Sample
  • Sleepyhead

  • Thomas Thorne, Book 1
  • By: Mark Billingham
  • Narrated by: Simon Prebble
  • Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (238 ratings)

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

Sleepyhead

By: Mark Billingham
Narrated by: Simon Prebble
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.04

Buy for $21.04

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
activate_WEBCRO358_DT_T2

Publisher's summary

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 and is aware of everything going on around her, but is completely unable to move or communicate. Her condition is called Locked-In Syndrome.

In leaving Alison Willetts alive, the police believe the killer made his first mistake.

Then D.I. Tom Thorne discovers the horrifying truth; it isn't Alison who is the mistake, it's the three women already dead. "An appropriate margin of error" is how their killer dismisses them, and Thorne knows they are unlikely to be the last. For the killer is smart, and he's getting his kicks out of toying with Thorne as much as he is pursuing his sick fantasy. Thorne knows immediately he's not going to catch the killer with simple procedure. But with little more than gut instinct and circumstantial evidence to damn his chief suspect, anesthetist Jeremy Bishop, his pursuit of him is soon bordering on the unprofessional. Especially considering his involvement with Anne Coburn, Alison's doctor and Jeremy's close friend.

©2001 Original material 2001 Mark Billingham. Recorded by arrangement with Atlantic Monthly Press, a division of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. (P)2013 2013 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

'Who would have thought a stand-up comedian could write a British police procedural as good as those produced by crime queens Elizabeth George and Ruth Rendell?" ( USA Today)
"A terrifically stylish debut novel." ( The Independent On Sunday)