The world will know her name. The average person spends 33 years of their life asleep. But, in this mysterious shadow world, how can we ever know who we really become? In 2019, Anna Ogilvy was a budding twenty-five-year-old writer with a bright future ahead of her. Then, one night, she stabbed two people to death with no apparent motive and hasn't woken up since. Her deep sleep is known by neurologists as 'resignation syndrome', a rare functional psychosomatic disorder. The tabloid press dubs her 'Sleeping Beauty'. Fast forward to the present day. Dr. Benedict Prince is a forensic psychologist and an expert in the field of sleep-related homicides. As a consultant at The Abbey, a sleep clinic based in London's infamous Harley Street, he has studied patients who are held on murder charges; but they have no memory of their crimes. As Anna shows the first signs of stirring, Benedict must determine what really happened that night and whether or not she should be held criminally responsible for her actions when she finally wakes up. Only she knows the truth about that night, but only he knows how to discover it.
The silly symbolism of those main characters’ names — along with that melodramatic plot premise — should alert readers to the commercial nature of this thriller ... Resignation syndrome started to look like an attractive option to me very early in this novel ... These are mere catnap-size samplings of Anna O, which goes on far too long, for far too little effect. The listless excesses of this suspense novel — centered on the mystery of a woman’s marathon slumber session — regrettably induce what the poet John Keats so aptly called 'a drowsy numbness.'
Devilishly twisty ... Blake never lets the reader, or his hero, get comfortable, delivering one game-changing twist after another all the way through to the final sucker punch. The exhilarating results are likely to shock even seasoned thriller fans.
