On Saturday morning Id just sat down with my usual coffee to check my emails when I spotted the name C.L Taylor. Id received an invite from Avon books to preview her new book. Sleep. For those of you that aren’t familiar with her books ( The Fear, The Escape, The Missing, The Lie, The Accident ) they are physiological page turning thrillers that keep you guessing right through to the end.
After my recent struggles to find a book I could really get into I couldn’t wait to get this one started, especially with the extra hour we gained thanks to daylight savings and my own struggle to have a lie in these days.
Sleep Is the story of a woman who is career driven and wants to succeed. Anna is successful and while her colleagues may not be fully supportive she is confident in the prospects for a promotion. Until the drive home. An accident happens and Anna ends up in hospital, lucky to be alive, but shes a changed person, lacking in confidence and courage. Her relationship with Alex isn’t great, she blames herself and she needs a change. After watching a TV show about the Scottish Isle of Rum she finds a job opportunity in a hotel there and changes her whole life’s plan. Here she hopes she’ll finally be able to sleep, and be away from the nightmares that are plaguing her.
The Island is small. Remote and away from the stalker Anna thinks is leaving her creepy messages back home. She’s not sleeping properly and is worried that she’ll make a mistake – then someone’s room is rifled through, and a key is missing. Is Anna making mistakes because she’s tired or is something going on?
The story takes you on a fast ride through life at the hotel over a handful of days, all during a bad storm that cuts them off from the real world – no phone service, 4g or Wi-Fi is a nightmare on its own. The hotelier dies, havoc ensues and Anna doesn’t really know what she’s doing – or if her stalker is has followed her.
There are some interesting characters in this book, which all come together beautifully at the end, the links and connections are almost so obvious you miss them and some of the characters you follow don’t seem like major players, but turn out to be more important than you could realise. There were parts where I probably should have wondered why we were reverting to some characters storylines because their part was done, and remembered the six degrees of separation rule! I like that you really got to understand some of their motives and drivers without making it obvious how it would turn out for each of them.
This book is brilliant, its engrossing and easy to read, although not a brilliant advert for any walking companies who promote business on the Isle of Rum! It didn’t stop me googling the location afterwards and marvelling at its beauty though!
Sleep is due for release on March 21, 2019. Pre-order it now!
One More Chapter 