peculier Award for Crime Novel of the Year, and has also won a Sherlock Award for the Best Detective created by a British writer. Each of the novels featuring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne has been aSunday Timesbestseller.SleepyheadandScaredy Catwere made into a hit TV series on Sky 1 starring David Morrissey as Thorne, and a series based on the novelsIn the DarkandTime of Deathwas broadcast on BBC1. Mark lives in north London with his wife and two children.

From Publishers Weekly:

In a variation on the serial killer theme, newcomer Billingham's villain doesn't want to actually kill his victims (those who do die he considers mistakes ) so much as induce massive strokes that will leave them cerebrally conscious while otherwise in a completely comatose state known as locked-in syndrome. Combining elements of both police and medical procedural thriller, the novel follows frayed, middle-aged London detective inspector Tom Thorne as he chases down a series of red herrings, gradually becoming more and more obsessed with the killer's masterpiece, 24-year-old Alison Willetts, and the seductive doctor, Anne Coburn, who cares for her. This romantic subplot becomes entwined with the main plot as Anne's colleague and paramour, Dr. Jeremy Bishop (whose amusement with Thorne's growing infatuation with Anne reveals a particular sort of passive-aggressive sadism), fuels Thorne's rising suspicion of him with verbal jousts. Billingham, a TV writer and stand-up comic, manifests a competent enough hand with plotting and dialogue, particularly at romantic moments ( Now, this carpet has unhappy memories and I'm still not hundred percent sure I've got the smell of vomit out of it... You smooth-talking bastard ). Overall, he displays a solid grasp of the form, though not at the gut-wrenching level of such peers as Mo Hayder. Billingham excels in characterization, however, and it's likely that readers will develop empathy for his conflicted protagonist and the compassionate physician who takes justice into her own hands.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sphere
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 075154891X
• ISBN 13: 9780751548914
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 385