Review ~ Sleepwalker by Wendy Corsi Staub

Goodreads Synopsis ~
Ten years after the catastrophe, a great fallen city has risen again. Ten years after, a horror begins anew . . . or never truly ended.

The nightmare of 9/11 is a distant but still painful memory for Allison Taylor MacKenna--now married to Mack and living in a quiet Westchester suburb. She has moved on with her life ten years after barely escaping death at the hands of New York's Nightwatcher serial killer. The monster is dead, having recently committed suicide in his prison cell, but something is terribly wrong. Mack has started sleepwalking, with no recollection of where his nighttime excursions are taking him. And here, north of the city, more women are being savagely murdered, their bodies bearing the Nightwatcher's unmistakable signature.

Suddenly Allison must confront a devastating truth: her life is in jeopardy once again . . . and quite possibly from the man she trusts and loves.

My Review ~
I need to be careful here because for this book, it would be a really good idea to read Nightwatcher first.  Please forgive me if my review contains any spoilers, this is going be really hard to write.

The question is left after the monster from Nightwatcher commits suicide as to whether he actually was the killer.  Is it his suicide or the recent troubles plaguing the New York area that has set this killer off.  Is this killer a copy cat, or was the wrong man charged for the crime to begin with?

Allison and Mack still have difficulty dealing with the events from 10 years ago.  They try to plan their lives around avoiding the memories from the anniversary.  Now these murders start back up again.  Bringing back all those memories whether they like it or not.

Two factors start to come up that direct the investigators towards a suspect.  Mack has been sleepwalking with no memory of his travels and the new killer has to have inside knowledge of the previous crimes.

I listened to this book on audio and was very disappointed with the narrator, Jay Snyder.  The story itself though had me yelling at the radio in parts.  It didn't help that I had had some suspicions at the end of Nightwatcher that contributed to how I felt the story line was moving.  The killer had a plan that did not include killing quite everyone.

I thought Sleepwalker was a great continuation of Nightwatcher, but I really didn't feel too much of a connection with the characters.  Maybe it was because of the narrator.  I may have enjoyed it more if I had read it on my kindle.  Those kid's voices just totally killed it.  I'm new to audiobooks so maybe that is how all kid's voices sound, but if that was how they all sound I do not want to listen to any other books with kids in them.

The ending of Sleepwalker that leads into Shadowkiller kind of surprised me, but I think deep down I knew that it was a possibility.  I am anxious to see how that cliffhanger is going to play out so I will definitely be getting Shadowkiller.  Cliffhangers kill me!

I'm going to try and rate Sleepwalker by the story and not think about the narration.  I would give the book a 3 star rating.  It was a good story, and will definitely continue the series.


Listened for Audio Challenge