Sleep No More

 Sleep No More (Lost Night Files 1)- Jayne Ann Krentz

Berkley Publishing

Release Date: January 3, 2023

Warning: Some Spoilers Ahead!

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Seven months ago, Pallas Llewellyn, Talia March, and Amelia Rivers were strangers, until their fateful stay at the Lucent Springs Hotel. An earthquake and a fire partially destroyed the hotel, but the women have no memory of their time there. Now close friends, the three women co-host a podcast called the Lost Night Files, where they investigate cold cases and hope to connect with others who may have had a similar experience to theirs—an experience that has somehow enhanced the psychic abilities already present in each woman.

After receiving a tip for their podcast, Pallas travels to the small college town of Carnelian, California, to explore an abandoned asylum. Shaken by the dark energy she feels in the building, she is rushing out when she’s stopped by a dark figure—who turns out to be the women's mysterious tipster.

Ambrose Drake is certain he’s a witness to a murder, but without a body, everyone thinks he’s having delusions caused by extreme sleep deprivation. But Ambrose is positive something terrible happened at the Carnelian Sleep Institute the night he was there. Unable to find proof on his own, he approaches Pallas for help, only for her to realize that Ambrose, too, has a lost night that he can’t remember—one that may be connected to Pallas. Pallas and Ambrose conduct their investigation using the podcast as a cover, and while the townsfolk are eager to share what they know, it turns out there are others who are not so happy about their questions—and someone is willing to kill to keep the truth from coming out

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A new Jayne Ann Krentz series gives us mysteries on top of mysteries, friendship, and romance. Sleep No More starts things off by introducing us to three friends: Pallas Llewellyn, Talia March, and Amelia Rivers- none of whom had met before going to a job at the Lucent Springs Hotel. They left the hotel not only best friends, but without remembering what happened to them overnight- and all three now possessing enhanced psychic powers. Pallas can enter a waking trance state and draw what she sees in the energy, although it isn't always easy to translate what that means. The three friends now run a podcast to reach others who have lost nights with possible paranormal connections and Amrose Drake is sure he has a case for them: his own.

Ambrose has actually lost two nights, but on one of them he's pretty sure he saw a woman murdered. Or at least her body being carried off. No one will believe him without a body, but Pallas does and the two start investigating the town of Carnelian. Using the podcast as a cover they look into the Carnelian Sleep Institute, and plenty of locals are willing to share gossip on the odd doctor who runs it. The Institute may or may not be a legitimate sleep study clinic, but it certainly has somethings going on and may connect to not only Ambrose's lost nights but his own enhanced psychic powers. 

I really enjoyed Pallas (loved her name!) and Ambrose, partly for how completely out of their depth they were. They weren't like Krentz's other psychic characters who have been psychic all their lives and are used to using their gifts as just part of their normal range of talents. They may have had 'sensitivities' all their lives but only turned into psychics with full blown powers after their 'lost nights'. Having to adjust to a "new normal" has been difficult and they've been handling it as well as possible. Pallas had it a little easier because she had two friends with similar experiences she could talk to, Ambrose had to deal with everything alone and ended up questioning his sanity a lot along the way. That "psychic mystery" will be the overarching one to tie the three books together and I think Krentz set things up really well here. We got enough breadcrumbs to want more but no where near enough to figure out what was going on. The "individual mystery" felt personal since Ambrose needed to know the murders had happened as much for his sanity as anything else, so he had a really stake in it from the beginning. Otherwise it will feel familiar to Krentz fans: the small town, quirky characters, and slow burn romance over the developing partnership of Pallas and Ambrose. Krentz's trademark humor help the characters get through some harrowing situations and I enjoyed the book very much.

 I can't wait for the next one in the series!