Scaredy Cat - Mark Billingham

Scaredy Cat, Mark Billingham ISBN 0751533955 Time Warner paperback 2003, 445 pages RRP £6.99, #2 in series I don’t like serial killer books. I devour most types of crime fiction but until fairly recently, books about a hunt for a deranged psychopath chopping people up, novel or true crime, generally went straight back on the shelf. I assumed they were all sensationalist rubbish aimed at exploiting people’s fears in a really tacky kind of way. Then a small number of writers produced books that forced me to revise my prejudice. Now I have to say, I will only read serial killer books if they are ... more

This book has been sitting on my shelf for a while now, and recently I finally got round to reading it. I have never read a book by Mark Billingham before, so wasn't sure what to expect, but given that I do enjoy a good crime thriller, and also that his work is endorsed by Harlan Coben who is one of my favourite authors, I was looking forward to reading it. ~~~~~~~~~~~ THE AUTHOR ~~~~~~~~~~~ I was aware that Mark Billingham has wrote a number of novels, but was very surprised to read that he is actually a stand-up comedian, appearing regularly at the Comedy Store! He also is an award-winning ... more

I usually attempt to read three or four books a year but only finish one or two due to the fact they simply do not hold my interest for long enough. Scaredy Cat however was not one I found easy to put down. In fact the closer I got to the end, the later I was staying up and the more pages I was reading. This is a real tension builder that has you thinking about it during the day and is so well developed that its hard to separate from something you have actually witnessed with your own eyes. Scaredy Cat is the second in a series of four books from Mark Billingham, the first being Sleepyhead ... more