Sleepyhead

“Unlucky to be alive.” A number of young women have died mysteriously from brainstem strokes, and only when one survives is it clear that these were murders of the strangest kind. Alison is the unfortunate one: she survived. She is paralysed in a hospital bed with locked-in syndrome—exactly where the killer wants her. The dead women are merely byproducts of the learning curve to fulfil the killer's fantasy.

This new crimewriter brings us an original plot and a psychopath with a twisted motive. The characters are assuredly crafted, but they remain recognisable as the stock stereotypes from crime novels. Our hero is the lonely and obsessed, but basically honest and driven, Detective Inspector Thorne; Alison is our broken, but gutsy, heroine. Dr Anne Coburn is a strong single mother who, as consultant neurologist, provides the medical lead in the story. Also there is a suitably shifty anaesthetist as the main