Sleepyhead

DI Tom Thorne has been given the task of investigating a series of deaths in which someone has been giving young women drugs and then manipulating their necks, causing them to stroke and die.  However, in the most recent case the young woman is still alive.  As Thorne leaves the hospital, he spots a note on his car.  It tells him that the first two deaths were a mistake.  The last girl wasn’t.

Then another body turns up, but this time a witness has seen the body being dumped.  The killer seems to have been in a rush this time.

Thorne has a suspect in mind, but no proof.  The other problem is that the suspect is a good friend of the doctor looking after the one victim who survived.  Things take a bad twist when Thorne is attacked from behind in front of his home, and drugged with the same drug used on the victims.

Later, a woman who is a potential witness to who the killer might be is killed.  Has the killer found some way of getting information from the police?  The thing is, there was another victim at the same time.  What’s going on?  How cold Thorne’s suspect be in two places at once?

Mark Bellingham draws the reader in to this thriller and makes them want to keep turning the pages.  I found that I couldn’t put the book down.  This is an excellent debut novel and I look forward to reading the sequels.