February 5, 2024
A couple’s five-year relationship implodes during their Greek island honeymoon in this gonzo epistolary thriller from Thomas (Oligarchy). The action kicks off with a furious, discursive letter from Evelyn “Evie” Masters to her new husband, Richard Lawson, ending their two-week marriage. Evie airs a litany of grievances, among them Richard’s failure to rebuff the advances of their hotel’s proprietress, Isabella. Evie also indicates that she senses something fishy about Isabella’s story regarding two prior guests, now known by locals as “the sleepwalkers,” who supposedly strode into the ocean one night and drowned. The missive, which ends mid-sentence, is followed by an equally scathing, bombshell-laden letter to her from Richard, who writes that he awoke in their hotel room to find Evie gone “without even leaving a note, as usual.” Additional letters and assorted ephemera (including audio transcripts, hotel guestbook pages, and notes scribbled on receipts) flesh out a dark mystery related to the eponymous “sleepwalkers” that emerges from the correspondence’s periphery before gradually taking center stage. Readers seeking definitive answers may be left wanting, but Thomas cleverly utilizes structure and style to tell a multifaceted tale stocked with boldly drawn, irreparably damaged characters. It’s a smart and soapy delight. Agent: Dan Mandel, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc.
September 13, 2024
From failed marriage to fright, Thomas's (Oligarchy) latest skillfully applies unreliable narration and perspective control. Evelyn and Richard are still on their honeymoon, but cracks are already forming along class lines and a history neither wants to confront. They'd been relatively happy at the small Greek island's beach hostels, but they move inland to the Villa Rosa as a seasonal storm approaches. There, Evie grows increasingly suspicious of innkeeper Isabella's designs on her husband and a possible conspiracy involving two previous guests who'd allegedly drowned while sleepwalking. Kit Griffiths embodies Evelyn's cerebral, dramatic personality in a long letter to Richard that excoriates him for his disdain for her theater career and failure to see Isabella's manipulations. Tension builds as the letter starts on current events, cutting off with a jolt before the voice of Richard, read by Raphael Corkhill, picks up from a completely different angle. His calm, resonant tone belies both the present danger at the Villa Rosa and the horror of confessions he writes to Evie, who's run into the storm, according to Isabella. VERDICT A bleakly amusing he said/she said that makes excellent use of the audio format.--Lauren Kage
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