Guys look. Guys look at other women. Guys look at other women, and
they do so with lust in their hearts. It's impolite to do it
obviously when you're with your significant other, but it happens
(even such a master of the discreet glance as myself got caught
doing it yesterday). We're hardwired for it, and there are good,
sound biological reasons why we do it. There are also plenty of
good, sound sociological reasons why it shouldn't go any further
than that, not the least of which is the danger of waking up in the
middle of the night to find the Mrs. standing over you with a pair
of hedge clippers, a blowtorch, and a pair of pliers. Guys,
unfortunately, come equipped with two brains, and only enough blood
to handle one; dumb things accordingly happen. I'm going to
guarantee you one thing, however: after you read Greg Iles's SLEEP
NO MORE, fooling around will never cross your mind. Well, it might,
but you won't act on it.

SLEEP NO MORE concerns John Waters, husband and father, a fairly
successful entrepreneur who is relatively content with his lot in
life. While coaching his daughter's soccer game, he happens to
notice Eve Sumner, a local real estate agent who is a total
stranger to him but who knows him very, very well. She knows things
about him, in fact, that only one other person knows. Or knew. That
one person is Mallory Candler, who had been Waters's lover in
college but whose obsession with him had ultimately driven him away
from her. Candler had disappeared after Waters married, only to
reappear, tragically, as a murder victim in New Orleans. Yet, it
seems that Mallory, as Eve Sumner, is back, as improbable that may
be. Sumner knows all of Waters's secrets and all of the intimate
memories that they shared together. Waters soon finds himself again
involved with his old flame. Her obsession with him is as strong as
it ever was, however, and Waters soon finds himself consumed by
that passion, to the point where his entire life may be destroyed.
When another tragic event occurs, Waters realizes that this is an
affair that can only end in one way.

Iles manages a nice balancing act here, combining elements of
suspense, fantasy, horror, and romance into what is by turns
entertainment and a cautionary tale for our time. No event takes
place in a vacuum; every action has a consequence, many of them
unfortunate and unintended. Iles drives this point home repeatedly,
all the while ratcheting upward the suspense quotient. The result
is a tale that is compelling, haunting and, ultimately,
unforgettable. SLEEP NO MORE continues the momentum established by
DEAD SLEEP, Iles's last work, and will leave both old and new
readers clamoring for his next work and, incidentally,
faithful.