Sleep

by C.L. Taylor

Seven guests. Seven secrets. One killer. Do you dare to SLEEP?

‘Beware! Sleep does not do what it says on the tin: I was awake until the small hours under its dark and twisty spell.’ FIONA BARTON

All Anna wants is to be able to sleep. But crushing insomnia, terrifying night terrors and memories of that terrible night are making it impossible. If only she didn’t feel so guilty…

To escape her past, Anna takes a job at a hotel on the remote Scottish island of Rum, but when seven guests join her, what started as a retreat from the world turns into a deadly nightmare.

Each of the guests have a secret, but one of them is lying – about who they are and why they're on the island. There's a murderer staying in the Bay View hotel. And they've set their sights on Anna.

Seven strangers. Seven secrets. One deadly lie.

The million-copy bestseller is back in her darkest, twistiest book to date. Read it if you dare! Perfect for fans of Lesley Kara’s The Rumour and Cara Hunter’s DI Fawley Thrillers.

What people are saying about SLEEP:

‘Wow just wow!… I loved it’ Karen’s World

‘WOW!… Sleep!!! You wont get any if you start to read it in the evening! So be warned!!!’ Reader review

‘Superb… her books just keep getting better and better – this one was a belter!!’ Donna’s Book Blog

‘A cracking story… A heart in your mouth plot’ Books from Dusk ‘til Dawn

‘Extremely creepy, atmospheric and twisty.’ CLAIRE DOUGLAS, author of Do Not Disturb

‘Sleep will keep you up all night.’ MARK EDWARDS, author of The Retreat

‘As always, C L Taylor knocks it out of the park!’ Reader review

“Reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None… a final killer twist that is as satisfying as it is unexpected” Mature Times

“Everything we love in a thriller: creepy, tense and pacy enough to get your heart racing” Good Housekeeping

‘A perfectly written psychological thriller… filled with plot twist after plot twist… I was on the edge of my seat for every page.’ 2016 and Beyond

• ISBN13: 9780008301316
• Publish Date: 4 April 2019
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 9 July 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: AVON, a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[zooloo1983]

I had been hearing about this book for so long and with my FOMO I just had to pick this up and read it. So when the opportunity came up to do the audiobook tour I, of course, had to sign up straight away.

This book is somewhat of a slow burner, with the opening chapters all told from different points of view I just could not see how I was getting to Scotland and how everything would fit in with the shocking beginning.

Anna has not had it easy and she feels the only choice she has is to go to the island of Rum to escape it all. Taking up a position in an isolated hotel, seven guests are checked in and then a storm cuts everyone off from civilisation, things really take a turn for the worse. The guests are all quirky in their own way and they all have their own secrets, can any of them really be trusted? Who is behind the mysterious writing on the door? Who is stealing things from other guest bedrooms? Who is trying to break into Anna’s room?

One of key elements of this book is Sleep! From the lack of sleep, your mind can completely play tricks on you and you do begin to wonder sometimes is everything that is going on a figment of Anna’s imagination or is someone targetting her? Making sure she does not forget what happened.

The other element is the isolation, trapped on an island with no escape. It ramps up the thrill for the reader and makes you question everything and everyone. I mean who could the stalker be out of a small pool of suspects? Well, that is for you to find out! It is down to you to figure if you have been given a bunch of red herrings or if you are being shown the truth!

One thing I did like about this adventure was the ending, it left me with chills and it left me with no respite. When you discover what is going on, it blind sighted me, I did not see it coming and man it was creepy. I was screaming at the character at the end to walk away to not go there but in the final pages, I had no hope of getting what I wanted! What a bang!

I thought that Clare Corbett did a fab job of narrating the novel, she knew just went to amp up the tension with her voice. Her voice is one that I found easy to listen to and she had me intrigued with where this story was going. I would definitely recommend listening to her!

This is my first book by Taylor and I am looking forward to reading more by her. I loved her use of a claustrophobic setting, I love the element of sleep and the chilling meaning of it in this book, I love her writing!