Sleep - C.L.Taylor - Book Review

 

                    Mystery and thriller is one genre which never fails to pique one's interests. This book caught my attention on my first library visit of 2022. The gist of the story at the back seems to remind me of 'And Then There were None' and hence I thought why not this should be the first take from library for 2022.

                  Anna got involved in an accident in London recently; leaving two dead and one immobile. Surprisingly she escaped with not so serious injuries. But she starts blaming herself for the accident which affects her sleep and puts a mental strain. Her already strained relationship with the boyfriend also ends. For a change, she takes up a job in a hotel in the sparsely populated Scottish island of Rum. Seven guests arrive for trekking expedition but gets stuck due to the adverse weather. Anna firmly believes one of them is out to kill her for the accident. Is there some one out to get her? Is this all a part of her hallucination? What  happens at the Isle of Rum? all these questions get answered over the course of the novel.

                This is my first read of C.L.Taylor and the premise seems pretty interesting. As I told at the start, any setting that involves people getting stuck somewhere involuntarily draws my thoughts to 'And Then There were None'. This was a pretty breezy read which I was able to complete in a day or two. The language and setting were pretty simple and good and it started off in an interesting manner. But oddly towards the middle, the read gets a bit lethargic; for say 20 - 30 pages; which wrecks the interest that was building up. There seems to be many circumstances leading to suspense with the intent of creating confusion among readers. And the readers might realize that as well and so I am not sure how effective it might turn out to be. Probably; 20 - 30 pages less would have made the book more gripping. The read picks pace after those pages; but I was able to deduce the story by then which kind of dampened the rest of my read. The characterization of all the characters seems well framed and the end opens a possibility to a potential sequel and I like how that was put in.

                Mystery and thriller genre might be a risky genre. The genre has been around for so long with so many people loving it that it might tend to be lethargic. Just fresh ideas alone will not carry the story forward as there needs to be a proper way for it to be told. This seems to have gone a bit awry here. Last year, there were few reads of the genre which did really interest me. Which brings back to the fact that I was little disappointed even though this was a pretty decent read. People might enjoy this read but as I told earlier, 30 pages lesser could have made this book an indeed gripping read.