With this first work, Billingham has concocted an intense, creepy variation on the serial-killer theme this villain doesn't want to murder but instead tries to induce strokes that will lock his victims into a perpetual comatose state. His first three attempts fail (the victims die), but he finally succeeds with Alison Willetts, a young woman who ends up able to see, hear, and think but little else. The case falls to London detective Tom Thorne, a slightly tattered middle-aged cop who has seen too much death and finds his judgment clouded when he falls in love with Anne Coburn, Alison's doctor, while suspecting that Anne's best friend is the perpetrator. The strength of what could have been a standard medical/police procedural lies in its complex characters, serpentine plot twists, and dark ending.
A very interesting book, with a very creepy killer.
Carolyn E Gino (flowergirl4) - Clovis, CA wrote on 2/5/2009...
The bodies of young women are being found in London, only one of them survives. She is found to have experienced something similar to a stroke. The cop working on the case is Tom Thorne. The killer starts leaving Thorne clues and notes. At one point he attacks the cop at his home just to prove he is in control. Thorne soon learns that the dead women were mistakes. The killer wasn't trying to kill them, he was trying to free them from the weakness of the human body. His only success, is now experiencing "locked-in syndrome". She is fully aware of everything and her mind works completely, but her body will not respond. A killer with medical training is suspected, but evidence is almost non-existent. As the story unfolds and a few clues are found, the killer decides to take action against people close to Thorne. You won't be able to put the book down as the time is running out before there are two more victims!