sleep savannah sleep
reviews
Sleep, Savannah, Sleep is a real treat:
well-written, engaging, with a smart,
appealing main character who has
experiences that
are just creepy
enough to be on
the edge of
possible. Jason
Crandall, mid-
thirties and newly
widowed, moves
his two children –
a belligerent teen
Alistair Cross
and a sweet little
seven-year-old –
to a new town. He meets seemingly
well-meaning people as well as a
troubled young woman, a scary
neighbor, and some sinister townsfolk.
When the young woman goes missing,
Jason starts experiencing night terrors,
hallucinations, and visions. Before
long, the reader isn’t sure which of his
new acquaintances Jason should be
trusting. This is a paranormal murder
mystery with a number of twists and
an unexpected murderer. The
www.TopShelfMagazine.net
~Rosemary Fifield, TopShelf Reviews
the visitors
CHILLING... MARION
AND JOHN COULD BE
YOUR NEIGHBORS!
A WELL-WRITTEN
TREAT... I’M HOOKED!
becomes disabled and she’s the
one who must take care of them.
This debut novel is a chilling
character study, its creepiness
coming from the fact that people
like Marion and John could be
your neighbors. I was immediately
drawn into Marion’s world where
her dead mother’s haughty voice
continues to regale her with
judgmental observations, and
strangers who show Marion the
most basic kindness populate her
daydreams of having normal
relationships and a meaningful
life. The reader sees everything
through Marion’s eyes and her
way of thinking, and it’s a
fascinating journey. While what’s
going on in the cellar may seem off-
putting, it’s handled well and does not
become the focus of the tale. Instead,
we’re with Marion as she melds her
past and present in an effort to create
her own future. And, of course, to
take care of The Visitors.
paranormal aspects build tension without
being unnecessarily horrifying, a feature
I appreciated. The book’s main appeal,
however, was a likable protagonist I
quickly came to care about. Jason has a
sense of humor. He makes mistakes. He
misses his deceased wife, but he doesn’t
dwell on it. He finds himself attracted to
women he meets and is conflicted by it.
He struggles with fathering a rebellious
son and a little girl who needs
mothering, and all the while he’s seeing
disturbing things that are scaring the
crap out of him. I plan to read Alistair
Cross’s other novels. I’m hooked.
REVIEWS
~Rosemary Fifield, TopShelf Reviews
For all of her life, Marion has been
the object of ridicule from her peers,
her older brother, John, and her
highly opinionated mother. Now a
spinster in her 50s, she lives with John
in the big old house where they grew
up. Timid and
out of touch
with the world,
she stays in the
house and does
her best not to
irritate John. But
John keeps
“visitors” in the
cellar, and while
Marion manages
Catherine Burns
to put them out
of her mind
most of the time, she can’t ignore
them forever, especially when John
TOPShelf magazine
OCTOBER2017 35