by Sarah Pinborough

HarperCollins, out now

If only Emma could sleep…

There are so many reasons why you can’t sleep. Some are physical, some psychological, and it’s not the same for everyone – that particular combination of circumstances is peculiar just to you – but I doubt there’s anyone reading this who hasn’t had that sensation of still being awake in the small hours of the morning, with everything going round and round in your head, 2 and 2 failing to become 4 but resolutely being 5 no matter how much you challenge it, and putting pieces together that you simply haven’t seen when you were fully awake… At least, I hope that’s not just me!

Sarah Pinborough adds a number of factors into the mix for her narrator, Emma Averell, and what makes Insomnia work so well, and have you reading just one more chapter before turning out the light, is that at no point can you say with any certainty what is real. Is Emma being gaslit on an industrial scale? Who – if anyone – can she trust? Is she an unreliable narrator in her own story? The answers are there (and having read the book twice, Pinborough doesn’t cheat) and I’ll admit to kicking myself for not spotting certain things before they are explained. But as with her previous novels, you do not want this to be spoiled!

Verdict: As audacious as ever, Sarah Pinborough provides another gripping thriller. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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