While You Were Sleeping by Kathryn Croft #Review

Book description

You wake up to find the man beside you is dead.
He is not your husband. This is not your bed.
What do you do?

Tara Logan lives a quiet life with her husband, Noah, and two children, teenager Rosie and eleven-year-old Spencer.

But her peace is shattered when she wakes in her neighbour Lee’s bed, with no memory of how she got there or what happened between them.
And worse – he has been stabbed to death.

Convinced she didn’t kill Lee, Tara stays silent, fearing the truth will rip her family apart.

But as her daughter spirals out of control, and her husband becomes increasingly distant, Tara soon realises that someone in her life knows what really happened to Lee. She must get to the truth before they do.

Tara made a mistake … but will one night cost her everything?

While You Were Sleeping is the latest book by Kathryn Croft, and I couldn’t wait to get my grubby paws on an ARC, as I really enjoyed the authors previous books. The book description alone piqued my interest, and the prologue certainly intrigued me. Tara Logan’s life is pretty damn average, that is until one morning she wakes up and everything changes, she not only wakes up in her neighbour Lee’s bed, but he’s also very much dead, to add to her misery not only has he been stabbed but Tara has no memory of what happened between them. What follows an intriguing tale of lies and betrayal.

This is one of those books where it’s impossible to trust any of the characters, each and everyone of them is lying for one reason or another, which made for an unreliable read as it was difficult to establish which of the characters was telling the truth. A daughter Rosie who has emotional problems, and a history of stalking, a husband who had an affair and lied, a sister who appears to have the perfect life all come under suspicion. The family are certainly a dysfunctional family, and between them they create one tangled web, which begs the question how well do you know anyone? A question that will haunt Tara throughout While You Were Sleeping.

The story is told from Tara’s point of view her confusion, fear and need to protect her family were tangible throughout the story and added suspense to the plot. If I’m honest I struggled with the character Rosie (Tara’s daughter), every time she opened her mouth lies would come tumbling out, in the end I found her really irritating and just wanted to give her a good shake, in my opinion her character lacked depth and I found her obnoxious, but if this is what the author intended she certainly manages it with aplomb.

The characters constantly change their stories throughout While You Were Sleeping, so it’s difficult to second guess where the plot is heading, which always adds to my enjoyment of a book. There is a strong sense of foreboding throughout the story, and as more characters are added to the the list of suspects I did find myself wondering if there were a few too many suspects, the author would have been better concentrating on a smaller cast. Everyone of the characters seems to be lying, to what extent and why are gradually uncovered layer by layer.

Unfortunately there were some parts of the plot I found to be unbelievable and far fetched, which slightly spoilt the story for me, Tara’s relationship with the detective running the murder enquiry and the way he dealt with the case certainly didn’t seem at all credible, as did the lack of forensics . In the authors defence she has written an intriguing tale with some red herrings, which I’m sure many readers will enjoy. Katherine Croft manages to keep the reader in the dark until the last few chapters, and here’s where I admit I would never have guessed the ending. All in all While You Were Sleeping was an enjoyable read, but for me some of the unbelievable events spoilt it.

3.5 out of 5

Print Length: 296 pages

Publisher: Bookouture (16 Nov. 2016)