Dr. James Richardson is a promising young psychiatrist who has just landed what seems to be a dream job for someone in his position. Dr. Hugh Maitland has decided to take James under his wing and hires him to run the reclusive Wyldehope Hall located deep in Suffolk. This is a real coup for someone in James' place. He happily accepts the post and moves into his apartment located in the hospital.

One of James' responsibilities is to monitor Dr. Maitland's controversial project of sleep therapy patients. It is a potentially dangerous treatment but could mean professional accolades for both doctors if it is successful. However, from the first moment that James sets foot in the Sleep Room, he is filled with a sort dread and wonders early on if this is something that is helpful or harmful for the six women involved.

Soon odd things begin to happen at Wyldehope. These are things that make no sense and cannot be explained by logical means. More and more, James is left to wonder why his predecessor left so suddenly and under such odd circumstances. The longer he stays the more James is exposed to what seem to be supernatural events. Eventually, he begins to wonder whether this is such an amazing position after all. But whatever is haunting James seems reluctant to let him leave.

THE SLEEP ROOM is an engrossing tale of a man's fight for his career as well as his sanity. The author, F. R. Tallis, is also Frank Tallis who has written many award winning books in the past and he certainly does not disappoint in THE SLEEP ROOM. Even though it is set in the mid to late 1950s, this book is part steam punk and part ghost story. I found myself to be very caught up in the plot and very concerned for James Richardson's safety as well as being greatly curious about what was really going on with those patients in THE SLEEP ROOM.

The really jarring factor about THE SLEEP ROOM is that just when you think you know what is happening and what has happened, you find yourself taking a turn so twisted that you are still trying to figure out what was real and what was not. Of course, this only makes THE SLEEP ROOM that much more fun! It may take more than one reading before you completely understand it all, but it is well worth the effort because you will totally give yourself over to this story.

Book Summary

When promising young psychiatrist James Richards is offered the job opportunity of a lifetime by the charismatic Dr. Hugh Maitland, he is thrilled. Setting off to take up his post at Wyldehope Hall in deepest Suffolk, Richardson doesn’t look back. One of his tasks is to manage Maitland’s most controversial project—a pioneering therapy in which extremely disturbed patients are kept asleep for months. If this radically and potentially dangerous procedure is successful, it could mean professional glory for both doctors.

As Richardson settles into his new life, he begins to sense something uncanny about the sleeping patients—six women, forsaken by society. Why is Maitland unwilling to discuss their past lives? Why is the trainee nurse so on edge when she spends nights alone with them? And what can it mean when all the sleepers start dreaming at the same time? In this atmospheric reinvention of the ghost story, Richardson finds himself questioning everything he knows about the human mind, as he attempts to uncover the shocking secrets of the Sleep Room . . .