The first Tom Thorne book, a new entry in to the crowded market of gritty and troubled detectives.

If you like Rebus, and you want a London based equivalent then you may just have found it.

A dark crime novel with an interesting premise. There is a killer on the loose, and he's made a mistake, with his fourth victim left alive. Or has he? The killer's MO is unusual, he appears to be using a difficult manipulation of the neck which is intended to block blood flow to the brain, with the intention of leaving his victims paralysed and trapped in a nightmare world of their own mind.

As an indication of how much I've enjoyed the first book in the series I've gone on the read all the following novels. It is worth noting that the books have got better as time has gone on. Billingham's handling, especially of the complex endings of the stories where several things might be going on at once has especially improved. But this book is a good place to start, especially in order to learn the beginnings of the central character. ( )

First in DI Tom Thorne series ( )

Sleepyhead is popular crime fiction, with little added to make it fresh. That said, the plot has what makes a successful crime thriller in spades - jaded detectives, a love tangent, an undisclosed killer and plenty of twists. The killer isn't revealed until the end and there are plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing (although it's not impossible to work it out). That's all standard though, and what makes Sleepyhead a little smarter is that the crime is a fresh angle. Billingham's twisting tale is at times difficult to follow due to the anonymity of several chapters to keep the reader in the dark, however it is a requirement of the approach of the story. Solid and entertaining. ( )

If I remember correctly, I got the recommendation for this book from the comments on a post about mystery novels on Tod Goldberg's blog. If I weren't terminally (lazy) busy, I'd go check out who recommended it, and find out if they have other recommendations, because they obviously have taste that matches mine.

Tom Thorne is a police detective whose unorthodox methods and insubordination would have gotten him fired long ago if he didn't consistently solve cases. His latest case is pushing even his limits.

It's a serial killer with a twist--the twist being that the one woman who survived was the success, not the failure. See, our killer's purpose is to invoke locked-in syndrome, leaving his victims in what he believes to be the perfect state: physically paralyzed, mentally aware. No pesky details to deal with, all bodily needs taken care of by someone else, they can just relax and be.

As Tom closes in on the killer, he spends time with the survivor and her doctor, and begins a romantic relationship with the doctor--a relationship which is threatened as his investigation points him to her long-term friend.

I'm not sure if I was relating too closely to Dr. Coburn, but that was the one thing that bugged me about this story--I wasn't clear on why Tom focused on the friend, and it seemed to me as it did to Anne that his pursuit was more about jealousy than police work.

It was clear at the end, though, and was more than made up for by the chapters written from the surviving victim's point of view, which were a wonderful blend of chilling and amusing.

I do have to address one complaint from the Amazon reviews. Yes, it's a British book. The author is British. It takes place in London. Why, then, are they shocked, surprised, and upset that there are British slang, TV shows, etc. in the book? I've never been to England, and I had no trouble understanding. Insert rant here about expectations of cultural homogeneity.

Billingham's next book, Scaredy Cat, is on my to-be-bought list. ( )

Great mystery, the only reason I gave 3 stars was the fact that I'm not a big fan of British fiction. It took me about 1/4 of the book to get used to the British slang; after that I enjoyed the book and it had a really good ending. ( )