The Sleepwalkers
by Scarlett Thomas
Scribner
Evelyn and Richard escape from the chaos of their wedding to a Greek Island but, because Richard’s mother’s gift of a honeymoon suite at an expensive villa on the island is not until the following week, they book into a cheaper place near the beach.
It is the end of September and nearing the end of the holiday season, before the island is wracked with storms and the beach disappears. Richard’s school friend Paul and his wife Beth spend the first week with them before departing from the island when the newlyweds go to Villa Rosa.
Right from the beginning of their stay at Villa Rosa, readers know that, although the island is a tropical paradise, there are dastardly happenings that Richard and Evelyn get roped into.
We know this because the book opens with Evelyn writing a letter to her husband saying that she intends to walk the seven miles to the airport and take the first plane off the island, intending never to see her husband again.
The weather changes, storms approach and the dread of what must have happened for Evelyn to take such drastic action builds. Also, the shadow of what happened at the same time the year previously is ever-present.
Isabella, the owner of Villa Rosa, tells a story about a honeymooning couple who stayed at the hotel the year before and drowned in a tragic accident when one of them ventured into the water while sleepwalking and the other tried to rescue. Isabella is even visited by a Hollywood director who is interested in making a film of the incident.
During her stay, Evelyn had been smart enough to get glimpses of what was really going on behind the facade of the tropical paradise. It is when the stories behind these flashes of information are revealed, that the reader finds themselves in the midst of a modern day gothic horror.
Lezly Herbert
