Scaredy Cat by Mark Billingham

Scaredy Cat

Mark Billingham

The fact that it's not one serial killer but a pair, working together, really heightens the suspense in this real thriller. My family lived on beans until I got to the end - I could not put it down. We readers are party to rather more gruesome details surrounding the deaths than we really need to know, but it all makes for a very gripping read.

Extract
Thomas knew he was going to spend the rest of the day working by numbers and fighting away two horrible thoughts. The first was that probably, no, almost certainly, the only thing that would help the case move forwards now, that could provide a springboard that might lift the investigation onto another level, was another pair of bodies.

The second was not so much a thought as a feeling; like a virus or an infection lurking within him, waiting to burst into life, clammy and clinging, and immune to treatment.

A feeling that they certainly wouldn't have to wait too long.

Parallels
  • The Coffin Dancer by Jeffery Deaver
  • The Wire in the Blood by Val McDermid