Release Date: April 4th 2019
Publisher: Avon Books
Pages: 368
Find it on: Goodreads. BookDepository. Waterstones.
Source: The publisher kindly sent me a copy of this book to review
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Synopsis

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.

Someone’s going to sleep and never wake up…

Review

I have only read a couple of books by C. L. Taylor but she is fast becoming my absolute favourite thriller writer. I read The Fear and thought it couldn’t possibly be topped but I was absolutely wrong. Sleep is dark, twisty and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading it. I ended up reading the last hundred pages in the wee hours of the morning because I just had to know how it was going to end. I am officially blaming this book for causing sleepless nights.

After a tragic accident Anna takes a job at a hotel on the island of Rum – an incredibly remote place in the Scottish highlands. Soon after starting some guests start to arrive and her safe haven becomes a nightmare. All the guests have something going on under the surface but one in particular has come to the hotel with a particular mission in mind: to murder Anna.

C. L. Taylor has this way of writing such fascinating and life like characters. I really felt like Anna was real and she was a really interesting protagonist to follow. Sleep is incredibly fast paced and I honestly had no idea what was going to happen from one moment to the next. Taylor always seems to bring something completely new to the thriller genre.

One of the things I particularly loved most about this book was the setting. I’ve never been to Rum but in this novel it is portrayed as an incredibly remote and barren landscape, giving the entire novel a tense and claustrophobic feel. The story was well executed with plenty of moments I didn’t see coming.

If you love psychological thrillers or you’ve read some of C. L. Taylor’s other books this is definitely not to be missed and I’m definitely already calling this as my favourite thriller of the year.