Sleepy Head: Tom Thorne, Book 1 [Audio Download]

From the first page, I was hooked. This story revolves around a young woman who has "locked-in" syndrome ie she is a prisoner within her own body, having been attacked and suffering a stroke as a result. At first the police think it was a murder attempt gone wrong, but the truth is even more chilling -- the attacker meant to leave her like this and previous deaths were mistakes on his part. Is this girl the only one with any clues to the perpetrator? Now he has succeeded once, who will his next subject be? I won't reveal any more of the plot, but the writing is superb. The policeman has a great stock of one-liners; he reminded me of Inspector Rebus, and there is a nice injection of black hospital humour. The characters were true to life, nicely flawed, and as a British crime thriller, the reader does not have to contend with Americanisms and superhuman cops. A great read. I'm looking forward to reading Mark Billingham's next.

This is Mark Billingham's debut novel featuring the stout figured DI Tom Thorne, just turned 40 and on the trail of a psychopath who kills a number of women `by accident' until eventually he is successful in his most unusual objective : to leave them somewhere in between life and death. The murders are errors on his part while he perfects his technique. Early on we are presented with a prime suspect, or at least someone who Thorne is convinced is the killer, so this novel becomes less of a whodunit as much as a "did he or didn't he?" - and I for one was never completely sure about the answer until hundreds of pages later and the moment of revelation.

Despite the serial-killer storyline, Mark Billingham successfully manages to create a `novel' twist to the well-worn theme by making it clear that all of the murders were mistakes, at least in the mind of the perpetrator who has something of an obsession with Thorne and in addition to making direct (but anonymous) contact with the determined copper he seems to want Thorne to be the one who finally nabs him. Thorne has emotional scars of his own, dating back several years and which unknowing to him have served to shape his personality both as a detective and as a man. All is eventually revealed, and very disturbing it is. Thorne's something of a maverick, sometimes part of the team but often the cavalier, maybe he's on the verge of some kind of burned-out breakdown but just when you think he's going off the rails, he gets back on track again.

Having read Lazy Bones, Scaredy Cat and The Burning Girl in times past I have gone about Mark's work (which all feature DI Thorne) in the wrong chronological order but in a way I feel that I'm the better for it - Sleepyhead is probably the strongest of the story lines and it is convincing, consistent and authentic from start to finish. Yes, even the finish is thoroughly well planned and delivered, dare I say it had the faintest of links to The Silence of the Lambs (by Thomas Harris), in that finale when the doorbell rings and we all expect the FBI to burst into the house of Buffalo Bill but clever time and location manipulation surprised us when the said Bill opened the door to Clarence Starling - I mention this mainly because there is reference early on in Sleepyhead of this exact moment (in the film, and possibly the book), so we are given a hint of the structure of the ending but guess what.....I missed that, so I was taken by surprise. Glad I was too.

Mark Billingham says that writing dark, violent novels such as this and the others in the Thorne series serve as a suitable counterpoint to his very different other life as a stand-up comedian; well those lives are clearly poles apart, because surely the opposite of standing up is lying down, and in Sleepyhead there's quite a lot of that going on.

Dead opposite.

For me, Sleepyhead is Mark's best novel, it's a highly impressive debut and I hope he returns to these very high standards again in the future. Lazybones delivered much of the same, I think it slipped just a bit with Scaredy Cat and more so with The Burning Girl; Lifeless was better and Buried was Billingham back to his best - although Sleepyhead remains my favourite for now (it was also voted the favourite among Mark Billingham fans on a poll on his web-site).

As for you - I suggest you buy the whole lot, all six. You won't be disappointed.

I give Mark Billingham four stars for plot originality in Sleepyhead, where the antagonist chooses young females as his prey and induces strokes in them. His intention is not to kill, however, but to leave his victims in a state of infinite limbo - neither "alive" nor dead. But he has only succeeded once. How many more victims will it takes before he perfects his technique? Billngham creates quite a likeable hero in Detective Constable Tom Thorne and Thorne's romantic interest, Dr. Anne Coburn, but the novel ends on a rather melancholy note. If you're looking for happily ever after in a read, paradise isn't found in Sleepyhead. If it's a finely crafted mystery you seek with ample twists and turns, a tortured hero and a sinister baddie, you've found it. I will definitely read this author again. Reviewed by Sharon Cupp Pennington, author of Hoodoo Money & Mangroves and Monsters.