"Before I Go To Sleep" by S.J. Watson

(Harper, Jun. 14, 2011, 368 pp., $18.99, ISBN:9780062060556 , HC, Adult)

Christine wakes up each morning in a strange house in London with no memory of how she got there and who is sleeping next to her. She is even more shocked when she looks in the mirror and sees herself some twenty years older than expected. A phone call from a mysterious doctor leads her to a journal buried deep within her closet. Every day she reads the journal to find out who she is, and every day she must add everything she learns before falling asleep and forgetting it all. Each day uncovers new memories of friends, family, and her husband... but what accident could have caused such a tramatic brain injury? And what does it have to do with the strange man in her bed each morning?

I was skeptical reading the synopsis of Steven J. Watson's Before I Go To Sleep. I loved the plot the first time when it was a movie called Memento by director Christopher Nolan. But I'm a sucker for psychological suspense a la' Ruth Rendell, so I picked up a copy.

The best thing about Watson's story, and the most important element by my standards, is his ability to keep the reader guessing. Nothing ruins a book more than a predictable plot twist. Watson did a great job of adding bits and pieces of the final puzzle in a way that doesn't spoil the outcome. Christine's illness is believable, and her painful recovery is seemless. Not only was the ending an unexpected twist on a commonly used finale, it ties up loose ends without fully solving the greater mystery at large - Christine's illness.

When Watson writes his next story (and I hope he publishes another soon), my only request is to edit the main character's inside voice. We understand the anxiety and desperation that Christine feels - but we need not be reminded every page. Trust the reader to feel the tension, a great writer can create suspense without ever having to say Boo!


Original Post: http://www.rtbookreviews.com/rt-daily-blog/million-dollar-thriller-debut-it-worth-it