Sleep by C.L. Taylor

          2.5 Stars

Oh dear, this turned in to a jumbled mess quite early on in proceedings.  It starts off quite well with introducing us to Anna and you get a good sense of the character in both her professional and personal life.  When the accident happens that steals the lives of Freddy and Peter and leaves Mohammed severely injured the description of Anna's reaction is well handled and believable.  I could even get behind her mental collapse and seeming paranoia after her release from hospital, attending the funerals and then the Court Case.  When her relationship with Alex collapses and she moves back home to her parents I am still "with it" but finding myself having to suspend belief in parts.  This is then compounded when she moves to the remote Scottish Island of Rum to get away from everything and start a new job as a Hotel Receptionist cum general factotum.

It is once we get to Rum that the book really started to fall apart for me.  Not one of the characters have any real depth to them and they all have just a sheen of personality to them.  Each and every one of them fits in to a particular niche which gives them a plausible reason for being Anna's tormentor.  Unfortunately because of their very generic attributes this means that as soon as they have all settled in to the hotel and the storm hits you know that the least likely candidate is going to be the one responsible.  Sadly, it wasn't even really fun getting to the denouement that proved the reader right.

It would seem that the author realised this as there is a side story of Freddy's father thrown in that it seems is behind her torment.  Throw in a handful of peculiar obituaries and comments from their writer directed towards both the deceased and Anna.  All add up to a nice little distraction, but not a truly effective one as although at first they do serve to cast suspicion in other directions they, ultimately, just serve as break points in the action on Rum.

I was very disappointed with the book as the pace varied between a slow plod and then frantic, fevered activity.  Not always a bad thing but in this case the frantic bits didn't create tension but instead came across as overwrought and, to be honest, rather laughable.  With the exception of Anna none of the characters are particularly believable and even Anna eventually becomes a caricature of herself.  So, between plot, pacing and characters there isn't a lot to recommend the book and once you are around 100 pages or so in it just became an exercise in getting to the end of it all.

Normally when there is so much going on, and there is a LOT going on, I find that it sucks you in and really involves you in the story being told.  In this case it just seems like everything, including the kitchen sink, has been thrown at the book and it just left it muddy and rather boring.  There is so much hyperbole on the cover that it made me wonder if I was reading the right pages or if another book had been substituted between the covers.

THIS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA READERS FIRST.