Mark Billingham at Tangled Web UK

Page Updated: 04/09/2007

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Scaredy Cat

Sleepyhead

First British Edition Little,Brown (2002)

Scaredy Cat
Serial killers normally work alone…
It was a vicious, calculated murder. The killer selected his victim at Euston station, followed her home on the Tube and strangled her to death in front of her child. At the same time, killed in the same way, a second body is discovered at the back of King’s Cross station. It is a grisly coincidence that eerily echoes the murder of two other women, stabbed to death months before on the same day . . .
It is DI Tom Thorne who sees the link and comes to the horrifying conclusion. This is not a serial killer the police are up against. This is two of them. Finding the body used to be the worst part of the job. Not anymore. Now each time a body is found, Thorne must live with the knowledge that somewhere out there is a second victim, waiting to be discovered.
But while the methods might be the same, the manner of the killings is strikingly different and Thorne comes to realise that he is hunting two very different killers. One is ruthless and in control, while his partner in crime is submissive, compliant, terrified. Thorne must catch a man whose need to manipulate is as great as his need to kill; a man who will threaten those closest to Thorne himself; a man who will show him that the ability to inspire terror, is the deadliest weapon of all . . .
Brutally black, psychologically sharp, Scaredy Cat is twice as tense, twice as shocking, twice as compelling as any thriller you’ll read this year.
‘Scaredy Cat is the best book I’ve read in years. I bought a copy for everyone I know’ Martina Cole
‘An incredibly dark, brilliant thriller’ Evening Standard
‘Mark Billingham is the new-wave leader ... like the best of British and American crime writing rolled up together and delivered with the kind of punch you don’t see coming Lee Child

First British Edition Little,Brown (2001)

Paperback - timewarner (2002)

Sleepyhead

He Doesn't Want You Alive.
He Doesn't Want You Dead.
He Wants You
Somewhere In Between...

Alison Willets is unlucky to be alive. She has survived a deliberately induced stroke. She can hear, see, feel; she is completely aware of everything going on around her but she cannot move a muscle. In leaving her alive, the police believe a dangerous killer has made his first mistake.
Then DI Tom Thorne discovers the horrifying truth. It's the women already dead who are the mistakes. Death is this man's `appropriate margin of error', and he is keen to try again. Thorne must hunt down a killer whose agenda is terrifyingly unique and Alison Willets, the one person who holds the key to his identity, is unable to tell anybody…
`Disturbingly original debut . . . there’s not much you can fault Sleepyhead on: the plot is engaging and fast-moving, the characters live and breathe on the page’ Time Out
`Move over Cornwell and Reichs, Britain now has its own forensic crime maestro. Mark Billingham’s debut, Sleepyhead, is an assured chiller . . . Take a bow, Mr Billingham’ Guardian
`A brilliantly dark and different new crime novel . . . a stunning debut’ City Life
`A most assured and interesting debut’ Evening Herald, Ireland
`Disturbing and thrilling . . . with memorable characters and bundles of atmosphere’ Guardian
`A terrifically stylish debut novel . . . it can only be a matter of time before Tom Thorne returns’ Independent On Sunday
`Don’t make any plans for the weekend when you buy it because you won’t be leaving the house until it’s finished’ FHM
`Extremely capable and unsettling’ Literary Review
`Ideal for those who like big goosebumps to go with their glowing tans’ Elle
`Sleepyhead is one of the finest first novels I’ve read in a long while. Mark Billingham has brought a rare and welcome blend of humanity, dimension, and excitement to, the genre and earned an instant seat at the top table of crime novelists. An exceptional debut.’ George P Pelecanos
`A compelling, brilliantly written thriller by a name to watch. It’s been a long time since London noir was this good.’ Bizarre
`With Sleepyhead, Billingham leaps to the upper echelons of British crime fiction in one bound.’ John Harvey, author of the Resnick series.
`Compelling . . . this is a promising, nasty, twisted, ghoulish first novel’ Daily Telegraph