Editorial Content for Night Night, Sleep Tight
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
NIGHT NIGHT, SLEEP TIGHT will be a surprise to those who have read author Hallie Ephron’s three previous mystery and suspense novels. While she has seemed incapable of writing badly throughout her career, her latest, a mystery that takes place almost entirely over the course of six days near the close of May 1985, is far and away her best work to date. It is a confident, sure-footed period piece that will have you reading all night as you chase the twists and turns of the story to its surprising ending.
The book begins with the reader bearing witness to a murder. The victim is Arthur Unger, who has more than played out his momentary Hollywood fame as a screenwriter and is brooding about his long-ago failed marriage. His thoughts also touch briefly on an unpleasant meeting he’s just had at his home, as well as the prospect of talking to a real estate agent to put his once grand Beverly Hills house up for sale. Sadly, Arthur’s thoughts are rudely interrupted by his involuntary demise. His adult daughter, Deirdre, discovers his body in the pool the next morning. The purpose of her visit was to assist Arthur in dealing with the real estate agent and preparing the house for sale, tasks that Henry, Deirdre’s brother and Arthur’s live-in son, seems apparently incapable of performing. Instead, she soon finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation.
"NIGHT NIGHT, SLEEP TIGHT is an extremely impressive work. The plotting and character development read as if they could have been transplanted from an unpublished Raymond Chandler novel."
Arthur’s death is not the only shocking event that Deirdre experiences that morning. The other is the arrival at the house of Joelen Nichol, who was her best friend during her childhood. The last time they saw each other was in 1963. Deidre vaguely remembers her father picking her up at Joelen’s house and being involved in an automobile accident on the way home, which left Deirdre unable to walk without crutch assistance. Joelen’s stepfather was stabbed to death on the same night, an act to which Joelen confessed and was found by a coroner’s jury to be in self-defense.
In the story’s present, the two friends who had been separated by tragedy are now reunited by another. And if Deirdre ever needed a friend, it’s now. As she goes through her father’s effects, she discovers a couple of items that are linked directly to that fateful night decades before, as well as some rather disturbing items that have the potential to cast her father in a different and somewhat unfortunate light. Deirdre slowly comes to understand that everything she thought she knew about that night and her injury is wrong. Even worse is the possibility that someone is trying to set her up as her father’s murderer.
Who is the actor behind all of this? And how close is this individual to Deirdre? As the book quickly moves to its startling conclusion, it seems more and more possible that justice, delayed decades ago and in the present, ultimately will be denied.
NIGHT NIGHT, SLEEP TIGHT is an extremely impressive work. The plotting and character development read as if they could have been transplanted from an unpublished Raymond Chandler novel. The work, however, is all Ephron’s, who takes a giant step from her already exemplary prior work and achieves an entirely new level of craftsmanship.
Teaser
When Deirdre Unger arrived in Beverly Hills to help her bitter, disappointed father sell his dilapidated house, she discovers his lifeless body floating face down in the swimming pool. At first, she assumes his death was a tragic accident. But the longer she stays in town, the more she suspects that it is merely the third act in a story that has long been in the making. The sudden re-surfacing of Deirdre’s childhood best friend, Joelen Nichol, seems like more than a coincidence.
Promo
When Deirdre Unger arrived in Beverly Hills to help her bitter, disappointed father sell his dilapidated house, she discovers his lifeless body floating face down in the swimming pool. At first, she assumes his death was a tragic accident. But the longer she stays in town, the more she suspects that it is merely the third act in a story that has long been in the making. The sudden re-surfacing of Deirdre’s childhood best friend, Joelen Nichol, seems like more than a coincidence.
About the Book
From the award-winning author of THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN comes a riveting tale of domestic noir, infused with old Hollywood folklore and glamour, set in a town rife with egotism and backstabbing and where fame and infamy are often interchangeable.
Los Angeles 1985: When Deirdre Unger arrived in Beverly Hills to help her bitter, disappointed father sell his dilapidated house, she discovers his lifeless body floating face down in the swimming pool. At first, Deirdre assumes her father’s death was a tragic accident. But the longer she stays in town, the more she suspects that it is merely the third act in a story that has long been in the making.
The sudden re-surfacing of Deirdre’s childhood best friend Joelen Nichol --- daughter of the legendary star Elenor “Bunny” Nichol --- seems like more than a coincidence. Back in 1958, Joelen confessed to killing her movie star mother’s boyfriend. Deirdre happened to be at the Nichols house the night of the murder --- which was also the night she suffered a personal tragedy of her own. Could all of these events be connected?
Her search to find answers forces Deirdre to confront a truth she has long refused to believe: beneath the slick veneer of Beverly Hills lie secrets that someone will kill to keep buried.
