Book Review: Sleep Tight

Crooked Lane Books

It is rare that a book pulls you in from the get-go, with non-stop action and suspense peppering each chapter and urging you toward the end. Enter Sleep Tight, the newest from J.H. Markert, which will have you on the edge of your seat from page one.

When the small town of Twisted Tree finds itself terrorized by a mysterious figure known as Father Silence, it is Tess Claibourne's detective father who helps to discover the House of Horrors that contains the bodies of 19 victims and a sole survivor, and arrest the man who is responsible for the disappearances. Haunted by that fateful night, Tess and her family breathe a sigh of relief almost two decades later when the criminal is executed. But the past has a way of catching up to those who try to outrun it.

The morning after Father Silence's execution, Tess' father is found murdered by a new killer, calling himself the Outcast, a nod to Father Silence's pattern of taking those whom society rejected. Now a detective herself, Tess reels from the loss, confronting memories that have been buried for years.

But when her own daughter is kidnapped by the Outcast, Tess' memories begin to resurface, forcing her to confront what really happened the night Father Silence was arrested all those years ago. With no true leads and the clock ticking, she finds that the one person who may hold the key to finding her daughter is the child who escaped Father Silence's terror.

J.H. Markert expertly spins a sticky web of mystery, pulling the reader in until they are entirely wrapped up in the interconnected strands. Each chapter inches closer toward solving the case, but keeps you guessing at each turn, with just enough pieces of the puzzle revealed to make it frustratingly good.

Right from the start, Sleep Tight wastes no time being bogged down in mundane details, starting into the action and suspense from the first chapter. The book keeps the momentum throughout, making for a heart-pounding read that is sure to keep readers on their toes, guessing and second-guessing each character along the way, trying to figure out where the true evil lies. 

Crooked Lane Books // 336 pages // Horror, Thriller