Forgotten Memories, a Creepy Asylum, and Romantic Tension Make Jayne Ann Krentz’s ‘Sleep No More’ a Winner [REVIEW]

Three strangers have no memories of the ordeal they survived. A mysterious tip leads one of them to an abandoned asylum in a sleepy California town. Will it hold the answers they seek, or will it only lead to more questions? And why is someone willing to kill to keep them from remembering? Find out in Jayne Ann Krentz’s breathtaking new thriller, Sleep No More.

In this first installment of the Lost Night Files, Krentz (Lightning in a Mirror) introduces readers to three women: Pallas Llewelyn, Talia March, and Amelia Rivers. Before they were guests at the Lucent Springs Hotel, they were strangers.

But after surviving a fire and earthquake without any recollection of the event, they soon become friends whose bond only intensifies as they start cohosting “The Lost Night Files” podcast. They hope it helps them discover cases similar to their own and ultimately make sense of their bizarre memory loss.

Then they get a tip which leads Pallas to the Carnelian Psychiatric Hospital for the Insane, an abandoned asylum in a sleepy California college town. But something ominous soon has her rushing out of the building and bumping into their tipster, Ambrose Drake.

He thinks he witnessed a murder one night while he was at the asylum, but there’s no body, and he hopes Pallas can help him find the evidence he is looking for to prove that what he saw isn’t simply a hallucination caused by severe sleep deprivation.

Although initially leery, Pallas agrees to help. But the more they investigate, the more confident they become that the cause of their mutual memory loss is somehow linked. But how? Who is behind this phenomenon and why are they ready to do whatever it takes to ensure they don’t remember?

In Sleep No More, Krentz lays the groundwork for what is sure to be a riveting trilogy. She makes good use of her time introducing us to the other characters in the series, Talia and Amelia, but she never gets so bogged down in details that it throws off her taut pacing.

She also infuses the mystery with enough romantic tension that I found myself cheering on Pallas and Ambrose, hoping that they would see their potential as a couple as easily as I did. After all, their bond is pretty undeniable. Still, Krentz trusts her romance writer instincts and places enough conflict in their path that it just takes the novel’s suspense to another level.

In the end, however, Krentz delivers an atmospheric, sinister, psychological thriller with enough Psycho vibes to keep readers up late into the night and enough romance to make it all worthwhile. Don’t miss this creepy good yarn that proves Krentz is still at the top of her game. This one’s a winner.