- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown & Company; First Edition edition (16 Aug 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0316856975
- ISBN-13: 978-0316856973
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 372,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Sleepyhead (Tom Thorne Novels)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The art of inducing fear in a reader via the printed page is a speciality of only a few skilled craftsmen. Mark Billingham is such an author, and Sleepy Head is such a book. The blurb on the jacket warns that we are in for a disturbing experience and that is precisely what we get: "He doesn't want you alive. He doesn't want you dead. He wants you somewhere in between".
The killer who Billingham's protagonist Tom Thorne is up against is a particularly creepy specimen: he has savagely killed three victims but his fourth, although alive, is perhaps not so fortunate. She has undergone a deliberately induced stroke and although all her senses are intact, she is totally unable to move or communicate. This hideous condition, called Locked-in Syndrome is, however, quite possibly the killer's first miscalculation ... or is it? Soon the dogged Thorne (given to distrusting his own abilities) is playing a cat-and-mouse game with a psychopathic killer. And the brilliant and sadistic killer is just as interested in leading Thorne a merry dance as he is in fulfilling his degraded obsessions.
All characterisations here are spot-on, even the killer (although one wonders just how many more hyper-intelligent psychopaths readers will be prepared to take) while the British setting is handled with intelligence, the horrific set pieces with real élan:
His head moved up, through the hole and into bright white light. He blinked quickly to adjust and opened his eyes. Thorne's last thought, before his body turned ice cold and began to shake quietly, was that he'd been right to be afraid...--Barry Forshaw
Review
"Night, night sleepyhead" - a soothing reminder of childhood bedtime. But not here. Here, it is the prelude to an unspeakable horror which, if the perpetrator gets it right, leaves the victim alive but no longer in control or, if wrong, leaves the victim dead and the killer full of anger at his failing. This first crime novel from best-selling author Mark Billingham, introduces renegade cop, DI Tom Thorne and his sidekick DC David Holland. Thorne is taunted by the ghosts of those recently killed and, following his gut instinct, turns his back on standard police procedures to go it alone, putting himself and those closest to him in danger. Now the killer wants him. Thorne is the one who's attention he is after and whose intelligence he respects. As Thorne's personal life becomes inextricably linked to the murder hunt, the pressure mounts and the tension builds till the cataclysmic finale. Flicking between narratives of Thorne, the killer and the prone, surviving victim, Billingham holds the attention throughout and demonstrates his skill at writing a tight, fast-paced and increasingly horrific plot. This is an excellent novel showing all the signs of a talent that will become a major force in crime fiction. - Lucy Watson
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mesmerising,
This review is from: Sleepyhead (Hardcover)
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.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sleep well.....,
By
This review is from: Sleepyhead (Tom Thorne Novels) (Paperback)
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.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good, Gritty Crime Writing,
By
This review is from: Sleepyhead (Hardcover)
Mark Billingham was born Birmingham. He worked for some years as an actor and more recently as a TV writer and comedian. His first crime novel was published in 2001. Though still occasionally working as a stand-up comic, Mark now concentrates on writing the series of crime novels featuring London-based detective Tom Thorne. Mark lives in North London with his wife and two children. Mark Billingham's novel is like a breath of fresh air, just good old regular crime. No helicopter gunships, no fine art that tells a secret, or scenes from the Vatican with people congregating to choose a new pope. There are so many books available at the moment that contain the above that a book with straightforward police detective work is as I said like a breath of fresh air. There is nothing wrong with the books that I have mentioned, believe me, I have read most of them. But they are now starting to wear a bit thin. The books leading character is Detective Inspector Tom Thorne and is the first of a series containing Thorne. It is a rare occurrence for one young woman to die of a stroke but when three of them do surely it is more than coincidence. When an on the ball pathologist notices traces of a drug in the blood supply of one of the victim's, the cause of death is changed to murder. So begins this book which is a down and out crime novel and a very good one too.
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