This is an intricately plotted psychological suspense with complex characters, all of which have noir traits. The story builds from several seemingly unrelated sub-plots into a rich tapestry of darkness.

The characters are hard to like, but it's difficult not to sympathise with the main protagonist at some points in the story. The detailed plot is a challenging read, but the slow and somewhat disparate beginning clarifies and intensifies as the story progresses. The use of sensory imagery makes this a vivid reading experience.

I received a copy of this book from Quercus Books via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Sleepless by Romy Hausmann is the follow up to the debut novel Dear Child which I really enjoyed, so I was excited to read this new release. We are introduced to a number of narrators, one unnamed, which is not a major issue. The story unfolds in both a current and a prior timeline; an extra-marital liaison and how it develops is very intriguing as is the story of Nadja who works in a lawyer's practice and is told in the present. The link between the narratives becomes clear towards the end and in itself is believable.

I found one or two elements of the plotting a bit of a stretch and ultimately the actions of one of the characters not entirely in keeping with the behaviour pattern but maybe that was the twist?

Overall I enjoyed Sleepless but was a bit disappointed with the concluding chapters of the book.

I loved Hausmann’s previous book, Dear Child, so was really excited to read this one and to be gifted a copy by @quercusbooks and I wasn’t disappointed. Haussmann has written another dark and twisted thriller, complex and full of layers, and for me a real page turner.

It tells the story of Nadja who, convicted of a terrible crime in her childhood, is now trying to rebuild her life and is leading a seemingly quiet existence working in a law firm. However, when her boss’s wife murders her lover, Nadja is persuaded to help her her dispose of the body and suddenly things become very complicated.

The book does take a little while to get in to - there are three seemingly disparate threads, it jumps from past to present and at times it all feels a little random. But Hausmann’s skill as a writer means it is well worth sticking with it as once the stories begin to come together she drip feeds snippets of information that keeps the reader guessing.The pace of the book gradually increases, as does the tension and I found myself glued to the book, turning the pages desperate to find out exactly what had happened as yet more twists were thrown in.

Hausmann has created a fascinating cast of characters, none of them entirely likeable and all seemingly with a dark side to them. Nadja is intriguing and complex, at times frustrating in her weakness and her poor decision making, but as the story unfolds it is hard not to root for her to find a way out of the nightmare situation she finds herself in.

If you like your thrillers dark, then this is certainly one I would recommend.and confirms Hausmann’s storytelling skill and status as an author who is now a must read for me.

My thanks to Quercus Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Sleepless’ by Romy Hausmann in exchange for an honest review. This novel was originally published as ‘Marta schläft’ in Germany, 2020 and translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch.

I had enjoyed Romy Hausmann’s 2020 debut thriller, ‘Dear Child’ and so was pleased to be invited by Quercus Books to receive a review copy of her second thriller and to take part in a blog blast on social media.

As for the plot, I not only want to avoid spoilers but given its complexity it isn’t an easy novel to summarise. The main protagonist is Nadja Kulka, who has for some years been working for a Berlin law firm. She now lives a quiet life though in 1999, when she was fifteen, she was sent to prison for some years. Following her release she sought to rebuild her life.

When Nadja first started working at Abramczyk & von Hoven, she was very insecure but her beautiful, free-spirited co-worker Laura Brehme reached out and helped her gain confidence. Not long after this Laura married Nadja’s boss, Herr Gero von Hoven.

It’s been years since Nadja has seen Laura, but she turns up at the end of a work day begging for Nadja’s help saying that she has committed a terrible crime. Due to their earlier friendship, Nadja feels compelled to assist her.

This plot unfolds quite slowly and does require a close reading as Romy Hausmann develops several plot threads and characters across different timelines. Towards the end the action does pick up and it became a gripping page-turner. I certainly felt that it delivered in terms of twists and revelations and that its various threads were brought skilfully together.

Overall, I found ‘Sleepless’ a highly satisfying European crime thriller.

This turned out to be a very good thriller, but it took me ages to get into. One big problem, was that I was only reading in short bursts, and I could not get the complicated structure (multiple time-lines, two main story threads, back story, letters and numerous characters) straight in my head. Another problem was that I had not read the blurb before starting it. However, once I settled down and committed myself to some serious reading time, it all came together.
That is not to say, that there were not some major twists and turns that I did not see coming. None of the characters are black or white, purely good or evil. There is a lot of grey – especially slate-grey. Often someone is introduced, you make a snap judgement (obviously a psychopath, murderer, liar, abuser, unwitting innocent ...) only to be proven wrong (or at least wrong in the given case).
The writing is very good, and paints a very tense, worrying atmosphere. At the beginning, Nadja is fleeing someone (who? why?) and her extreme fear is palpable. Nadja seems frightened of her own shadow, and has clearly suffered some great trauma in the past. From the letter right at the start (did she write it? And to whom?) the writer sees their death approaching:
“It’s over my angel. Today I am going to die. Just like her”
At work, Nadja is an innocuous grey mouse, that few people take note of. She appears to have low self-esteem, and to be constantly afraid:
“Looks from strangers that penetrate my skin all the way to the slate-grey insides. The fear that they can see my past like a suppurating rash right in the middle of my face.

There are broken marriages. Not bad marriages – just ones where the spark has gone, leading to adultery. There is family breakdown and family loyalty. And there are murders. In only one case is the perpetrator clear, though the police seem convinced they have their villain.
There were a few things I was not altogether happy about. Although the Nelly strand did eventually fit into the overall pattern, I felt that it could have been omitted without damaging the story arc. None of the other characters would have acted differently if Nelly etc had not existed. Likewise, the epilogue was not needed at all.
Apart from that, and my initial confusion, I did really enjoy this book, and would recommend it to anyone who appreciates a well-written twisty-turny thriller with red herrings and surprises galore.
I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and not influenced by either the author or publisher.

This definitely requires some concentration especially in the earlier part. There are two (apparently) separate storylines and a series of letters to contend with. If you can stick with it, it does all fall into place. Nadja is, to say the least, an interesting main character and I did feel some sympathy for her and the situation she is caught up in. This is so complex that it is probably best read over a short period of time when you can still recall details of what you’ve read before. This is a cleverly constructed plot and seems to have translated well. It was a bit slow going for me in the first half but definitely picked up towards the end.

Sleepless is an interesting, gritty thriller. I loved Dear Child, Romy’s other novel, so I had very high expectations for this novel. It took me a while to get properly into the story – the first third of the book was a little bewildering as the reader meets lots of different, seemingly unconnected, characters and storylines, and I was desperately trying to work out how they all fit in. But my main advice would be to sit back and enjoy the ride; don’t overthink it. Keep on reading and you’ll find yourself completely sucked in as you start to realise that not everyone is as they seem…!

A lot of this novel made me consider how someone’s past can affect their future so deeply, and whether people can really change. The main character Nadja was convicted for a very serious crime as a child, and is living in fear of her past being ‘discovered’ as an adult. The novel jumps from past to present as we start to unfurl what really happened back then, and how this past life is getting Nadja tangled up in something very serious without her even realising…

There are surprises in this novel, and it’s very readable. Although not an easy read, as you need to try and keep track of who people are and what’s going on, I found myself getting lost in the action, and the way that different threads came together at the end was an extra bonus as it all became clear (or clear-ish – not sure I grasped everything!).

This novel does a great job of really inflicting a sense of unease and atmosphere, and I loved that the characters were flawed – no one was perfect. I really enjoyed this fast-paced thriller and would definitely read more of Romy’s novels.

This was an interesting take on an interesting premise!
The main storyline hooked me in straight away and I was enjoying seeing how it would progress through the book.
The side story, and with the different timelines, was a little challenging at first but when I progressed through the book I loved the way it has all fitted together!
In my opinion, if a book has 2 storylines and or timelines, the reader should be fed small clues to keep them engaged and help them understand the connections, and this wasn't often enough for my liking but it was a well executed idea
I loved Dear Child, and although this didn't feel as much of the 'wow factor, it was enjoyable, and I can't wait to see what Hausmann comes out with next.

Wow what a scheming little plot we have here! Very well thought out but play close attention.

Poor Nadja is being played for a fool in this story. She helps Laura, her boss'wife, to hide a body but then the boss/husband becomes involved so who does Laura choose to go with? Lots of twists and turns in the storyline

I think I read that this book is a sequel to "Dear Child" but I didn't find any links from the first book. Maybe they just meant "Sleepless" is the second book by Romy Hausmann.

Sleepless is a blood-curdling psychological thriller about guilt, retribution and the question of whether a convicted offender should ever really be released. Nadja Kulka is only fifteen when she is convicted of a brutal and unspeakably cruel crime. The sentence is seven years in prison. But even prior to this, Nadja has already been through a lot in her young life, which all starts with a mother who hardly pays attention to Nadja and her brother Janek. When she is released from imprisonment, she has become a vulnerable and unstable young woman and wants nothing more than to live a normal life with no trouble. Yet she manages to get a job at a law firm. She frantically tries to control her panic attacks and attends therapy. However, her valiant efforts to make something of her life are shattered by a murder. Nadja was nearby and that is sufficient reason for the police to consider her a suspect. Does she have anything to do with the murder or was she just trying to help her friend Laura with her problem? The perpetrator tries to mislead the police by spreading false evidence: that of the young, unstable woman who works as an assistant at a law firm. Because Nadja's past makes her the perfect victim and the perfect murderer.

Sleepless is a compulsive, high-octane psychological thriller. The construction is clever and intelligently put together, although at the same time this requires the necessary concentration from the reader because Hausmann certainly does not have a foot on the brakes. Moreover, the author jumps smoothly from present to past. This construction is thoroughly captivating, but it does mean that you have to 'stay with it' in order not to lose the thread. There's a deep sense of mystery throughout as not all of Nadja’s past is elucidated upon immediately but there is enough suspense and palpable tension to keep you feverishly turning the pages to discover exactly what has happened. It's fast-paced and Nadja's life, the murder and what happens next are revealed in a fascinating and engrossing way. This is one for those that enjoy complex, convoluted stories and tales that get into your psyche and under your skin until you can't stop thinking about them and the cast of characters, especially Nadja, is beautifully painted with flawed individuals with dark, chilling sides to them. An addictive story that at its heart is about the sacrifices we make on our journey. Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed Hausman's previous novel Dear Child and Sleepless is equally good. Nadja, a number of years ago, was convicted of a violent crime. She is now living a quiet life and keeping herself to herself until she becomes involved in an awful situation that was not of her making. Her trust in a friend is terribly abused and Nadja is embroiled in crime and deception.

This is a very clever book which has three distinct threads at the outset; Nadja's story, an extramarital affair and a series of anonymous letters. These are expertly drawn together as the plot progresses.

The action starts quite slowly but the pace gradually increases alongside the tension and a struggle for survival. It is a complex and suspenseful journey full of clever twists.

This was a compelling, very well written and translated, read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This read requires a little grit and determination to stay in the loop. It’s twisty, complicated and jumps back and forth through time frequently.

The story line is split into three parts, which gets a little confusing if you loose concentration. I did have to re-read sections a couple of times so it made sense.

It did however all come together (although not in the way I had imagined), so it’s worth sticking around for.

I have to say the book didn’t blow me away but this might be more due to my head space at the time of reading and not being able to follow it as easily as I’d like. I did enjoy the writing and I think if I gave it more attention I might have appreciated it a little more.

I felt connected/invested in the characters and would love to have learnt more about Laura in particular. I did feel that one story line could have been enough for me in this instance OR a longer book to explore some of the characters a little more.

I would recommend this book if your after something a little different but not if your expecting a classic fast/paced thriller.

This is an intriguing multi layer multi timeline novel. It initially feels like 3 separate stories but they eventually cleverly merge and it all comes together nicely.

The main character and storyline is Nadja. We meet her at a petrol station after ‘the event’ and en route to a weekend trip. She is extremely on edge and keeps checking if she is being followed. She has a panic attack and is helped by the shop owners.
Nadja is a lawyer, but as a teenager she was sent to prison in Poland for the murder of her abusive uncaring mother she was told to call Marta not mother.
Now living in Berlin, and as a result of her past, she is socially awkward and naive and has no friends. The only friend she had, whom she hasn’t seen for years, is married to her boss and turns up out of the blue one day to ask for help with something very bad which she has done. Gullible Nadja who would do anything for Laura, falls hook, line and sinker into a plot to dispose of the evidence of Laura’s crime. And unbeknown to her she is to set up someone to take the blame.

The second storyline involves a young girl, Nelly, who is having an affair with a married man. They arrange to meet one day at their usual motel but Nelly never appears. When her body is found not far away from the motel her married lover, Paul, is arrested for her murder.

The third storyline is a series of letters written by an initially unknown author to an unknown recipient but which appear to have never been sent.

The timelines jump back and forth quite frequently making it rather difficult to keep track of what exactly is happening
It is worth persevering with the complicated plot to reach the end which ties everything together nicely. I would recommend having three sheets of paper to jot down notes from each storyline as you read in order to get it clear in your mind. I had to start the book twice but when I did this everything made sense.

Originally written in German, it has been translated into English extremely well and is a great twisty thriller but you will need to concentrate!

Like a football match I found Sleepless to be a book of two halves - well two-thirds and one-third. For much of the book it felt to me as if it had as much cheerfulness as a Scandinavian novel and the pace was slow as a result of very little happening. Of course, other readers will not take this view. There is no real flow to the book as the chapters are a mix of now and two or three different time periods. Intermixed in this are a series of letters that you think you understand but not entirely certain. Naturally as the book progresses you do find out the circumstances.
But ..... (OK I know you shouldn't start a sentence with a conjunction!) the book starts to take off with action and clever twists so you are never certain how it is going to finish. For me the book just gets better and better and I even found the epilogue fulfilling and understandable.
So a really good second part of the book and if you are a reader like me then don't give up - it is worth it

The beginning of this book is intriguing, and I couldn’t wait to read on. There were so many aspects of Sleepless that I really enjoyed, but somehow the story didn’t quite come together for me. I became a little confused with the different narratives in different timelines to begin with—and the fact that both protagonists were women with names beginning with the same letter (Nadja and Nelly) didn’t help. I did enjoy the excerpts from a series of letters that were never sent, although at first I had no idea which of the women had written them, nor to whom. I enjoyed how the strands eventually all came together, but I never quite believed in the story.
What I did find fascinating was how easy it is for lawyers to create different stories around crime scenes to protect the guilty. The writing is superb (and credit must go to the excellent translation by Jamie Bulloch). The fact that Hausmann has worked in film and television shines through as the story is very graphic and I could see it would make a great movie.
I really wanted to love this book as I thought her debut, Dear Child , was excellent and I haven’t stopped raving about it. Maybe my expectations for her second novel were simply too high, and I was left with mixed feelings.

This is a clever, multilayered and very twisty thriller that starts off as a slow boiler but transforms into a creepy and intense struggle for survival.

Initially there are three distinct threads that don't obviously intersect, two featuring crimes and the third a series of letters by an unknown author. In the main thread, a young Polish woman, Nadja Kulka, gets caught up in a bizarre game to help a friend hide a crime. Nadja had an abusive childhood and was jailed for killing her mother when she was a teenager. After her release from prison, her lawyer helped her find a job in a law firm in Berlin where no one knows her past history, but her traumatic past has left her anxious, socially awkward and easily manipulated. In the minor thread, a young woman having an affair is found dead in the woods and it's only later that this will slot into the main story, as well as bring into focus the relevance of the letters.

It takes a talented writer to make us care about what happens to a weak and prickly character like Nadja but Hausmann manages to do just that. Nadja is not someone who makes friends easily and her 'friend' Laura is a selfish manipulator. Her husband, Gero van Hoven is a ruthless lawyer out for revenge and together Gero and Laura set out to abuse Nadja’s naivety and trusting nature. After the build-up to set the scene, the story becomes dark and twisted and makes for a very compelling read. Smoothly translated from the original German, the writing flows effortlessly and it's well worth the effort of untangling the complex threat to get to the finale.

I was very excited to read Sleepless because I have Dear Child on my bookshelf and although I’ve not read it yet, I’ve heard nothing but good things about it so I was also expecting magic from the author’s newest book but unfortunately it did not do it for me at all.

While I did finish the book, it took me 7 days to get through it (this is an absolute age for me, I am normally a speedy reader) and I struggled for motivation to keep picking it up. As with most books that fall flat for me, the plot sounded super intriguing but it just ended up being confusing and where there had potential to be really suspenseful moments, the story was so drawn out, any tension was lost. There are two stories being told in this book, over two different timelines. Usually I enjoy dual storylines but it just didn’t work here - the more I read, the more baffled I became with who was who and what was happening. I didn’t feel that the stories were tied up or concluded either and I struggled to find a connection between them. The last couple of chapters were much better and more fast-paced but overall, I didn’t enjoy this book sadly. I still have high hopes for Dear Child though!

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A twisty psychological thriller which keeps you guessing throughout.The story unfolds via multiple points of view, and timelines, making the reading experience feel a little disjointed at times but it's intriguing enough to keep the reader interested.

I loved the author’s previous book, Dear Child, which is why I chose to read this novel. This book is good, but not as good as Dear Child.

The main character, Nadja Kulka, had a terrible childhood. Nothing but an inconvenience to her mother, she was neglected and unloved until her brother, Janek, was born, giving her a reason to live and love. The death of her mother resulted in Nadja being convicted of the murder, despite Nadja’s protestations to the fact. Following her release, she is given a new life with a job and a flat. However, the confident and bolshy child has grown into a timid and frightened woman.

Without giving the plot away, Nadja is dragged into a scheme which she thinks is to help a friend, but ends up at risk of losing her life.

There is a side story about a young woman who gets murdered, with her married lover being convicted of the crime. I’ll be honest, it didn’t add or bring anything to the story.

About 60% through, I felt the book started to get going, however, it didn’t really grab me the same way as Dear Child and I felt let down because of this. However, it is a solid thriller and if you have never read Hausmann before, you could well love this book!

I tend to race through thrillers, particularly very dark ones, because I simply have to have answers. The cover definitely caught my interest and I’ve heard really good things about Romy Hausmann’s debut Dear Child, so I was looking forward to diving into it.

As a teenager, Nadja Kulka was convicted of a horrific crime but now she is determined to live a normal life. When a murder occurs in a house deep in the woods, Nadja’s past makes her the perfect scapegoat.

Nadja is still trying to make amends for what happened when she was younger. She writes letters to her younger brother who she hasn’t seen since it happened, trying her best to explain the events of that night and the guilt that she is saddled with. These thoughts are a comfort to her and a way of her trying to lessen the severity of what she’s done. I really wasn’t sure whether Nadja had really murdered her mother Marta or not. At times, it felt like she wasn’t even sure herself. It actually wasn’t until the very end that everything was cleared up, so there was a lot of guessing what was real and what wasn’t for most of the book.

There is another storyline running alongside Nadja’s, which is loosely intertwined with the main plot. A young woman’s body is found at the bottom of a hill and her older lover is the main suspect. As this is a case being handled by the law firm that Nadja works for, we get a little bit of insight into this too. However, it took a long time for me to connect the threads together and I spent most of the book wondering why these stories were in the same novel. It started to make a bit of sense eventually but I really wasn’t very invested in this part of the story at all.

Nadja does a lot of self-soothing. She is genuinely innocent of this latest murder and has somehow found herself helping a friend clean it up. There is a twist that comes towards the end of the book where this friendship is turned on its head and a very strange, dark game begins. I wasn’t sure how believable this really was and I think that’s when I started to zone out while reading. However, I have a feeling that it might translate better on screen. I didn’t see the sudden turn coming and it may have been because there weren’t the subtle clues that you can sometimes read in facial expressions and tones of voice.

There is some beautiful writing in this book and Hausmann seems to be very good at creating very visceral metaphors. Describing grief as a vicious animal isn’t a particularly common comparison but I’m sure that there are people who have experienced deep, heartbreaking grief who would agree with it. I can’t read ‘it pushes my ribs apart and reaches right into my open chest to squash my heart like an old sponge’ without physically flinching and that’s a sign of good, immersive writing!

Sleepless is a confusing, disjointed narrative that I couldn’t read huge chunks of at a time because it took a lot of brain power. All of the characters were thoroughly unlikeable and very morally ambiguous, so I couldn’t even really bring myself to root for anyone, which caused my interest to wane more. It’s a shame because I enjoyed the writing in parts but it wasn’t as pulse-racing as I wanted it to be. I can see it being a good Netflix Original film though and I think I’d probably digest it better in that format.