The Sandman (novel)

For the 2008 children's book of the same name by American writer Ralph Fletcher, see The Sandman (book).

The Sandman is the first novel by English writer Miles Gibson, originally published by Heinemann in 1984 and subsequently translated into several languages. A black comedy recording the life and times of a good-natured serial killer (William "Mackerel" Burton) who murders for the fun of it. More "Kind Hearts and Coronets" than "Hannibal Lector" the novel nonetheless attracted criticism at the time for the way in which Gibson generated such sympathy from the reader for his anti-hero.