Dead Sleep
by Greg Iles
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Book Reviews of Dead Sleep
Book Review: TEN STARS REALLY!
Summary: 5 Stars
Rarely does a book come along that is so intelligently written, beautifully paced, and so hard to put down. It's one of those books that when you've finished, you want more of the people you've spend a few hours with. Greg Iles "Dead Sleep" is quite an exceptional work. Instead of reiterating the plot (which is superb in itself), I want to share with thoughts on things that happen in this book that are quite outstanding.First, the characterizations:
I have never read a more touching and realistic love scene than the one Jordan Glass and John Kaiser share in this book. Both of them carry scars from the past and they have shared these scars. Now, the time has come for them to consummate the relationship they've developed. Even though John has just received a serious bullet wound to the leg, his love for Jordan transcends this, and what results is a mature, poignant, and downright touching scene. Instead of the usual focus on the sexual side of this lovemaking, Iles takes us into the hearts and souls of Jordan and John, and we feel for and with them in this moment of passion. It's amazing how Iles can write from a first person POV as a woman. He certainly does seem to understand a female's thoughts, and that's rare in writers today.
Next: The brief, yet powerful, description of Jordan and Jane's "makeup" when Jordan is injured and estranged twin Jane comes to visit and take care of her..it's truly an accurate portrayal of the familial bond that very few events can shatter.
The tragedy of Jane's disappearance/death is brought home even more vividly when Jordan visits her sister's husband and his two children. The children,of course, see Auntie Jordan as their mother, since they look so much alike. Even distraught husband Marc has a hard time separating. The ensuing scene where Marc gets drunk and wants to spend one night with his sister's identical twin, is heartwrenching, incredibly realistic, and an astounding writing feat.
Another powerful scene is between Jordan and suspected murderess Thalia. Their conversation which reveals a terrible secret in Jordan's past unites them in a closeness that regardless of the outcome is something they both will remember.
And, finally, Iles has done something I've never experienced in serial killer novels: I do feel the symmpathy and empathy for the murderer in this one. This is because Iles has so carefully constructed this madman, and his revelation of his youth and past is so gut-wrenching and plausible, you can't help but feel pity for him, regardless of what he's done. You don't condone or appreciate his evil; but you can certainly understand it.
The final scenes are both joyous and sad, and the novel's resolution is fitting, and you feel like applauding.
I wish Greg would bring these characters back in a sequel; they are rich, beautifully embodied, and a pleasure to have known.
Thank you, Mr. Iles, for such a beautiful and entertaining novel!
HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Book Review: Stunning Success
Summary: 5 Stars
Greg Iles' Dead Sleep is a suspenseful story that displays his ability to keep a reader intrigued throughout a novel. Jordan Glass, a well-known photo-journalist, travels to an art exhibit in Hong Kong and sees a series of paintings called "The Sleeping Women", which portrays women as more dead instead of sleeping. One of the pictures looks just like Jordan. She realizes that it could actually be her twin sister who has gone missing in New Orleans about a year ago. Teaming up with the FBI, Jordan meets John Kaiser, who helps her on her pursuit of the painter, who may know whether her sister is still alive.
The book may have been written by a man in a woman's point of view, but it was done well. It is unnoticeable that it was not written by a woman, as if Greg Iles somehow crept into the head of a female. Although Jordan comes off a bit tougher than a normal female, it is believable because her background and field of work has made her a strong woman. The job of a war photographer seems like it would be a rough and dangerous line of work. She has seen many people die right in front of her, unable to do anything about it but take a picture with her camera. Anyone in her situation would have to be much tougher than a normal person in order to be able to keep living among the common population and stay sane.
Many themes are covered in the book, such as passion, crime, love, and hope, using many descriptive settings, ranging from Hong Kong to New Orleans. Dead Sleep is not merely a "who-done-it" novel. It's well-developed, complex characters and compelling subplots draw the reader in for more. At some points in the story, a reader may feel so connected to Jordan that they feel whatever she is feeling, including her joy, sadness, or fear.
The intense thriller has a strong secondary plot of a love story that enhances the action in the book, rather than dragging it out. As relationships between characters and the murder mystery progress, the reader becomes sucked in and unable to put the book down. In Jordan's struggle of when to give up and when to push on, Greg Iles has definitely created a stunning success.
Book Review: Great thriller - the ending could be more satisfying, though
Summary: 5 Stars
If you're acquainted with Greg Iles' work, you know that he's a different author. His books are very different one from another. He changes subjects, pace, types of characters. He's able to write a legal thriller with the same easiness he writes a very fast kidnapping story. With "Dead sleep", Iles continues to prove - at least to me - that he's one of the most talented thriller authors of the last ten years, along with Michael Connelly.
In "Dead sleep", the main character this time is a woman. I think most male writers have this dream of writing at least a book where the main character is a woman, but few dare to try, because creating a decent character of the opposite sex is not an easy task. I think Iles did a good job with Jordan Glass, the award-winning war-zone photographer in "Dead sleep". He did a good job, not a great one, but that's good enough. Jordan came up a little too similar to a man, but even so she has interesting feminine features, and she's believable for most of the novel. Her background life is very interesting. She's a strong character, living - and doing well - in a male environment.
While visiting Hong Kong, Jordan faces a series of paintings portraying sleeping women, but one of those women has her very face - or the face of her twin sister, who's been missing (kidnapped) for the past year and half. Jordan teams up with agent John Kaiser and his FBI squad, in the search of eleven kidnapped women and the madman - or madwoman - that's killing to create his artistic masterpieces.
As usual, Iles throws a lots of balls in the air, and during the entire novel he keeps them off the ground. I didn't like the ending, though. It is not much believable, and a little too convenient. But it didn't spoil the fun of reading this great thriller. The series of interviews with the suspects has great dialogues, and a very good character development - the level of which is hard to come across these days.
Grade 8.8/10
Book Review: Slow building and gripping thriller
Summary: 4 Stars
The narrator of this tense and gripping novel is Jordan Glass,who,like her father,is an award winning photo-journalist whose career has largely been spent in war zones exposed to danger and discomfort.She is stressed out by events in her life and is plunged into even deeper emotional turmoil when she visits an art gallery in Hong Kong and sees a painting in a controversial series of portaraits called Sleeping Women.It is not known if the paintings -which sell for upwards of a million dolllars-are of women asleep or dead.The question becomes of more than academic importance for her when the subject of the portrait turns out to be her twin sister Jane,one of several women snatched from New Orleans and vanishing without trace.She becomes involved in the FBI investigation to trace the artist and any accomplices he/she may have
The main suspects are an eminent but fatally ill artist Wheaton,and his students -a black ex con with a history of violence to women(Gaines),a society gay(Frank Smith) and a women with an abused childhood(Thalia)
The story build slowly but inexorably towards a powerful and moving climax one in which Jordan is able to find new meaning in her life and exorcise some malevolent demons that have been blighting her life
Jordan is a complex figure-attractive,but haunted by a lack of closure in her past,traumatised by her experiences in war zones and seeking a new direction.She is shown as much more than the stock figure of the feisty femme -almost de rigeur in books like this now,-and comes over as a sympathetic caring woman who you end up rooting for.
Any book where the plot revolves around an FBI v serial killer scenario will be compared to Thomas Harris,and Iles even evokes The Silence of the Lambs very deliberately in one scene but it stands the comparison well
It takes its time to get going but stick with it and you will ,in all probabality,enjoy an adult thriller which packs a punch without reliance on gross out violence or viscera
Book Review: Wow! What a riveting story!
Summary: 5 Stars
As a successful, professional photographer, Jordan Glass is recognized in her field, as her famous father once was. He has been missing, presumed dead in Cambodia for over 30 years. She has always missed him and never given up on the fact that he may still be alive, but has kept an emotional distance from any man she could love and possibly lose again. At 40 years of age she remains single. While in Hong Kong on a business trip she browses an art gallery and is puzzled by the gasps of onlookers as they look at her and back at a painting of a woman in "repose." As she approaches the painting the reason for the stares are obvious - the woman in the painting looks exactly like her. Is she asleep or dead? She looks dead, and it disturbs her a great deal, as her twin sister has been missing for over a year. Could she have been killed and posed for the painter? Thus begins a story with so many twists and turns that you have to keep reading it. It is very well done.
This is story of crime, passion, love, hope, rejection, it is many things, and the characters draw the reader in with their complexities. It takes place in New Orleans, but jumps to other parts of the world occasionally. There is no shortage of action once it gets moving. It involves the FBI, the NOPD, swat teams, and the reader gets well acquainted with them too.
I have not read a book of this caliber for some time. The last half of the book was especially hard to put down, and kept me up many nights past my bedtime. It is my 2nd Greg Iles book, and I'm anxious to start my 3rd one, "Sleep No More." I may not, (sleep, that is) once I start it.
If you are the type that has to be jump-started into a novel on the first page or two, be patient with "Dead Sleep" - it will be worth the wait and doesn't take that long. It is a good book for either a man or a woman. Give it as a gift to an avid reader, you won't be sorry, and neither will they!