Tangled Web UK Review August 2002
Sleep No More by
Greg Iles
pbk out August 02
(Hodder)
at £10.99
If you are looking for the usual fast-paced American thriller, grounded in harsh realism, this book is not for you. The storyline develops at a slow pace, and when it does finally blossom, requires some suspension of disbelief.
John Waters is a successful petroleum geologist with the perfect family - cute kid and caring wife. OK, so his partner in business is a little imperfect, with his drink and marital problems, but that is par for the course, isn't it? So far, it's all shoulder-pads and big hair, and echoes of Dallas. But then a mystery woman whispers a word in John Waters' ear that takes him back to the most passionate and difficult affair of his youth. Mallory Candler's captivating beauty and intelligence had a dark side only John was allowed to see. And when her strange passions threatened to destroy him along with her, he ended her affair and moved on to more sane pursuits. Mallory married and had children but was ultimately found raped and murdered. Ten years later, a woman called Eve Sumner seems to know all of John and Mallory's intimate secrets. And she wants John as much as Mallory did.
I don't think it's giving the plot away to say that you are asked to believe that maybe the woman who seduces John is occupied somehow by the soul of his long-dead first love. The story then becomes not one of whodunit, but is she or isn't she? And, how is he going to escape Mallory, if she truly is still alive?
Once the slow start is overcome, the book is an intriguing examination of obsession, and the reader is drawn into a helter-skelter attempt by John Waters to escape from the web of passion. I found the ending a little unsatisfactory - you may not.
(
Ian Morson
Author of Falconer books and short listed for 1999 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Dagger)
New Books by Greg Iles at Amazon.co.uk
Secondhand and Out of Print Books by Greg Iles at Alibris.com
