Sleep Tight by J.H. Markert
Crooked Lane (September 2024)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
Sounds of the animals, like a kennel of demented beasts. The Lost Children had begun to gather on the Devil’s Backbone.
In perhaps his most ambitious tale yet, Sleep Tight, J.H. Markert ensnares readers with a serial killer’s execution. Like the most infamous killers, such as Ted Bundy and Dennis Rader (BTK), Markert’s man on death row was especially elusive because of his theatrics and efforts to appear normal.
Father Silence worked as a janitor for the town church, and though quiet, the pastoral workers and church members found him decent. However, when clerical clothing goes missing, the church installs cameras and captures a disturbing glance at the murderer behind the facade.
Once news of Father Silence’s capture and his lone survivor, a young boy named Noah, spreads, the town is relieved. The terror is finally over. Tess’s father, his partner, and what they did that day is why she became a detective. She never imagined that two decades later, after Father Silence’s execution, the killing and kidnapping would begin again. And it’s far more personal than Tess realizes until her young daughter, Julia, disappears from the school parking lot, last seen speaking with a man in sunglasses, who refers to himself as “The Outcast.”
Beware the one that got away.
Sleep Tight is fiercely clever in its use of the cycle of violence and repressed memories. Along with the fear of thunder and kidnapping, this gives it an old-school horror essence and reminds me of Joe Hill’s The Black Phone. I also appreciated investigative elements often credited to one of the FBI’s mindhunters, Dr. Ann Burgess, such as deciphering children’s traumatic experiences through coloring and drawing.
Markert stirred readers’ trepidation with every reveal, and the story became more complex with each chapter, creating the effect of a real true crime case. At first, it’s a killer, then a killing spree, kidnapping, and finally a cult. That’s why there’s something for every horror fan in Sleep Tight.
At times, I struggled with the representation of DID and feared others would, too. When naming a specific mental disorder and cranking up the symptoms and stakes for a story, authors must clarify that this is a rare case scenario. With Ryan Murphy’s Nurse Ratched and M. Night Shyamalan’s Split movies, the horror audience often sees this disorder in association with violence. Violence is not an inherent trait of DID. Most with DID are victims of violence rather than perpetrators.
I still highly recommend Sleep Tight to fans of Ryan Murphy, Joe Hill’s The Black Phone, and Alex North’s The Whisper Man. I look forward to picking up a copy of J.H. Markert’s Mister Lullaby.
