It’s been years since Nadja Kulka was convicted of a cruel crime. After being released from prison, she’s wanted nothing more than to live a normal life: nice flat, steady job, even a few friends. But when one of those friends, Laura von Hoven–free-spirited beauty and wife of Nadja’s boss–kills her lover and begs Nadja for her help, Nadja can’t seem to refuse.

The two women make for a remote house in the woods, the perfect place to bury a body. But their plan quickly falls apart and Nadja finds herself outplayed, a pawn in a bizarre game in which she is both the perfect victim and the perfect murderer…

Review:

Atmospheric, menacing, and crafty!

Sleepless is an ominous, character-driven thriller that delves into the complex dynamics between friends and family members and highlights just how parasitic some of those relationships can truly be.

The prose is gritty and taut. The characters are plagued, deceptive, and self-involved. And the plot using a back-and-forth, past/present style builds tension as it unfolds a tortuous tale of friendship, lies, secrets, retribution, manipulation, guilt, violence, and murder.

There is no doubt that Hausmann can weave a suspicious tale that’s dark, gloomy, and tragic and that highlights the scheming, selfish, dark side of human nature. And even though I thought the storyline itself was very intricate and clever, although a little disjointed at times, unfortunately for me the lack of characters with any sort of moral or ethical conscience in Sleepless made it a little hard for me to like, connect, or even root for any of them the way I would have liked to.

This novel is available on October 19, 2021!

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.