The Dark Sleep

The Dark Sleep (1999) P.N. Elrod

I don’t know how I messed it up, but somehow I thought that The Dark Sleep came after Lady Crymsyn. This would be wrong. The Dark Sleep precedes Lady Crymsyn. Luckily, both are stand alone books, so I didn’t lose anything by reading them out of order.

This was a somewhat complicated mystery with lots of twists. But what I liked best about it was that we finally learned something about Escott’s past. Shoe Coldfield has made insinuations through multiple books that Charles is haunted by his past, but when pressed, repeats that Jack should get Charles drunk and press him for the story himself.

One thing that seriously bothered me was the “flashback” of Shoe telling Jack what happened to Charles. I didn’t mind the idea of it, what I minded was that Shoe was supposed to be telling Jack what happened, but the first line of the event was Escott’s reflection on the events. That disconnect completely threw me from the story, because I had to go back and make sure Charles hadn’t gotten up to tell the story himself (he hadn’t).

I didn’t find the mystery particularly strong, but finally learning some of Escott’s history made up for it. It isn’t a nice history mind you, but we do finally learn it.

This is an important book in the series–not for what happens to Jack, but because we learn about Charles. However, this book is (unusually for the series) somewhat isolated from the rest of the series, so it wouldn’t make a bad starting point into the series. Additionally, for anyone who wanted to skip reading Fire in the Blood, Blood on the Water, and A Chill in the Blood, the important result of those three books (How Jack gets the money to open Lady Crymsyn) is briefly covered here. (My apologies to P.N. Elrod, but I really felt those three books should have been condensed into one. Then I might not have minded it so much.)

Rating: 7/10

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