Night Night, Sleep Tight

June 29, 2015
This well-crafted whodunit, set in 1986 Los Angeles, gets underway when Deirdre Unger drives from San Diego to the Beverly Hills home of her screenwriter father, Arthur, and discovers his body at the bottom of the swimming pool. Later, while sifting through pages of his proposed memoir, she remembers another major tragedy—an automobile accident 28 years before that cost her the use of her right leg. The accident occurred the same night that Deirdre’s best friend, Joelen Nichols, stabbed the abusive boyfriend of her actress mother. But what happened the night of the stabbing isn’t completely clear. Reader Lee possesses the kind of soft, breathy voice perfect for a glossy, semi-gossipy woman-in-jeopardy thriller, which this is in spades. Her interpretation of Deirdre—a heroine whose initial confusion and sadness is gradually hardened by determination to find her father’s killer—is on point. Though it is undercut somewhat by Lee’s breezy reading, and the novel’s cynical ending may turn off some listeners, others will be amused by this look at Hollywood.
A Morrow hardcover.