Jayne Ann Krentz is a master at writing suspenseful mysteries that, at their core, are also very much about attraction and romance. SLEEP NO MORE, which kicks off her Lost Night Files trilogy, does not disappoint.

Interestingly, the three women who will be the main characters in this series --- Pallas Llewellyn, Talia March and Amelia Rivers --- met six months prior to the beginning of SLEEP NO MORE. Indeed, there was a cataclysmic event that brought them together and bonded them as friends and partners in a new joint enterprise, a podcast appropriately called “Lost Night Files.” Pallis, Talia and Amelia lost their memory of a single night they spent together at an abandoned hotel in the California desert in Lucent Springs. Since their "lost night," they have experienced heightened paranormal abilities.

"The mystery has equal weight with the romance, but they parallel each other smoothly and effectively. Readers will anticipate getting to know Talia and Amelia in the next two installments of this very promising trilogy."

When the women are contacted by writer Ambrose Drake about an abandoned insane asylum and a missing person, which he thinks would make a good podcast episode, Pallas arranges to meet him there. She can sense emotions and understand them after drawing them on a sketch pad that she is never without. It turns out that Ambrose can see auras on people showing their emotions and can sense what they will be doing in the immediate future. Unfortunately, he spent a night at a sleep clinic in Carnelian, where he is pretty sure he witnessed a murder. Since then, he has been unable to sleep soundly; he sleepwalks and has found himself in dangerous situations. As a result, he has not allowed himself to sleep deeply.

It quickly becomes apparent that Ambrose and Pallas feel a connection. But Pallas, especially, is reluctant to allow those feelings to surface as she has not been completely forthcoming to Ambrose about the extent of her abilities.

There are numerous bad guys, multiple red herrings and a conspiracy that encompasses much more than just what is happening at Carnelian College. There, a mysterious benefactor has donated huge amounts of money with the stipulation that a sleep clinic be established on campus --- the same clinic where Ambrose is certain he was drugged and saw a homicide. Will the pair be able to get to the bottom of the mystery before they suffer the same fate as those who have disappeared?

Readers will enjoy Krentz's trademark humor as Pallas clumsily stumbles around, avoiding the "hot spots" she senses where there were episodes of heightened emotions (like murder). We also appreciate Ambrose's humility. When he tells people he's an author, they respond by saying they’ve never heard of him. He says, "Yeah, I get that a lot." In reality, Ambrose has published two books and is under contract for a third. But because of his sleep problems and anxiety, he's been unable to write it.

The mystery has equal weight with the romance, but they parallel each other smoothly and effectively. Readers will anticipate getting to know Talia and Amelia in the next two installments of this very promising trilogy.