Dead Sleep
by Greg Iles
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Book Reviews of Dead Sleep
Book Review: This is powerful painting with words!
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the Sleeping Women paintings changes Jordan Glass' life. She is the image of the nude woman either sleeping or dead, but she did not pose for the painting. Thus begins Jordan's journey to find out if the painting is her sister Jane Lacour, her twin who is missing and presumed dead. There is a luscious cast of characters, both suspects and investigators. The plot is well developed, and all too plausible since many women do disappear from their lives. Most do not run away from the two children and a good husband they adore. Jane certainly didn't leave them intentionally.
I enjoyed Iles contemplation of the connections between identical twins. Even with Jordan's memory about the moment she felt her sister's death, she never gave up hope that Jane would be found alive. Perhaps the sensations she thought were Jane's death weren't. After learning what happened to Jane, I wondered if Jane had felt similar sensations about Jordan - that is how "real" these characters were.
This book is outstanding; it is a page-turner in the truest sense of the words. I came to some of the same conclusions as Jordan did, but in the end only her creativity and depth of knowledge could save her life.
Five stars!
Victoria Tarrani
Book Review: very annoying main character ruins good book
Summary: 2 Stars
I was terribly annoyed by the incredibly large chip on the main character's shoulder. All this garbage about women vs. men and women vs. women made my skin crawl. What kind of person would decide whether someone is good or bad judging by gender? This main character does. A quote: 'Shaking hands with men is always awkward for me, so I don't do it.' and it only gets worse from there. Really, I sincerely hope Iles does not hold such a dim view of women, especially supposedly strong women. Since he wrote in the first person I shudder to think. This thing was drenched in stereotyping and over-simplification. The main character had something to prove to herself and everyone else, especially men, and the reasons are so obvious one can see them a mile away. It was a tedious read. The FBI isn't THAT stupid and the main character isn't THAT brilliant and really needed to get over herself, as well as a good therapist. I have two more of his books. I hope they're better. I guess this book might work for people who buy into the Men are from Mars theme. Without the painful stereotyping and obligatory and awkward love connection this would have been a good read, which is why I gave it two stars, not one.Book Review: Distracting writing ruins interesting plot...
Summary: 3 Stars
A series of paintings called "Sleeping Women" is being released into the art world - they are by an anonymous artist, and depict nude women who seem to be sleeping, but as the series progresses, and the paintings get more realistic, it looks more as if they are actually dead. Photojournalist Jordan Glass is browsing though a gallery in Asai when she is confronted with her own face in one of the paintings, or more likely the face of her twin sister, who disappeared over a year ago. We watch Jordan work with the FBI to hunt down the artist, the killer, and hopefully discover the fate of her missing sister.The plot might have been satisfying enough with compelling characters and an interesting writing style to back it up, but the writing didn't do much for me, and I was distracted throughout much of the book with the glaring fact that this was a male author writing a female first-person narrator. In my opinion, if you can't successfully write a protagonist of the opposite sex, it's not sufficient to bandaid the problem by continuously mentioning how unconventionally masculine your female character is - just write it with a male lead and let the reader enjoy the juicy storyline.
Book Review: Need tissues for this ending
Summary: 5 Stars
Another Iles imaginative story that has vivid characters, flawed protagonists and just enough perverse coloring to keep you addicted until the very, very end. One of the best ending I have encountered in a long time. Superb. My adrenalin was pumping and I literally had to stop, take a deep breath and read more slowly to savor it all. Be ready to just sit with the book in your lap as the ending will shock and astonish you and have some tissue handy.
The beginning was almost as good when a photojournalist is at a Hong Kong art museum and is drawn to a collection of paintings called "The Sleeping Women." To her profession eye, the women appear to be dead rather than merely sleeping. She is shocked as she looks at the face of one of the painted women and sees her own face. She immediately has to fly back to New York to solicit help to investigate the disappearance of her twin sister that disappeared over a year before.
I will let you imagine all the twists and turns with these twin sisters in the story, one maybe dead and one turning over every rock to try and discover what is real.
Author of al-Qaeda Strikes Again
Book Review: Iles does it again
Summary: 5 Stars
Greg Iles has once again proven why he is my favorite author. He starts a little slower (but not much) with this one than some of his previous novels, but the ending is well worth the reading to get there. Iles' prose is always a pleasure to read even in the slow parts of the plot.I have yet to find an author who has a better grasp of human behavior. All of the little details of daily life that we take for granted Iles incorporates into his characters activities. I've never seen another author do it as well. This helps to make his already well defined characters seem that much more alive. With Dead Sleep Iles' takes on the task of writing a first person POV story with a woman protagonist. In my opinion he also does this better than any male author I've ever read. Jordan Glass is much more realistic than T. Jefferson Parker's Mercy Rayborn (The Blue Hour, Red Light) and much, much more realistic than Patterson's Lindsy Boxer (1st To Die).
This book, along with anything by Greg Iles, is a must read. I also recommend: Plum Island - Nelson DeMille, Tell No One - Harlan Coben, and The Devil's Teardrop - Jeffery Deaver.