Scan barcode
mrsjames77's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jalise12's review against another edition
3.0
This book is SLOW for the first 380ish pages, then the climax, and then the end. There is a twist at the end that I didn't see coming and that's the only reason it's getting 3 stars.
cjeanne99's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.5
Photographer Jordan Glass is in Hong Kong. At the recommendation of a friend, she visits an art museum where she is stunned to find a gallery of paintings of “sleeping women” - all nudes, mostly painted in bathtubs, and all appear to be dead. Including a painting of her identical twin sister, who disappeared from her New Orleans neighborhood over a year ago - and is presumed to be the victim of the same person who murdered 10 other women in New Orleans, although Jane’s body has never been found.
Jordan contacts the FBI to let them know of the painting, she heads for New York with instructions to fly to Washington DC after she lands. While on the plane she makes some calls, and comes up with the name of the art dealer who sold the paintings to the collector who was displaying them in Hong Kong. Instead of going directly to DC - she detours to do her own investigation with the dealer - who has one more painting of a sleeping woman that he is about to ship out. He claims to have no knowledge of the painter - and thendies when someone sets his gallery/living quarters on fire. Jordan escapes and captures a picture of the person she thinks is the arsonist in the crowd .
This unleashes an FBI investigation with Jordan, a private citizen, as a full participant in the process. Paintings are examined, including some that are owned by a man who lives in the Cayman Islands to avoid extradition for an unrelated incident.
The paintings were painted using a unique brush - a supply of which are used by the head of the Tulane art department, and his three graduate program students. As the FBI investigates, Jordan is right there, interviewing suspects, gathering information, and eventually, being kidnapped herself.
The plot kept me entertained and guessing.
Jordan contacts the FBI to let them know of the painting, she heads for New York with instructions to fly to Washington DC after she lands. While on the plane she makes some calls, and comes up with the name of the art dealer who sold the paintings to the collector who was displaying them in Hong Kong. Instead of going directly to DC - she detours to do her own investigation with the dealer - who has one more painting of a sleeping woman that he is about to ship out. He claims to have no knowledge of the painter - and then
This unleashes an FBI investigation with Jordan, a private citizen, as a full participant in the process. Paintings are examined, including some that are owned by a man who lives in the Cayman Islands to avoid extradition for an unrelated incident.
The paintings were painted using a unique brush - a supply of which are used by the head of the Tulane art department, and his three graduate program students. As the FBI investigates, Jordan is right there, interviewing suspects, gathering information, and eventually, being kidnapped herself.
The plot kept me entertained and guessing.
short_stuff_210's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
davefoolery's review against another edition
3.0
This was a pretty cool mystery/thriller. I learned that I like mystery/thrillers.
tanja_alina_berg's review against another edition
3.0
Rating 3.4* out of 5. I was surprised by how quickly this book took me in. I started to root for the main character almost immediately. She is Jordan, a photojournalist who suddenly finds herself facing a painted picture of her lost sister Jane. The painting is in a series called "sleeping women", but Jordan quickly senses that they are not sleeping, they are dead.
Jordan brings the news of the painting to the FBI and demands to be a part of the investigation. They let her. After the first 100 pages or so, there is a long interlude of many boring pages. The first twist was a "not again" eye-roller, the last twist actually took me by surprise. Nicely done.
Over all this book is very well written, the characters are interesting and the plotting is good. I have no regrets and I will definitely be reading more novels by this author.
Jordan brings the news of the painting to the FBI and demands to be a part of the investigation. They let her. After the first 100 pages or so, there is a long interlude of many boring pages. The first twist was a "not again" eye-roller, the last twist actually took me by surprise. Nicely done.
Over all this book is very well written, the characters are interesting and the plotting is good. I have no regrets and I will definitely be reading more novels by this author.
sternyblossom's review against another edition
3.0
I would easily rate this book 3 1/2 stars. All the ingredients for a good thriller/crime/mystery. I don't know what genre this book is. I read one other book of his and enjoyed it, so I gave this one I try. I plan on reading all of them now.
A photojournalist is sees a series of paintings in a museum entitled "Sleeping Women." The women appear dead instead of asleep. Jordan sees her own face on one of the paintings. She is soon swept back into the nightmare she thought she'd escaped. Oh, yeah. Exciting :)
A photojournalist is sees a series of paintings in a museum entitled "Sleeping Women." The women appear dead instead of asleep. Jordan sees her own face on one of the paintings. She is soon swept back into the nightmare she thought she'd escaped. Oh, yeah. Exciting :)
rosewise5171964's review against another edition
2.0
It was annoying that the book was so suspenseful that I couldn't put it down, yet I ended up thinking the plot was stupid and implausible, and he made one major error in the middle. I hate that.
But I can't resist the plug anyway for book buyers Inc. in Mountain View. I got this book through their "blind date with a book program." The book is wrapped in plain brown paper and you get only a skeleton description. Very cute idea.
But I can't resist the plug anyway for book buyers Inc. in Mountain View. I got this book through their "blind date with a book program." The book is wrapped in plain brown paper and you get only a skeleton description. Very cute idea.
wild_hydrangea's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
cbrunner11's review against another edition
3.0
This is my fist experience reading Greg Iles. Dead Sleep was recommended to me by a friend who also likes mystery and suspense novels. When I read the little blurb about the book I thought this was going to be quite the ride.
This book started off really strong. The scene at the beginning where Jordan looks up into a painting and connects with her own eyes was really well written. From that point I was hooked. Her struggle with whether or not her sister was still alive and a new determination to figure out why she disappeared was great. The book was strong until about mid way through. Then it started to really slow down for me.
The things I didn’t care for was all the back story. I started to get bored because I couldn’t see what the point of all that information was. I didn’t need her whole childhood story to figure out there was tension between Jordan and her sister. I also didn’t need so much art talk. It’s got a lot of art jargon that just bored me. This could be an issue with just me. I’m not a fan of art. I can appreciate the skill it takes because I am a terrible artist, but outside of comic book art I just don’t seem to care. These parts in the story lost me a little and I just wanted to get back to the suspense.
What I did like about all of this was Greg Iles’s writing style. For my first book by him this was a good choice. It was suspenseful enough to make me want to keep going even through all of the slower parts. The ending did pick up so I was glad I stuck with the story to see how it turned out, even though it was rather predictable. I would give this book a solid 3 out of 5 stars. If there weren’t so many slower parts this would have definitely been a 4 star book just because of how much I enjoyed the beginning of it. You might wonder if I will be reading anything else by him and the answer would be yes. This may not have been my favorite book, but it was written well enough to peak my interest, and I would like to see if his books are as suspenseful as the book blurb claims.
This book started off really strong. The scene at the beginning where Jordan looks up into a painting and connects with her own eyes was really well written. From that point I was hooked. Her struggle with whether or not her sister was still alive and a new determination to figure out why she disappeared was great. The book was strong until about mid way through. Then it started to really slow down for me.
The things I didn’t care for was all the back story. I started to get bored because I couldn’t see what the point of all that information was. I didn’t need her whole childhood story to figure out there was tension between Jordan and her sister. I also didn’t need so much art talk. It’s got a lot of art jargon that just bored me. This could be an issue with just me. I’m not a fan of art. I can appreciate the skill it takes because I am a terrible artist, but outside of comic book art I just don’t seem to care. These parts in the story lost me a little and I just wanted to get back to the suspense.
What I did like about all of this was Greg Iles’s writing style. For my first book by him this was a good choice. It was suspenseful enough to make me want to keep going even through all of the slower parts. The ending did pick up so I was glad I stuck with the story to see how it turned out, even though it was rather predictable. I would give this book a solid 3 out of 5 stars. If there weren’t so many slower parts this would have definitely been a 4 star book just because of how much I enjoyed the beginning of it. You might wonder if I will be reading anything else by him and the answer would be yes. This may not have been my favorite book, but it was written well enough to peak my interest, and I would like to see if his books are as suspenseful as the book blurb claims.