Sleep No More

Rating:
Summary: good- with just a bit too much oddness
Review: Greg Iles enchanted me frome the start of this book, with excellent characters, an ultra strange plot and most of all eortic fantasies. As the book progressed sex was all that was given for at least 5 chapters. Malorry, and johnny time and time again Iles takes the plunge into describing the sex. Perhaps he should have remebered the plot a little better. once he conquers this barrier the book begins to expand once again. If only Iles could have kept tyhe feeling alive throughout the entierety of the book. This is not his best work, that goes to the stellar Mortal fear, but it survives. A good read but dont expect too much, you won't lose sleep over it.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but silly
Review: Greg Iles is one of my favorite writers of crime fiction. His books are full of complex characters and plots that range from strong crime fiction to the thriller sub genre. Sometimes the stories are a bit farfetched such as a woman finding her identical twin on an art gallery wall while visiting the Orient. The twin was apparently murdered quite some time before. However, the stories always stayed within the realm of possibilties--until now.
In SLEEP NO MORE, we enter the realm of the supernatural. John Waters is a geologist who searches for oil in the Natchez, Mississippi area. He is married to a woman he loves and remains loyal to in spite of the fact that physically she has withdrawn from him after a couple of miscarriages. They do, however, have a young daughter. A beautiful local Realtor attempts to seduce John and claims she is really his old girlfriend who was raped and killed years before in New Orleans. How this could be defies all logic--yet events occur which might very well lend credence to this claim. As this "spirit" travels from person to person, John soon finds, not only all his friends and family at risk, but his very freedom and quite possibly his life.
One must buy into the premise that a life force can move from one body to another before even attempting to read this otherwise exciting and well written suspense tale. In fact, in terms of pure entertainment, I would rate this book an "A-". Greg Iles has written his usual compelling tale full of sympathetic and well rounded realistic characters. There is a long ago murder that percolates through the story line, hence, the attachment to the crime fiction genre. However, the basic premise actually reclassifies this book to the supernatural or even horror genre. Authors, to maintain their core base of fan readers, should attempt to remain within their genre. This, at least, would allow the readers to know what to expect from the author. When an author leaves the genre, he or she risks losing fans who have previously been loyal. Andrew Klaven and Walter Mosely are two examples that come immediately to mind. In this work, Iles steps way beyond the, at times, hazy distinction between the possible and the impossible. The supernatural element almost is cheating. Therefore judging this as a crime novel, the rating is C+ .

Rating:
Summary: Strange, somewhat suspenseful, insightful. Add 1/2 star.
Review: I'm a Greg Iles fan. However, this book was not plausible, as most of his works are. After Dead Sleep, I'm sure Iles was drawn to the topic of multiplicity within one person - what if it were possible that the will to live could keep the spirit alive forever? Living forever is an underlying thought in The Footprints of God, the book that immediately follows this one in his writing career. I've reviewed both.

Eve Sumner is exotic, and she draws John Waters into an erotic journey that takes him into his own past. John is haunted by Eve's similarity to Mallory Candler. It shows in Eve's speech, the way she walks, her self-inflicted scars, and her intimate knowledge of John and Mallory's passionate romance during their college years. Eve is Mallory, but Mallory is dead.

John goes quickly from disbelieving Eve and Mallory are one, to a man possessed by the immortal Mallory. Mallory had tried to kill John when she was alive, now she is back - but it isn't his death she wants, he is the object of her obsession. John's marriage is in trouble, and it was the lack of intimacy that made him vulnerable to Eve's sexy machinations. Now he is trapped, and Mallory is a killer who will go from body to body to get what she wants.

In my opinion, soul transference is a delightfully thought reviving subject. It can evoke provocative philosophical discussions. I enjoyed reading this book, but wouldn't do so again or go to a theater to see an adaptation of it.

Far superior books are Dead Sleep and 24 Hours, and I hope Iles returns to plausible plots. His characters, as always, are rich and deep, and he weaves the story well with them.

Victoria Tarrani

Rating:
Summary: Sleep with the lights on
Review: Petroleum geologist John Waters' life is far from perfect at the outset of Greg Iles' thriller Sleep No More. Waters' wife has been depressed for several years, following two miscarriages, and his otherwise successful oil-drilling business is under investigation by the EPA and is threatened besides by the irresponsible personal behavior of his business partner and life-long friend Cole Smith. Potentially devastating though these difficulties are, however, they will seem insignificant to Waters two weeks later, after he has been tempted into the first affair of his marriage by an aggressive seductress, real estate agent Eve Sumner. Sumner, as it turns out, is not your average cleavage-baring predator. She is willing to do anything necessary to wrest Waters from his wife, and she is armed with a peculiarly effective bait: intimate knowledge of Waters' relationship with his college sweetheart, the sexually aggressive, frighteningly possessive--and verifiably deceased--Mallory Candler. Waters' descent into infidelity leads him to question his sense of reality. Is he mad to consider transmigration of the soul as an explanation for Eve's uncanny likeness to and knowledge of Mallory? Or is Sumner part of a convoluted plot designed to unhinge our hero?

The characters of Iles' Sleep No More inhabit the same world the author described in his novel The Quiet Game--Natchez, Mississippi, which Iles, a real-life inhabitant of the town, describes eloquently. And it is peopled by some of the same characters: Penn Cage, the protagonist of Iles' earlier novel, takes on a supporting role here. One need not be familiar with The Quiet Game, however, to enjoy the author's more recent effort. But enjoy it you will. After a relatively unhurried introduction, readers will find themselves, perhaps a third of the way through the book, willing the likeable Waters to somehow extricate himself from a relationship that threatens to destroy him. But saving himself and his family, we understand, cannot be a simple business. While Iles' novel ends perhaps a bit too conveniently, it is otherwise well-written, and it is genuinely gripping. Sleep No More is just the thing to keep readers from resting in peace themselves.

Debra Hamel -- book-blog reviews
Author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

Rating:
Summary: (3 1/2) An Ingenious Plot Full of Emotional Violence
Review: SLEEP NO MORE is a difficult book to present fairly in a review for two reasons. First, any discussion of the essential elements of the plot would involve presenting substantial spoilers, thus my summary of the storyline will be relatively brief and quite general. Second and more important, this is a book capable of generating both strong positive and negative emotions in a reader. (I was both capitivated and repulsed at various times while I was reading it.) While the five star positive recommendations outnumber the one star critical pans by a considerable margin, this is a book that has clearly entranced some readers while at the same time deeply disappointing other long time fans of Greg Isles.

To more clearly illustrate the positive and negative aspects of this story, I could easily have written reviews with either of the following two ratings and titles -

Five Stars - A Suspense Filled Exploration of the Dark Side of Obsession by a Master Story Teller; or alternatively,

One Star- A Gripping Pornographic Fantasy Utilizing a Totally Weird and Unbelievable Plot Device,

and fully justified either of those disparate ratings. However, neither extreme would do justice to the complexity of my reactions to the various elements of this story. In many ways this book is quintessential Greg Isles, an intense and gripping story used as the springboard to examine big issues in a nontraditional way. The ideas that this novel touches upon include obsession and depression, life after death, the pull of sex vs. the depth of love and the unintended consequences of our actions that often redirect our lives. And central to this story the question of whether our unique individuality is defined by our soul, our memory or our DNA?

In a foreboding and wonderfully written and first chapter, the author introduces us to all of the central characters of the story. The cast is as follows:

John Waters - a devoted husband and father who is a successful oilman worried about an EPA investigation which could create significant problems for his business'
Lily Waters - John's wife, whose relationship with John has been strained in the aftermath of a tragedy which occurred several years ago,
Annelise Waters - their seven year old daughter whose love unites Lily and John,
Eve Summer - a stunningly attractive realtor whose whispered comment to John at Annelise's soccer game frighteningly causes long buried memories of another woman to resurface,
Mallory Gray Chandler - the "other woman" in John's past, brutally murdered years ago (is Eve her reincarnation or an inincredibly talented con artist with a dangerous agenda of her own?),
Cole Smith - John's business partner and long time personal friend who seems to be disturbed by problems which he won't discuss with John, and
Natchez, Mississippi - the town where they have all lived their lives, it holds their long hidden secrets contains the cemetery where Mallory is buried and where events will occur which will soon cause John Waters both to reexamine what constitute the most important things in his life and also to question his own sanity.

Greg Isles has created an extremely clever thesis as the basis of the investigation of the question of whether Mallory Chandler's obsession can reach beyond the grave to forever change the lives of John Waters and his family. However, the reader has to be willing to suspend belief and accept the underlying technique essential to the plot in order to experience the incredibly intense emotions of the story's characters. This is at times an extremely depressing story; by its very nature it cannot end well for many of the people whose lives it touches. In addition, central to the plot is an intense and almost continuous emphasis on sex (as obsession, as love, as fantasy, as a means of possesion, and often as a perverted physical act). In the context of the storyline this emphasis is far removed from pornography, but nevertheless it went far beyond the bounds of enjoyability and interest for me.

This story explores very serious philosophical issues in an intriguing manner. Thus, I decided to round up my rating as the best indication of my overall reaction to the book. I got so drawn into the story and the mystery of who Eve Summmer really was that I had trouble putting it down while I was reading it. And right to the end, I was alternately turned on and turned off as the story proceeded. Even the ending contained a degree of duality; with one chapter to go I thought that it was going to be truly bittersweet and somewhat ambiguous, then the final denouement was incredibly clever but the resultant final paragraphs became almost saccharine in their sweetness and hopefulness. But then again, how can I object to a conclusion that only reflects the optimism which I feel about life?

My goal has been to include enough information in this review to allow potential readers to decide whether it is more likely to provide a one star or a five star reading experience for them. Finally, I would like to strongly recommend Greg Isles' book THE FOOTPRINTS OF GOD (review 9/26/03), which I found to be even more thought provoking than this book and which involves speculation much more firmly grounded in current scientific knowledge. It is a totally absorbing story involving the great questions about the meaning of life that exist at the intersection of philosophy, religion and science.

Tucker Andersen

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing ending
Review: This book was absolutely engrossing for about the first 3/4 of the way through. Then it seemed like the author just got tired of the story and wrapped it up as quickly as possible ignoring the plot-line up until then. I was so disappointed by this book -- in fact, I almost felt cheated!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing ending
Review: To enjoy this book, you first need to know what you're reading. Unlike the other books by Greg Iles, this is a supernatural thriller in the vein of Dean Koontz or perhaps the less monster-filled books of Stephen King. The plot isn't overtly original; a man's dead ex-girlfriend has come back to "haunt" him by possessing other people's bodies, causing all sorts of problems, as you can imagine. But Iles has taken a rather contrived plot and made it very readable, keeping the suspense level high and the action at a nearly non-stop pace. I found myself unable to put this book down, and that rarely happens with me these days. I read the entire book in two days and was sad when it ended. My wife reacted the same way, and she and I both read voraciously and go through half a dozen books every month while rarely finding one that grabs us like Sleep No More did.

I'll repeat, this wouldn't qualify as great literature. It's escapist fiction, but it's damn good for what it is. Take it on a plane, read it on the beach, use it to kill a few hours and you won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: You Won't Sleep Until You Finish It!
Review: Typically, I am not a fast reader, but I breezed through this book. The suspense is perfect, and the intensity is gripping. The story is the best combination of seduction, suspense, and drama. Don't miss this one!