The previous three were failures, according to the killer’s warped logic, and died from his ministrations. This condition is known as Locked-in Syndrome, and it is the fate that befalls the fourth of the killer’s victims, Alison Willetts. The psychopath in Sleepyhead is not trying to kill his victims, but instead to deliberately induce a stroke through the manipulation of pressure points that will leave them totally unable to move or communicate. In today’s crime fiction market it is no longer enough for the serial killer to merely murder lots of people, he, or she, has to do so in a particularly gruesome or unusual manner.Īfter the beheadings, crucifixions, and even enforced gluttony of recent books, readers could be forgiven for thinking that they have encountered just about every form of mass murder imaginable, but debut British novelist Mark Billingham has managed to come up with yet another new and hideously ingenious method. “Serial Killer thrillers too often rely on mere shock value rather than clever plotting or rich characterisations to draw their readers in.
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