Sleepyhead (Tom Thorne Novels)
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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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'A disturbing and thrilling medical procedural with memorable characters and bundles of atmosphere.' Guardian 'Extremely capable and unsettling.' Literary Review
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format: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
Format: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.
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.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Sleepyhead
This book was recommended on the World Book Night shortlist, and I heard an extract from the book read out at one of the events at our local library. Read more
Published 4 days ago by scarlet ohorror
Worth reading
A maniac is on the loose. His ambition is not to kill his victims but to disable them permanently so they remain paralysed - conscious but unable to move or communicate. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Clive A. H. Still
Later books are better
My first encounter with the author's DI Tom Thorne novels was the excellent page-turner Good As Dead which encouraged me to read more of his books. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Bluebell
Sleepyhead-one of a kind
I have read hundreds of murder, mystery and police novels, but nothing ever quite like this. Mind you - I bought Scaredy Cat and Lazy Bones at the same time: still to read them!
Published 7 months ago by OldBert
Sleepyhead - Mark Billingham
Could not put this book down. I really enjoyed it. This was the first book I have read in the Tom Thorne series but I will definitely be picking up some more. Very well written.
Published 9 months ago by Pam W
How did this book get published?
I have rarely read a book that infuriated me more than this one. The author was a journalist? The writing is appalling; the characters blatantly plagiarised from other writers; the... Read more
Published 10 months ago by R. M. CURTIS
Sleepy Head
What a brilliantly researched and written book. Very difficult to know exactly who done it right until the end. One of her best.
Published 14 months ago by Tricia
DULL AS AN OCTOBER DAY
I read very little crime fiction, and that which I do read tends to be by American authors, such as James Elroy and George Pelecanos, but I do read the odd PD James. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Alan J. Crowley
Platitudes escape me
Sleepyhead is a powerful, gripping story. Characters are rounded out and very realistic. The plot holds you intensely and the final twists are almost unpredictable. Read more
Published 20 months ago by R.A.M. SMITH
A Memorable Thriller
Having previously been impressed by Mark Billingham's 2009 Blood Line I was disappointed at first, on unpacking Sleepy Head, that this 2002 thriller was smaller in overall physical... Read more
Published 23 months ago by MalcolmS
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