books (Sleepy Head)
by Mark Billingham
I was oddly in the mood for some psychological thrillers, and this was the first in a handful of novels suggested to me by Barb Evans, my new go-to person for what's hot and what's not in the world of forensic psychology novels.
Unfortunately, this book left a lot to be desired.
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 officers and claim that the murdered victims were mistakes. The one in a coma is the victim that got exactly what the assailant intended.
The problem with this premise is that it doesn't make much sense. And once the assailant is revealed (in a twist so obvious that it won't even occur to you as a possibility) it makes even less sense. Putting random women into stroke-induced comas seems like more work than it's worth.
What's very interesting in this novel is the cat-and-mouse game enacted between the inspector and the assailant. Taunting him with a series of letters and personal attacks, the suspect begins to drive our inspector to the point of madness. And when our inspector convinces himself that he knows who the assailant is, it only gets worse from there. Especially since said suspect is good friends with the inspector's new girlfriend.
Not a bad little thriller. The flaws are many, but it's an enjoyable, quick read.
I was oddly in the mood for some psychological thrillers, and this was the first in a handful of novels suggested to me by Barb Evans, my new go-to person for what's hot and what's not in the world of forensic psychology novels.
Unfortunately, this book left a lot to be desired.
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 officers and claim that the murdered victims were mistakes. The one in a coma is the victim that got exactly what the assailant intended.
The problem with this premise is that it doesn't make much sense. And once the assailant is revealed (in a twist so obvious that it won't even occur to you as a possibility) it makes even less sense. Putting random women into stroke-induced comas seems like more work than it's worth.
What's very interesting in this novel is the cat-and-mouse game enacted between the inspector and the assailant. Taunting him with a series of letters and personal attacks, the suspect begins to drive our inspector to the point of madness. And when our inspector convinces himself that he knows who the assailant is, it only gets worse from there. Especially since said suspect is good friends with the inspector's new girlfriend.
Not a bad little thriller. The flaws are many, but it's an enjoyable, quick read.