Are You Awake?

Product Information

She has sold over a million copies of her thrillers and several times been a number-1 bestseller on Kindle as well as a Washington Post bestseller. She has had four radio plays broadcast on the BBC, and her thrillers What You Did and The Other Wife were both number-one bestsellers. A sleep-deprived mother of two Mary and an insomniac former journalist Tim, see some violent actions in a house across the street and go there at 4 a. I think Mary could be the lead in more books and I’d love to see how the author would continue to evolve her.

Can she still function as an adult in an adult world or has she become one with the group of mothers who only talk about the healthiest formula for babies? I was drawn into the lives of two primary characters, Mary and Tim, who have trouble sleeping at night and find themselves noticing odd happenings in the neighborhood. I usually find the amateur sleuth trope frustrating - it’s often unbelievable how much they get involved but I found myself thinking had I been in Mary’s position I would have done the same thing - it would infuriate me how the police didn’t seem to care about their tip.Are You Awake follows Mary and Tim who both seemingly witness a violent act through a window across the street in the middle of the night.

And when they see news reports of a missing woman who was last seen walking alone not far from them, the pair are convinced it's her they saw being attacked-no matter what the police say. Two incompatible characters just happen to both see the same suspicious activity in the middle of the night and decide to solve the mystery of what may or may not be a missing girl. The children unfortunately share a room in their pokey little two bed flat on the outskirts of London, meaning when one wakes then the other does also. Claire published her first novel in 2012, and has followed it up with many others in the crime fiction genre and also in women’s fiction (writing as Eva Woods).

Her daughter, Audrey, was the uncontested star of this book—which is why I gave this two stars instead of one. Meanwhile hubby Jack snores his way through slumber and oblivion as his exhausted wife sees to the children without an ounce of sleep. Without thinking, she deposits the children back to bed and barely stopping to grab a robe, Mary marches out the door and across the street to where the stranger is snooping.

The storyline kept you guessing for the most part of the book, and the big twist was not what I expected at all.After a degree in English and French from Oxford University she moved to London and worked in the charity sector. despite Audrey's constant rants, and she thankfully blended into the background and became more of hubby's problem to deal with once he decided to be a parent instead of sleeping in when Mary more than deserved one. They both appear to have witnessed a woman being savagely attached in a nearby house that is supposed to be empty as it is being renovated. This was very formulaic like many thrillers from well-known authors this year, which was disappointing. The author did a really great job of setting the witching hour scene and anybody who finds themselves awake through the night will really empathise with the characters.