Whilst I am a lover of this genre I can honestly say that for some reason I have never been attracted to the Thorne series for reasons I’ve never been entirely sure of. In fact, had it not been for the fact that a family member gave me the book to read I probably never would have picked up the book. I know that there is a rather large Thorne fan base out there, but for me, after reading it, I can honestly say that I am not part of that group. When offered the book by aforementioned family member I was warned the book was exceptionally slow with the only action happening in the last two chapters. Of course, this left me starting the book with very low expectations. Many times this has happened, whereby people tell me to expect the worse, only for me to love the book much more than expected. Sadly, this time, I had to agree with what I was told. Whilst I wouldn’t go as far as to say it was only the last two chapters that held any real action I will say that the book was not the best paced – it wasn’t the slowest book I have ever picked up and yet at the same time it was very far away from being the quickest. Moreover, I was warned that it was easy to work out. Something I also had to agree with. Whilst there were many red herrings thrown in there (some which grew to be annoying due to the apparent obsession) it was easy to work out where events were going pretty early on into the book. Another thing that got to me after a while was the fact that there seemed to be less focus on the actual police work than on other details when I compared it to other books in this genre. The crime itself seemed to take a backseat compared to other aspects of the book – such as a possible love life, negative emotions towards others, and the events in Thorne’s past. Whilst I have no problem with such things appearing in books – I welcome them, in fact – I felt as though after a while the crime seemed less important and was just something that was there. Overall, all of these things put together, leave me unwilling to continue further into the world of Thorne. I may be one amongst few but sadly I simply did not enjoy the book as much as I enjoyed other crime series.

The first in the Tom Thorne series. I've really enjoyed all of Mark Billingham's books to date and while this wasn't one of my favourite cases, it was good to go back to the start and see how Thorne has developed as a character.

This may have been written 20 years ago but it's stood the test of time and is still absolutely gripping. It's the very first Tom Thorne novel, and the story is about a young woman, Alison Willetts, who is in hospital after a stroke, paralysed and unable to communicate. By chance the police realise she’s survived a murder attempt and her injuries link her to other killings. Only Thorne believes the women who have died were ‘mistakes’ and the ‘killer’ actually wants to put people in a state where they cannot move, talk, or do anything but think. There are chapters written in Alison’s voice which makes everything feel vividly real. No wonder the series has continued and now numbers 18 novels. Find this one if you can.

I've read a few Mark Billingham books now and enjoyed them all. The Last Dance is a particular favourite of mine. So, with that in mind, I wanted to read his first novel, which is also the first in his long-running Tom Thorne series (currently 18 books long). I enjoyed the idea of the book, having a serial killer who isn't trying to kill his victims. Each death is a failure in his attempts to put them into a waking paralysis. Leaving their entire body paralysed and the brain fully alert. His first 'success' is Alison, which followed three failures. I really liked how, at the end of each chapter, we get to 'hear' Alison's thoughts. Despite being restricted to trying to communicate with a fluttering of an eyelid, she is probably the most vivid character. DI Thorne isn't the most likeable of leads, he is arrogant and deceiving. His colleagues call him Weeble as he's of stocky build, difficult to knock over like those weeble toys from our childhood. His partnership with Holland offers light amusement, with Thorne noting how Holland perpetually has a notebook in hand. "Does the guy have no short-term memory?" This was Mark's debut novel, but his writing style is so easy for me to read. The words flow off the page. Even though the story is dark, humour can be found, mainly via Alison's thoughts and Thorne's interactions with Holland. The premise is great, but there was no 'piecing of the puzzle' together. There's no satisfying conclusion, it's really resolved by chance. It's a good, solid debut and another series that I'll have to work my way through. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4

As I am a fan of Mark Billingham’s newer Blackpool books, I thought I would try this start of a long series. However, I really didn’t enjoy it much - the lead character was not particularly likeable, the plot was slow and it was not hard to guess who did the crime! Maybe the books improve seeing as there are a lot of them.