This is totally not my usual genre. I love a good mystery/thriller, but the horror genre is more out of my realm. Any horror involving children is going to be tough to stomach at times, but I'm surprised at how gripped I was by this audiobook. I found myself drawn in right away. Tessa is certainly a flawed main character, but also had a lot of depth that made me just feel for her. This was a great read for this spooky season!

Thank you to J. H. Markert, Netgalley and Dreamscape media for this ALC in exchange for my honest review.

What a ride this was! From the very beginning of SLEEP TIGHT, readers are taken on a mysterious and tense ride that involves past murders, current murders, an execution, and a kidnapping, all of which are directly linked to police detective Tess. Something happened in Tess’s past that ties in with the current events, and we slowly but surely learn about her and her family’s involvement with a serial killer named Father Silent. Now it seems that a new and deadly killer is out to finish what Father Silent started and it’s a race against the clock to not only get Tess’s daughter back, but to stop the new killer, The Outcast, from taking any more lives.⁣
⁣
This was my first book by Markert and I can solidly say that I’m now a fan. Brimming with mystery and tension, I loved the story from the beginning. The narrator did a fantastic job bringing the story to life and making me feel what Tess and the other characters were feeling. The audiobook was a fairly long one, but I was so invested in the story that I pretty much ignored all of my responsibilities, sped it up to 2x, and finished in a matter of hours. Definitely pick this one up if you’re a fan of serial killers, murder mysteries, and plenty of suspense and tension.

Omg I absolutely devoured this book! I was hooked right from the start and things just kept getting more interesting.

I'm always one for a creepy serial killer mystery, but add in some DID and you've fully got my attention. The way this story was written and woven together was so damn good.

I loved the FMC, our detective. She was a badass and took every punch like a champ. I also really enjoyed the other characters, especially Noah and his whole story. What an interesting twist to the story.

I often don't re-read books like this, but I feel like I could enjoy this one just as much a second time around. There was so much going on that kept your mind in detective mode trying to figure it all our with the characters in the story.

🦇🦇 Book Review 🦇🦇

Sleep Tight by J.H Markert

Thank you to Net Galley and Dreamscape Media for the audiobook version of this book. I highly recommend

Sleep Tight is a terrifying psychological thriller/mystery. It explores dark corners of the characters' memories and puts the reader in the passenger seat as they are forced to confront their current situations while facing their fears. Detective Tess Claibourne is in a race against time to find her kidnapped daughter, and her despair comes to life in the pages. It is easy to feel helpless as Tess scrambles to locate her daughter. My pulse quickened more than a few times as I read this novel. The plot and pacing are well done, the character development top notch. Some of the characters are creepy enough to make the skin tingle.

There is a lot happening in Sleep Tight, and sometimes the story struggles with the weight of so many storylines. While this may frustrate some readers, it is rewarding to watch the complex story come together. This is a great pick for anyone who like their thrillers to have a scary edge. It is a book that will play with your mind. The audio book performance by Andi Arndt is stellar. She reads the characters wonderfully.

Thank you @dreamscape_media @crookedlanebooks for the gifted ALC/book! #DSAudio24

♦️ 𝙈𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 ♦️
This book was the perfect mix of an old mystery/crime mixed with a present day one. It had suspense, intrigue, and the unknown together with a very Criminal Minds vibe (profiling yes!)

I like stories where an old case pops up and is entangled with a new one, and this story had a lot of layers to it. Tess is a detective, and daughter of a detective who helped capture a twisted serial killer two decades ago.

A new serial killer emerges and kidnaps Tess’s daughter. She travels back to her hometown to chase down leads because everything seems mixed up with her father’s old case.

I enjoyed all the POVs in this book, which had me guessing who the bad guy was. There was an interesting psychological thriller aspect with one of the previous victims that added another layer to the story.

We also see Tess’s husband along for the ride, both because of his profession and missing daughter. They had some personal struggles happening, and I was happy to see how everything concluded for them.

I will definitely be reading more from this author in the future! It was a great read for this spooky season!

🎧 𝙉𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 🎧
Andi Arndt did a fabulous job narrating this story. She brought depth and vulnerability to Tess as she navigated difficult personal scenarios. Andi has a great voice for a suspense/thriller book and she’s very easy to follow along with!

🎧 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚:
♦️ Horror Stories
♦️ Police Procedurals
♦️ Criminal Minds-like Stories
♦️ Crime Followers
♦️ Psychological Thrillers

Are you looking for something truly spooky and dark to read ? JH Markert delivered dark and captivated me from the beginning to the last minute with „Sleep Tight"!
SLEEP TIGHT opens with the chilling execution of Father Silence, a man who once posed as a priest to kidnap and murder children. His crimes left just one survivor whose psychological scars are so deep that he remains in a hospital for the criminally insane. And suddenly somebody seems to pick up the baton.
For Tess, the daughter of one of the detectives who arrested Father Silence, today a detective herself this is personal. First the execution seems to bring closure-but then Tess gets a call from a man who calls himself as the Outcast. He's murdered Tess' parents and kidnapped her daughter. To rescue her, Tess must confront her buried memories, untangling the connection between the Outcast's crimes and Father Silence's horrific legacy.
Following Tess, the author balances other perspectives well, adding depth without confusing the plot. I was initially concerned about Tess as an unreliable narrator, given her struggles with alcohol, pills and memory lapses, but it worked brilliantly within the narrative.
I received an advance audio for SLEEP TIGHT through @dreamscape_media and I was so excited about this audiobook, it was an intense, gripping experience.
I completely binged this book !

"Beware of the one that got away."

Sleep Tight is a compelling tale that has a LOT going on. We have Tess, a final girl of sorts, who is now a detective. Father Silence, serial killer, cult leader, and kidnapper is finally, years later, put to death for his crimes. The nightmare is over and Silence's victims have gotten all the justice they're ever going to get. But the very next day, the detective that arrested Father Silence is found dead. That detective was Tess's father. Then more murder victims turn up. Then Tess's daughter is kidnapped. Then.. you'll have to read it to find out!

This is my third J. H. Markert book and they all have a similar vibe. Whacked out serial killers, fast paced plots and characters you can get behind. This one, though, at times felt like it just had too much going on. The cast of characters grew rapidly, there was a cult and a creepy church, a lot of psychology, a mental institution, and a creepy, abandoned park on an island. I mean, I enjoy all of these elements, but all in one book? I feel like this was a big mash up of some of my favorite themes, yet somehow it wasn't 100 percent successful.

That said, this was definitely inventive and fun especially towards the last third of the book. Characters are running all over god's green earth to save these kids and it was exciting. There's another level to Tess's story and her memory of how she became a final girl and the psychology is fascinating.

I was granted an audio ARC and the narrator Andi Arndt was excellent. Her role had to be challenging, can't say why because spoilers, but she pulled it off with aplomb.

Sleep Tight was a good time even if it felt somehow overstuffed, and I do recommend it!

3.5/4, rounded up for Goodreads.

*ARC from publisher

In a nutshell, Sleep Tight is a lot to work through. It's an interesting story, but it's also hard to track. I couldn't even attempt to guess how many character names we learned over the course of this story. It was one of those situations where I got to the end and would hear a name and be like, 'who's this'?

I will not even attempt to get into the actual plot with you...

I really enjoyed the initial set-up, hearing the story of Father Silence, and meeting our MC, Tess. There were also a lot of the bits towards the end were I felt fully invested, but the middle part got muddled and my attention definitely wavered because of that.

I guess I would say I felt similar with this author's earlier two works that I've read: The Nightmare Man and Mister Lullaby. Markert has exciting, ambitious concepts, but I'm not sure their execution always ends up working out for me. To be fair though, I enjoyed this more than I didn't.
I would recommend this to Readers who enjoy Gritty Crime Thrillers that swerve into Horror territory. This one succeeds in capturing that gritty, dangerous feel and I did feel like it progressed at a fast clip throughout.

Some of the aspects of this definitely worked better for me than others, but overall, I think it's a good book. I would also recommend the audiobook, as that was well narrated by the always fabulous Andi Arndt.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and Dreamscape Media for providing me with copies to read and review. J.H. Markert continues to intrigue me with his creative concepts and dark atmosphere. Though this wasn't my favorite of his, I still felt it had a lot of strengths. I will def be picking up whatever he releases next!

This one was truly haunting and incredibly atmospheric! I really enjoy a good serial killer thriller, and I loved how this one mixed in that classic horror vibe!

Markert did an excellent job steadily building suspense with short, concise chapters. Although the pacing felt uneven at times and a bit slow in the beginning, the story maintains a tense, creepy tone that’s undeniably heart-pounding and spine-tingling throughout.

I primarily listened to the audiobook of this police procedural and found the narration to be fantastic and highly engaging.

This is the perfect read for #SpookySZN and the cover art is on point 👌

The audio version of Sleep Tight was done very well, The narrator was perfect for the story and added just the right level of creepiness and suspense to an already thrilling book.

I have been in such a spooky mood lately because duh, so I started listening to this novel and let me tell ya, I loved it. Anything that starts off with creepy kids and cults sucks me right in. I thought the twists were great and the horror aspects weren’t super outlandish to me so it definitely kept my interest. I feel like I struggle with a lot of horror books because of that and how they get so wrapped around the horror rather than the plot, if that makes sense lol. This author did an amazing job though! I also loved that the story came full circle at the end. Everything was connected in some way regarding the plot and the characters which was great. This book deserves a spot on your spooky season TBR for sure!

Thank you so much Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for this ALC in exchange for an honest review!

Read if you like books with:
Horror
Cults
Psychological thrillers

Ugh. Finding constructive criticism for this one is a toughy. It manages to feel both "small town" and "wildly out of touch". You could not pay me to care about any of the characters, and not in a way that was intentional by the author and this compelling. Who in god's name in this day and age goes into an alleged horror novel wanting to read about how it's all a career woman's fault that she can't have more than one kid so her husband cheats on her, and every cop is a salt of the earth superhero, actually. I did in fact dnf this weird propaganda.

DNF at 50%

No spoilers, so I’ll keep this vague: The plot was basically a grab-bag of cliched serial killer and cult book tropes all jumbled together into a nonsensical mess.

I’m clearly an outlier on this one because I’ve seen rave reviews all over the place, but it was not for me.

Sleep Tight is a gripping detective thriller that leans into the horror genre with its graphic and chilling story lines. It features multiple POVs, which allows the reader to dive deep into the psychology of each of characters. I thought it was a very unique addition to the story, however it does bog down the pacing, which at times made it feel clunky. It’s easy to get lost in the complex nature of this story, especially as an audiobook. That being said, I LOVE Andi Arndt as the narrator. She always does a great job bringing a story to life.

Overall I enjoyed Sleep Tight and found the story unique, atmospheric and entertaining. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the movie Se7en and fans of Chuck Palahniuk.

I received a gifted audio ARC for SLEEP TIGHT by J.H. Markert from Dreamscape Media!


SLEEP TIGHT begins with the execution of Father Silence. Years ago, this man posed as a priest to kidnap and murder many children. There was only one survivor and the trauma of the experience left him permanently changed and he's locked up today in a hospital for the criminally insane.

Tess is the daughter of one of the detectives who made the arrest and she is now a detective herself. When Father Silence is killed, it feels like closure, but not for long. Tess receives a call from a man called the Outcast who has done a bad thing. He's killed Tess' parents and kidnapped her daughter. Tess must go on the hunt for this man, uncovering her lost memories of the clearly connected crimes of Father Silence so long ago.

This is an author I have been wanting to read, so when BOTM had this on their list of options, I knew I had to add it to my cart. I wound up splitting my time between the physical copy and the audiobook and the story was fantastic in both formats.

While we are primarily following Tess, we also are getting alternate viewpoints and I think the author did well at balancing them out. I am always a bit wary when we have an unreliable narrator for any reason and Tess' drinking and faulty memory had me a little worried, but it really worked out well in this story!

This book kept me hooked from start to finish and I would very much recommend it!

This audio was so good! I didn't want to stop listening! The story was so great! A serial killer, kidnapping, haunted house and cult, everything a good spooky read needs!

𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆
I wasn't sure what to expect going in because I didn't read the synopsis and went strictly off other people's recommendations and the book exceeded every non expectation I had! Do you like Criminal Minds? Because I felt like I was reading an episode and it was so good! The story was so complex, with multiple twists and great psychological suspense. I don't want to give away too many details but you definitely need to add this to your tbr!

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲
• Police procedural
• Twisty Thrillers
• Multiple POVs
• Criminal Minds
• Complex storyline
• Serial killer manhunt

𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸
Andi Arndt did an amazing job bringing all of the emotion through in this audiobook. She juggled multiple characters and gave them all their own unique voice. I listened at 1.5x speed and everything was clear and easy to understand. This audiobook was great and I absolutely recommend!

Andi Arndt is one of my favorite audiobook narrators, so when I saw she narrated Sleep Tight, I knew I needed to listen. J.H. Harkert's newest work kept me on my toes hoping that the solution would be around the next corner.

SLEEP TIGHT is a nail biter! The story is fast-paced from start to finish. I was in full detective mode with our main character, Tess. I don't think I would have handled things as well as she had though. I've always been intrigued with DID, or multiple personalities, so this story will be on my mind for quite some time. Overall, I'd say this is a winner and I recommend if you want a story that will keep you up late into the night!

Many thanks to Brilliance Audio for my gifted copies.

This review will be shared to my Instagram (@coffee.break.book.reviews) shortly.

I couldn't wait to find a fast-paced horror story to kick off the spooky season, and I'm so glad I chose this audiobook. The cover made my decision even easier. This was my first book by J.H. Markert, and after listening to it, I'm now a fan and would love to read more of his work.

The story was very well done. I was hooked from the beginning with its suspenseful and mysterious plot. As a psychology major, I was particularly intrigued by the psychological aspects of the book. I loved how fast-paced the story was, even though the audiobook was almost twelve hours long. It never felt long or tiring, and I felt invested the entire time. I also loved that the main character was female and there was a lot of mental health representation in the story.

Andi Arndt did a fantastic job with the audiobook. Sometimes, with a large cast of characters, it is hard to differentiate between the characters while listening, but Andi did a good job helping to make that distinction. Also, she brings all of the characters to life.

Thank you to NetGallery and to Dreamscape Media for giving me a copy.