THE LITTLE SLEEP

If you plan to invent a wisecracking private investigator with an interesting handicap, some advice: do not give him narcolepsy. For one thing, his choice of profession will defy belief. And, his symptoms, which include sudden, inconvenient, involuntary naps and waking hallucinations, will render the narrator so unreliable as to take all the fun out of any puzzle you create for him. (Did the corrupt DA's spoiled daughter, Jennifer, beg dream-addled PI Mark Genevich to find her missing fingers? And is she being blackmailed? Not really.) Add the fact that Tremblay's plot is full of holes, and you've got a really big challenge for narrator Stephen Thorne. That Thorne makes Mark borderline charming is a miracle. That it doesn't matter is not his fault. B.G. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2009]