Sleep Tight

by Rachel Abbott

From the author of the bestselling novels Only the Innocent and The Back Road How far would you go to hold on to the people you love? When Olivia Brookes calls the police to report that her husband and children are missing, she believes she will never see them again. She has reason to fear the worst; this isn't the first tragedy that Olivia has experienced. Now, two years later, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Douglas is called in to investigate this family again, but this time it's Olivia who has disappeared. All the evidence suggests that she was here, in the family home, that morning. But her car is in the garage, and her purse is in her handbag - on the kitchen table. The police want to issue an appeal, but for some reason every single picture of this family has been removed from albums, from phones, from computers. And then they find the blood... Has the past caught up with Olivia? Sleep Tight - if you can. You never know who's watching. Praise for Rachel Abbott: "Rachel Abbott will keep you guessing long into the night and just as soon as you've figured it out...think again!"- Suspense Magazine "It is one of those books that holds you hostage and is hard to put down until the end" - Confessions of a Reader "Abbott creates a tangled web of deception, secrets, and red herrings" - Booklist "Pure Genius: A Masterclass in the Perfect Thriller!!" - Love Books "One of THE Best Mystery Suspense Novels Read This Year!" - Amazon Vine Voice

• ISBN10: 0957652232
• ISBN13: 9780957652231
• Publish Date: 24 February 2014
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Black Dot Publishing Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 260
• Language: English

Reviews

[cornerfolds]

I don't often read mysteries. In fact, I believe I have six books on my Goodreads "mystery" shelf and the other five are by Dan Brown. But as I was browsing the Kindle Lender's Library, I came across this book. The cover was spooky and the description sounded promising. I mean, the last line is "Sleep tight - if you can. You never know who's watching." Chills.

So, I decided to try something new, and it definitely paid off.

From the very beginning I was hooked. The first word I wrote down was "tension." It starts with Olivia in panic mode - her kids are missing. Right away there's no clear way of knowing who to trust or who the "bad guy" is. Much of the mystery is easily solved in the early chapters, however.

By chapter two, I had Robert figured out (yeah, so he's insane), by chapter three, I had a pretty good idea of what had happened to Olivia's parents, and by chapter ten, I thought I knew what was going on with Olivia's disappearance. Still, there were a few huge revelations at the end of the book that I had not expected (at all).

The writing style was different, switching often between chapters from first to third person and between storylines about Tom and Olivia. While it was a little off putting at first, the constant switching had me turning pages late into the night to figure out what happened to Olivia and her children.

Apparently, there are previous books in this series, which revolves around DCI Tom Douglas, but I don't feel like I've missed anything terribly important by starting in the middle of things. There were personal details inserted here and there about Tom and his associates and perhaps those are explained in more detail elsewhere, but I was truly reading only for Olivia's story.

I give this book a 4 instead of 5 primarily based on what I felt was a too-clean last chapter (combined with the early predictability I've already mentioned). Everything came together perfectly, though not necessarily happily. Overall, this was a fantastic read and I'm thrilled that I gave it a chance! I hear Abbot's first novel, Only the Innocent, was excellent as well. I may have to give that one a try soon.

This review can also be found at cornerfolds.com