Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham

Read as part of the World Book Night 2012 reading journey.

When an observant pathologist is curious about the death of a young female stroke victim, who has none of the usual risk factors but has traces of a tranquiliser in her blood, he shares his concern with colleagues. As a result two other similar cases come to light and the police are alerted. Someone is plying young women with alcohol and drugs before applying a medical procedure to induce a stroke.

Then a fourth victim, Alison Willets, is left dumped at A&E; still alive but in a coma, specifically locked-in syndrome, fully conscious but unable to move or speak.

DI Tom Thorne is on the case and he receives a chilling note from the killer. Alison’s survival was not a mistake but the intended outcome; it was the preceding deaths that represented failure. And having now succeeded in suspending Alison between life and death, he plans to test his technique again.

The procedural crime thriller takes it from there at a good pace. Unsurprisingly we get conflict between Thorne and his superiors as he is determined to pursue his prime suspect despite the lack of evidence. Last time he ignored a hunch there were tragic consequences. We also get some love interest as he hits on Alison’s neurologist, who’s attractive, recently divorced, and has history with the suspect.

But in addition to following Thorne we get two other perspectives. One is locked-in Alison’s view of the world as her thoughts on the case and her situation punctuate the narrative with punchy, Geordie-girl directness. The other is from the unidentified killer. But here Billingham teases us throughout with clever use of the personal pronoun; the reader is unsure whether the ‘he’ referred to in these passages is always the killer – sometimes it turns out to be another character entirely.

The uncertainty lasts to the climax when all is satisfactorily revealed; but what represents a satisfactory ending for Thorne, his neurologist friend, or indeed Alison Willets?

This first in the DI Thorne series was a good read, well written with a pleasing balance of action, procedure and psychology. Thorne’s personal demons emerge but don’t dominate the book. Whether that remains the case in the next book in the series, “Scaredy Cat”, I will let you know in due course.