I thought the pages giving us Alison Willett's view of events were really interesting and moving. His obsession with one suspect threatens to cloud his judgement, but when there are more killings he knows that, ultimately, he is the only one who can stop the murders.

Thorne is a typical outcast maverick - with personal and professional baggage, including the shadow of a fifteen year old case that hangs over his career. Thorne must investigate and soon finds himself involved with Alison's doctor, Anne Coburn, despite the fact that one of her closest and oldest friends is his prime suspct. The mistake was the three young women previously found dead and Alison's case the first the killer got right. When Alison Willetts is found in a deliberately induced coma, it seems that her survival is not the mistake. Billingham excels in characterization, however, and it's likely that readers will develop empathy for his conflicted protagonist and the compassionate physician who takes justice into her own hands.This is the first book featuring D I Tom Thorne. Overall, he displays a solid grasp of the form, though not at the gut-wrenching level of such peers as Mo Hayder. Billingham, a TV writer and stand-up comic, manifests a competent enough hand with plotting and dialogue, particularly at romantic moments ('Now, this carpet has unhappy memories and I'm still not hundred percent sure I've got the smell of vomit out of it.' 'You smooth-talking bastard'). Jeremy Bishop (whose amusement with Thorne's growing infatuation with Anne reveals a particular sort of passive-aggressive sadism), fuels Thorne's rising suspicion of him with verbal jousts. This romantic subplot becomes entwined with the main plot as Anne's colleague and paramour, Dr.

In a variation on the serial killer theme, newcomer Billingham's villain doesn't want to actually kill his victims (those who do die he considers 'mistakes') so much as induce massive strokes that will leave them cerebrally conscious while otherwise in a completely comatose state known as 'locked-in syndrome.' Combining elements of both police and medical procedural thriller, the novel follows frayed, middle-aged London detective inspector Tom Thorne as he chases down a series of red herrings, gradually becoming more and more obsessed with the killer's 'masterpiece,' 24-year-old Alison Willetts, and the seductive doctor, Anne Coburn, who cares for her.

Mark billingham sleepy head