I honestly gurgled with delight when I discovered I was to review ‘The Narrow Bed’, then hung a ‘do not disturb’ sign on my door for the duration of the read. ‘Billy Dead Mates’ is at the centre of a disorientating and perplexing puzzle, why oh why are pairs of friends being murdered? My brain got the serious workout I was expecting and then some. This isn't just a crime novel as contained within the pages are a memoir, letters, stories within the story, and another mystery as well as the murder investigation. This is the 10th Culver Valley Crime novel yet you don't have to have prior knowledge to start here, if this is your first foray. Once you've finished, it’s likely that you'll find yourself grabbing the other nine as quickly as you can. Sophie Hannah writes with a twisty, marvellously devious pen, every word matters, every thought counts. I don't know how she does it, but I’m so very glad that she does! ~ Liz Robinson
For months, Spilling's detectives have failed to catch Billy, or work out what the white books mean. And then a woman, scared by what she's seen on the news, comes forward. Stand-up comedian Kim Tribbeck has one of Billy's peculiar little books. A stranger gave it to her at a gig she did a year ago. Was he Billy, and does he want to kill her? Kim has no friends and trusts no one. How - and why - could she possibly be Billy Dead Mate's next target?
Sophie Hannah is a best-selling, award-winning poet. Her latest collection, First of the Last Chances, was chosen for the Poetry Book Society’s Next Generation promotion in June 2004. She regularly performs her poetry to live audiences nationwide and abroad, and recently won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her psychological suspense story The Octopus Nest. Sophie lives in West Yorkshire with her husband and two children.
