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Oct 26, 2011

Lou rated it:

This was my first read of Mark Billingham's novels and his character Detective Inspector Tom Thorne. Nearly ten years on now when this debut was launched and I am guilty of not reading many British authors when it comes to crime and thrillers, I have loved John Connolly and his character Charlie Parker and read quite a few in the series and read maybe one Ian Rankin. I am impressed, the was pace was good and he got me on the perpetrator of the murders I did not see it.This was my first read of M More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2011

Robert rated it:

Mark Billingham, Sleepyhead (Avon, 2001)

What is it about British mystery authors cranking out excellent first novels? Nicci French, Mo Hayder, and Minette Walters have all waltzed down the pike in the last decade and taken the world by storm. Now you can add Mark Billingham to the list.

Billingham's first novel, Sleepyhead, is about a truly twisted individual, even more twisted than Hayder's birdman-this one's dead bodies are failed experiments. What he's really after, he More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2012

Elizabeth rated it:

Typical boozing cop protagonist has to avoid interference from meddling higher ups and a rival fellow cop in order to track down a horrible serial killer. The killer's intentions are a little different but the author makes up for the novelty by making it difficult to believe. The best part was the chapters written from the victim's point of view. For once she's not perfect and gorgeous and completely pitiful. She's funny and opinionated as well as being a good person. Also I have no idea wh More...

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Jul 25, 2011

Wendy rated it:

Set in London, this debut novel by Mark Billingham gives an interesting twist to the typical serial-killer theme. After 3 women have already been murdered, middle-aged Detective Inspector Tom Thorne finds a note from the killer on his windshield and realizes, Alison Willetts is not the killer's first mistake. She's the first success.
The first 3 women died due to constriction of the basilar artery. They were [given chemicals] and given intentional strokes. The killer left no marks. The work More...

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Jan 17, 2012

Alex rated it:

While Billingham's Thorne doesn't come close to approaching Rebus, easily my favourite fictional policeman, Sleepyhead is something of an amazing debut for both its author and its character. Admittedly, the fifteen years that separate Knots & Crosses and Sleepyhead represent a geological age in crime fiction - and, thanks to the efforts of Rankin, McDermid and their ilk, the standards were raised immeasurably in such time.

Thorne comes across not as perfectly formed but as a policeman More...

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Mar 13, 2011

Amy rated it:

What woman doesn’t want to be known for just her mind? Most women would bend over backwards to find a man who could appreciate what she was thinking, not what she was wearing or how full her bra was. Being waited on hand and foot doesn’t seem like such a bad idea either does it? People to feed you when you are hungry, bathe you and adjust your bed when the pillows need fluffing? Sounds like the life, doesn’t it? You can have all of this and more.

All you need is a night out, in Eng More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 07, 2011

Barbra rated it:

First novel by Mark Billingham and first I've read by him. It was good but I did find it a bit slow in places.

Back Cover Blurb:
Alison Willetts is unlucky to be alive. She has survived a stroke, deliberately induced by a skilful manipulation of pressure points on the head and neck. She can see, hear and feel; she is aware of everything going on around her, but she is completely unable to move or communicate. It's called Locked-In Syndrome. In leaving Alison Willetts alive, the More...

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Jun 20, 2011

Roswitha rated it:

Amazing! Love the idea about how killing people is actually not the main target of the 'killer' itself. Giving a stroke instead of kill the victim to make the mind entrapped inside the body. Firstly, it sounded that Allison was really grateful that she didn't die yet. But actually that is the main purpose of her killer and finally she don't want to follow what the killer want, to make her suffer even more when she is in the borderline of life and death.

When I reach the last quarter of More...

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Feb 08, 2009

Charlotte (Buried in Books) rated it:

Normally I steer clear of british thrillers - don't know why, I've always gone for the american version of the genre. Picked this up from Ebay though, thought I'd give it a try and I'm glad I did.

Although it's very clear that this is a first novel (some passages made me cringe) I took to Tom Thorne, a man obessessed with finding the bad guy - to the extent that he is almost blind to everything else going on around him.

It was a very good story, with a nice twist at the en More...

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Aug 20, 2010

Sharon rated it:

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, More...

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May 23, 2011

Jonathan rated it:

I take one reviewer's point that whatever happened to ordinary murders? Fair point, and too many thrillers tiresomely trot out boringly unusual/complicated murders. BUT...

Billingham is a good writer. That's rarer than I think is acknowledged. The characters are good. I was really worried when he started with another cop with a drinking problem (yawn), but somehow he veered away from the predictable (please, please don't get worse for the future novels I'm about to read). And the b More...

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Aug 18, 2011

Mark rated it:

An original story line involving characters that I really liked that had dimensions to them rather than the card board personality cliche's that some books have. Yet there was something irritating about this book that I can't quite put my finger on. I tend to read quite fast yet despite really enjoying this book it seemed to take me an age to read. For reasons I can't explain this book couldn't seem to hold my concentration for more than about 10 pages at a time, Especially for the first half of More...

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Mar 02, 2010

Steve rated it:

A strikingly original and disturbing plot marks an impressive debut from this author. Billingham has crafted a compelling and chilling read which sets his protagonist, DI Tom Thorne, in pursuit of a cold and calculating killer with a haunting penchant for how they leave their signature on their victims. With the discovery of the last victim still alive in a vegetative state, the awful realiation soon dawns that this induced stroke victim, in what is termed a 'locked-in syndrome', is not as was a More...

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Jul 01, 2011

Belinda rated it:

This is the first Mark Billingham I have read. I have read squire a few Lisa Garnder books lately and she and Billingham seem to write very similar storylines and themes but Billingham is not as good. I really didn't warm to Thorne and found the storyline a bit ho hum and annoying at times. I have the next Thorne book ready to read but am not sure whether to press on with this series or not. Don't get me wrong - it wasn't a bad book hence the three stars but I couldn't help comparing to Gardne More...

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Oct 15, 2011

Bob rated it:

Okay, well ... I actually managed to stick with this one 'til the end. As I've mentioned in some of my other reviews of the thriller/mystery genre, I detest it when the murder itself becomes THE main character in a book; when the author concocts some truly dreadful, disgusting, perverse way of killing someone (as in this book, I might add - the most revolting way of killing that I've EVER READ!); when, as in this book, it's not just one victim - I think at last count it was up to 7 or so, when a More...

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Oct 24, 2011

Helen rated it:

I'd been meaning to get around to reading Mark Billingham for a while, the couple of books I have had been waiting patiently on the heap as I've worked my way through my respective piles of bought and borrowed books .. I so wish I'd moved Sleepyhead nearer to the top of the pile, this is the best British crime-thriller I've read since the Stuart Macbride series!

Superb pacing, totally engrossing plot and didn't let on who the bad guy was until the penultimate chapters. I also thought More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2011

Caroline rated it:

This is Mark Billingham's first novel, it introduces Tom Thorne detective.

Thorne is a no nonsense copper who is thrown into a case dealing with locked in syndrome. The killer has killed 3 women trying to perfect his 'skill'. Unfortunately for Alison, he succeeds with her. She isn't dead, but left in coma like state but she still has all her senses, but all she can is blink.

The book follows Thorne trying to understand the killer's motive, and the killer's obsession with Tho More...

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May 20, 2011

Daniellemakepeace added it

Very good. Don't normally read a series of books concurrently as the structure if not the story-line becomes predictable. But in this case, as soon as I'd put one down I picked up the next. Never thought I'd find myself empathising with a dis-functional overweight 40+ male copper, but I am. Since becoming a mother I have been unable to read many fictional crime novels as many writers in this category seem to glorify the more gruesome aspects of violent crime. I don't feel that Mark Billingham More...

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May 16, 2011

Maggy rated it:

The first of the Thorne series, this was a real page turner as you would expect from Billingham. I think the plot twist was a bit obvious but the fast pace made up for this weak point. There were some characters I felt the author could have delved into a bit more, their character sketches were interesting but not enough, I'm talking especially about the character of Rachel, Anne's daughter. The very last pages leave you with quite a sad after-thought, there's no we-caught-the-killer-now-everythi More...

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Aug 06, 2011

James rated it:

Heading into this book I had heard all great things about it - despite the fact that it had been turned into a Sky 1 show - and was desperate to be entertained again by police fiction.

It succeeded, although not as much as I was expecting. The whole book was somehow reminiscent of Alex Cross for me with a brooding male lead - okay, I know, all male cop leads are brooding, but there was something about Thorne that reminded me of Alex... - and a great and exciting plot.

Whi More...

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Jul 20, 2011

Amber rated it:

It's been a little while since I've read this book but I thought it was about time I added a couple reviews. I heard about the thorne series after watching the 3 tv episodes shown on Sky last year. They were really good and captured my imagination, so I ordered the book in my local library.

I can't say it lived up to my hopes completely. Thorne is of course a flawed character and to a point that was intrigueing but he was a bit too flawed for my liking. To the point where I was even t More...

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Sep 13, 2011

Laura rated it:

Okay so I read this series in the wrong order which I absolutely detest doing and even though each of Billingham's books can be viewed as stand-alone thrillers there are background links between each book. I got a little bit confused with some of them wondering what had already happened and when but which or whether, this was still a really good, edge-of-your-seat thriller.

The premise for all of Billingham's books are original and this, his first, was undeniably one of his best. The More...

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Jan 26, 2012

Kirsty added it

[I read this for a mailing list discussion and these comments are taken from that discussion; which means that they are out of context and contain spoilers.]

[on thorne]

I don't think Thorne could tell the difference between "finding the killer" and "proving that the killer is Jeremy Bishop" but I did think we understood enough to make sense of his obsession. I think the paradox of having Bishop *have* to be the killer and yet setting things up so that he definitely couldn't b

More...

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Aug 24, 2009

Bibliophile rated it:

Apparently, I like to read mysteries and then complain about them, so forewarned is forearmed, I guess. Anyway, I began Mark Billingham’s Tom Thorne series with high expectations based on some rave reviews, but quite soon I started to wonder why people can’t just commit ordinary murders any more. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by tv shows like ‘The Wire” in which an “ordinary” crime often turns into a profound meditation on so many things, but I get a little tired of the overly elaborate plots of a l More...

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Feb 12, 2008

Nancy rated it:

Talk about angst! Not only does the main character of this novel have lots of it (for good reason, as it were), but just reading this book built up a lot of tension as well. For a series opener, it was amazing. Not a cozy by any stretch, not a quick nor surface-level book, Sleepyhead really delivers a great mystery and an incredibly original plot. Yay.

here we go:
Alison Willetts is a victim of a horrible crime. The same man who killed other women left her with "locked-in" More...

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Oct 08, 2007

Aaron rated it:

The premise is interesting and creepy enough: Someone has been murdering women by forcing them to have self-induced strokes. One victim survives her stroke and is now in a coma, able only to communicate with blinks and nods. The officer assigned to her case, protagonist Thom Thorne, begins to get disturbing letters from her assailant, letters that taunt the investigating officers and claim that the murdered victims were mistakes. The one in a coma is the victim that got exactly what the assailan More...

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Dec 17, 2009

LJ rated it:

SLEEPYHEAD – G+
Mark Billingham – 1st book (UK Release – Police Procedural)
DI Tom Thorne is up against is a particularly creepy specimen who savagely killed three victims but his fourth, Alison, 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 is playing a ca More...

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Sep 10, 2010

judy rated it:

Like serial killers? I suspect this author is trying to make a career out of them. Took out several of his books and they all seem to be on that theme. (Also returned the others unread) As serial killer books go, this was fine. I figure there are only about three plots for these books--at least his wasn't the most common. He's a Brit so we had less gore and over-the-top insanity. So, if you run out of serial killers, now you know where to look.

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Nov 15, 2011

Sue rated it:

This is the first Tom Thorne book that I read out of order. Perhaps a mistake, as the other books have just a slight edge in quality. Mr Billingham gets better and better as the series goes along, and Thorne and Holland, plus other character, seem to be detailed and deeper in the later books. I hate to give this just four stars, as I really enjoyed the book. I just feel that it doesn't quite match the superb quality of the others.

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Dec 04, 2008

Gillian rated it:

What an excellent read. Mark Billingham is a master of suspense with a little humour thrown in. Three murdered girls, the fourth left in a state of being paralysed but aware.

D.I. Thorne (with the wit of Frost (David Jason)) follows his hunch in which he is alone. The killer is playing a game with Thorne willing him to catch him.

The intricate story unravels slowly and unexpectively.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)