As her fortieth birthday approaches, Emma Bournett Averell is having a hard time sleeping.  Emma is afraid she will slip into the madness that claimed her mother at the same age and on the same day.  As she navigates the days before her birthday, her world starts falling apart, and Emma doesn’t know if she should fear herself or someone else in Sarah Pinborough’s latest thriller INSOMNIA.

Emma has a great life and family.  She is a high-powered attorney on the brink of making partner.  Her handsome husband, Robert, is a stay-at-home dad to their two beautiful children.  Yet as Emma’s birthday approaches, she starts to dwell on her difficult childhood and the horrific act her mother committed on her fortieth birthday.  When Emma’s older sister Phoebe makes a surprise visit, she asks Emma to visit their mother in the hospital.  Emma is surprised and reluctant.  Phoebe always hated their mother and Emma hasn’t seen her mother in thirty-five years.  Patricia Bournett has been kept in an institution since her psychotic break.  But Phoebe is acting strangely and so is Emma’s son, who is drawing frightening pictures of his Mummy.  When Emma’s car is vandalized and a nasty note is left for her, Emma starts to wonder who has it out for her.  Is it a client’s unhappy spouse, her sister, or is it someone more sinister who has been waiting on the sidelines for revenge?

As Emma’s life and relationships start falling apart, Emma finds herself unable to sleep.  She’s losing time and doing strange things in the night.  She’s disheveled and making mistakes at work.  Things go from bad to worse and Emma wonders if she is a danger to her family.  Is she really capable of hurting others or is someone else trying to convince her she’s slowly going mad?

INSOMNIA is a harrowing thriller with an unreliable narrator and a cast of characters that will keep you guessing.  You’ll think you have it figured out and then a new revelation comes to light.  The writing style is taut and suspenseful and the story has a unique premise.   Emma is maddening at times as her paranoia pushes her further and further away from her family.  The pace slows in the middle and can feel repetitive, but if you stick with the story, you’ll enjoy the ending and how certain events are related.  This is a haunting and eerie psychological thriller that will have you wondering what really happens to the sanity of someone facing the dark hours of too many sleepless nights?

Book Summary