Sleep No More AMS

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 He is married to a woman he loves and remains loyal to in spite of the fact that physically she has withdrawn from him after a couple of miscarriages.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: Fascinating story with a different twist
Review: When I first read the blurb about this book I thought it might be the first Greg Iles book that I did not enjoy, but happily I was wrong. The story is so good that I was able to accept the surrealistic premise. John Waters first sees Eve Sumner, a local real estate agent, across the soccer field while watching his daughter play. Her words and actions eerily remind him of his deceased former lover, Mallory Gray Candler. Subsequent encounters lead him into a torrid affair with Eve, who he is more and more certain is possessed by the soul of Mallory. As Waters becomes involved with 'Eve' he realizes that he is endangering his family both emotionally and physically by his continued obsession with her. In fact it may already be too late to disentangle himself from his insatiable lover. Then Eve is murdered and Waters is the most likely suspect. What is worse is that he is still not free from Mallory's threats. He must find a way to save his marriage, his child and his wife. The twists and turns at the end make it impossible to guess how it is resolved. As usual Greg Iles' writing is difficult to put down and his characters are so well drawn that you hate to leave them.