Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham

 

The Champagne Killer plies his victims with champagne and then strangles them.  So far three women have been killed and one woman, Alison, is still alive after her encounter with him.  DI Tom Thorne is assigned to the case.  Although Alison is alive, she is totally paralyzed, a victim of locked-in syndrome.  As Thorne investigates, he comes to realize that this is the aim of the killer and that the three dead women are mistakes he made.  

Thorne meets a doctor at the hospital who is overseeing Alison's care.  There is an instant attraction between the two and they are soon seeing each other.  But even this is complicated.  Thorne comes to believe that the killer is his new girlfriend's best friend for many years and this belief causes friction between the two and with the rest of the police force.  He has a cast iron alibi for one of the murders and if he didn't do that one, he couldn't have done the rest which are obviously a series.  But Thorne has made his career following his hunches and he is sure he isn't wrong.  Is he?

I can hardly believe that I haven't yet read the Tom Thorne series.  The series has won award after award and this first one was lauded as one of the most influential books of the century.  Thorne is a complicated man, sure of his instincts but harried by guilt for all those he couldn't save.  His relationships with others are complicated and he tends to be standoffish.  A new detective is working beside Thorne in this case and I'm interested to see how things develop between the two of them as well.  One of my reading goals for 2025 is to read the entire Tom Thorne series and if they are all as great as this one, I can hardly wait.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.