The Sleepwalkers

February 5, 2024
A couple’s five-year relationship implodes during their Greek island honeymoon in this gonzo epistolary thriller from Thomas (Oligarchy). The action kicks off with a furious, discursive letter from Evelyn “Evie” Masters to her new husband, Richard Lawson, ending their two-week marriage. Evie airs a litany of grievances, among them Richard’s failure to rebuff the advances of their hotel’s proprietress, Isabella. Evie also indicates that she senses something fishy about Isabella’s story regarding two prior guests, now known by locals as “the sleepwalkers,” who supposedly strode into the ocean one night and drowned. The missive, which ends mid-sentence, is followed by an equally scathing, bombshell-laden letter to her from Richard, who writes that he awoke in their hotel room to find Evie gone “without even leaving a note, as usual.” Additional letters and assorted ephemera (including audio transcripts, hotel guestbook pages, and notes scribbled on receipts) flesh out a dark mystery related to the eponymous “sleepwalkers” that emerges from the correspondence’s periphery before gradually taking center stage. Readers seeking definitive answers may be left wanting, but Thomas cleverly utilizes structure and style to tell a multifaceted tale stocked with boldly drawn, irreparably damaged characters. It’s a smart and soapy delight. Agent: Dan Mandel, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc.

Starred review from February 1, 2024
The author of Oligarchy (2020) and The Seed Collectors (2016) writes something like a thriller. The epistolary novel is kind of a tough sell these days. Writing a narrative in letters might have given Samuel Richardson license to let his characters speak in candid, informal ways that were otherwise inaccessible, but his innovations are so much a part of Anglophone literature now that his runaway bestsellers Pamela and Clarissa mostly persist as punishment for English majors. That said, Thomas is nothing if not adventurous. In her latest novel, she dares to ask the reader for willing suspension of disbelief as she composes a novel from lengthy confessions written by a husband and a wife--with a few other documents tossed into the mix. Evelyn and Richard are honeymooning at a Greek resort that is famous both for its exclusivity and for the fact that it was the last stop for a couple that drowned together in the sea--the sleepwalkers of the title. The narrative begins in a letter Evelyn is writing to Richard, and two things are immediately clear: She and her new husband lightly despise each other, and isolated Villa Rosa is a strange and possibly dangerous place. Fans of Gothic literature are likely to settle in comfortably right away. For other readers, Evelyn's voice should be compelling enough to let them forget that they're reading a letter--a very long letter, crafted by hand, during one night--and immerse themselves in the story that Evelyn is telling. Thomas also lets Richard have his say, his account serving as a counterpoint to Evelyn's. This is a novel about secrets, family curses, and the past erupting into the present: all gothic tropes. But Thomas' concerns extend beyond her main characters; refugees, sex workers, and victims of human trafficking exist in the background and sometimes emerge as full characters. Another difficult-to-classify novel from a seemingly fearless writer.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from February 15, 2024
Thomas' latest starts innocuously enough, with new wife Evelyn penning a letter to her husband Richard on their honeymoon. They've traveled to Villa Rosa on a Greek island, the trip a gift (albeit an inconveniently scheduled one) from Richard's mother. The villa has become famous because of the romanticized deaths of a couple staying there the year before, dubbed the Sleepwalkers after the husband wandered out to the sea one night, with his wife following him, and both drowned. When Evelyn and Richard check in, Evelyn is put off by the villa's owner, Isabella, who is cold and unfriendly to Evelyn even as she flirts with Richard. Richard is curt with Evelyn when she complains about Isabella's behavior, accusing her of overreacting. But Evelyn and Richard's problems are much bigger than Isabella and other increasingly menacing elements at Villa Rosa. Their letters to each other contain shocking revelations, which Thomas unspools masterfully, expertly building tension and jolting the reader in equal measure. Fans of literary fiction and thrillers will find much to appreciate here, with the slow burn of the story's beginning paying off exponentially once all the cards are turned over. A straight-up winner.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.