The Sleepwalker by L.C. George
Genre: Psychological thriller, Domestic thriller, Suspense
Read: 5th March 2023
Published: 26th February 2023
★★★★★ 4.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
Our dreams can be forgotten. But our nightmares will haunt us forever.
Sam Fulford is living a perfectly normal life, except for one little thing: a strange sleep condition that causes him to roam in the night and occasionally become violent.
So when Sam wakes one devastating morning to discover his wife dead beside him and his baby daughter missing, his whole world implodes. Did he accidentally kill his wife during a night time episode? If so, where is his baby?
Just as Sam begins to accept the possibility that he is guilty, he finds a photograph that makes him realise someone else may be involved, that he may be innocent and might yet find his missing daughter.
But there’s a complication. Sam has a dark secret that he just can't allow to surface. And it’s soon made clear to him that if he presses on with his quest to find out what happened that terrible night, his secret will be revealed to the world.
Leaving Sam wondering whether it might be better to confess to a crime he’s not even certain he committed. Faced with an unimaginable dilemma, Sam begins to wonder: would it be better for everyone if he was guilty?
Filled with shocking secrets and a sinister twist, The Sleepwalker is a gripping psychological thriller that will keep you guessing to the very end.
MY THOUGHTS:
"Our dreams can be forgotten. But our nightmares will haunt us forever."
This thriller is so good I can't believe it is a debut! And despite knowing the direction it was taking from the beginning, I thoroughly enjoyed the fast pace and short snappy chapters coupled with the multiple narratives from both the past and the present. Conjuring up a wealth of secrets buried deep within parasomniac nightmares, Laura George has penned a disturbing thriller that really leaves you wondering just what he is hiding.
Sam Fulford has the perfect life...now. After a disastrous relationship from which he barely escaped unscathed, he found love with Tessa, they married and after years of trying to conceive, the couple are finally blissfully pregnant. There is just one thing that threatens their blissful happiness and perfect lives. Sam has a sleep condition that is so unusual and unique, known as parasomnia, in which he will often sleepwalk, have bizarre conversations, experience vivid nightmares or terrors and even becoming violent and striking out both physically and verbally. All while he is asleep. Sam is completely oblivious to his behaviour during these times though he is well aware that it happens. And it has become something of a problem for Tessa.
Tessa loves Sam with her whole being. She loves being married to him and that they have created this new life together. She knows he will be a fantastic dad to their child. But she can't help but be just a little bit afraid of him. Not of him, as such, but of the person he becomes during a parasomniac episode. If the experience unnerves him, it terrifies her. On occasion, Sam has already lashed out and struck her in his sleep, remembering nothing when he awakes to find her cradling her abdomen and trembling with fear in a panic attack. Now she fears him harming their unborn child. This fear creates a growing distance between them which is only exacerbated once their baby is born and Tessa will stop at nothing to protect her child. Even if it means staying up all night to ensure Sam does not harm their baby during one of his episodes.
And then one morning, Sam's entire world implodes when he wakes to discover Tessa dead beside him and baby Cora missing. Against all odds, Sam worries he may have struck out and harmed Tessa in his sleep, having no knowledge of what happened when he woke. But that doesn't explain three month old Cora's disappearance. And yet there is no sign of a struggle or a break in. So who killed Tessa and what has happened to baby Cora?
Naturally, the police's first instinct is to work on the assumption that the husband did it...after all, that's what usually happens in cases like these, isn't it? But try as he might, Sam professes his innocence all the while at the back of his mind wondering if he really did have something to do with it. But then, where is Cora? Desperate for answers, Sam even suggests to police that he try hypnotherapy to see if they can unlock the doors to that night, jogging any memory of what may have happened. And yet despite not wanting to believe he had anything to do with Tessa's death, Sam harbours a secret that could change everything should it be discovered. And it leaves him questioning if he really is guilty...
And then, just when all hope seems lost, he finds a photo which propels him back into a past he has no wish to revisit...a photo which may hold a vital clue to prove his innocence and explain everything...
Wow! THE SLEEPWALKER is an addictive read from beginning to end with short snappy chapters that kept the pace moving, ending on a cliffhanger and making the reader want to read "just one more chapter". It is a chilling tale that is disturbing and compelling cleverly plotted with complex issues surrounding sleep disorders, trauma, mental health issues, grief and abuse - to name a few. It is a thriller that certainly packs a punch that leaves you, on some level, feeling deeply troubled. The scenes of parasomnia were incredibly chilling and disturbing at best.
There are a handful of characters to this spine-tingling thriller - some of whom you love to hate - which kind of narrows down the suspect pool. The narrators are unreliable and the tension is palpable throughout. And yet despite knowing the direction in which the story is going and correctly figuring out a major plot twist from the beginning, it didn't affect my enjoyment in any way. The story is so cleverly crafted that you are immediately drawn into the tangled web with no way out until the jaw-dropping end. And just when you thought you had it all figured out, the author throws in yet another unexpected twist that even a thriller connoisseur like me didn't see coming and I'm left with...what the heck? Seriously? I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending as it's not how I would have liked it to end. But nevertheless, it was a very clever twist. Well done, Laura George. I can't wait to see what you offer up to us next time.
Overall, a brilliant debut with a killer twist that even I didn't see coming!
I would like to thank #LCGeorge, #Netgalley, #InkubatorBooks and #ZoolooTours for an ARC of #TheSleepwalker in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Now a mum of two, she lives with her children, husband and springer spaniel, Dougie on the beautiful Devonshire coastline. In the little spare time she gets, she loves nothing more than writing twisty thriller novels for the reader to untangle.
She spends most of her days with her children, in soft plays, on the beach or jumping in puddles, grateful that no one can see inside the corners of her mind as she conjures up the next dark character and plots their fate.
Social media links:
Facebook | Goodreads
What a review - thank you so much for supporting the tour x
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