The Sleep Room

Hasn’t everyone wondered, at some point in our lives, if the moment we were experiencing was real or an illusion? If we are the dreamer or the dream? That is the question posed in F.R. Tallis’s The Sleep Room, a supernatural thriller that is for the most part cozily familiar, but with one chillingly unique element: the controversial psychological treatment at the heart of the novel. Being a clinical psychologist, Tallis excels at getting the medical details right, and this effortless expertise makes it easy to relax into the story. Before too long, however, the reader will notice something off-kilter about the narrator, though the meaning behind this subtle irregularity doesn’t become apparent until the end. The novel, set in the post-WWII era, opens with James Richardson, a young doctor, applying for a position working with one of the leading psychiatrists in the U.K., Hugh Maitland. Maitland is a believer in pharmacological and shock treatments for individuals suffering from “diseases of the mind,” rejecting psychotherapy. The job brings Richardson to Wyldehope Hall, Maitland’s new treatment center in a remote part of Suffolk, where he will serve as the sole physician on staff. In the sleep room, Maitland is testing his theories for a new kind of narcosis treatment in which drugs are used to keep six female patients asleep for prolonged periods. Richardson finds these patients intriguing, but, mysteriously, Maitland will reveal nothing of the women’s pasts to him. As Richardson acclimates to his work and idiosyncratic boss, increasingly bizarre and inexplicable events take place at Wyldehope, events that seem supernatural in nature. Richardson is unable to do much to investigate, however, until one of the nurses—a young trainee alone on the night shift in the sleep room—disappears while on duty and is later found dead. After this, Richardson begins to suspect that Maitland might be up to something the medical community might not approve of, something to do with British intelligence—or even the CIA. By the time Richardson decides to confront his employer, Maitland has ensnared Richardson in a few matters that could be twisted to cast doubt on the young doctor’s competency. Too, by this time, Richardson makes a nasty discovery regarding his new love interest, nurse Jane Turner, turning his world upside down. Anyone familiar with ghost stories understands that, in the end, all that matters is whether a ghost has been sighted, leaving the author little room to maneuver. Like all good stories, ghostly or not, there is a twist at the end of The Sleep Room. It’s a device that has been used before, and readers will have to decide for themselves whether it has been put to good use. The second measure of a good ghost story, however, is whether it delivers some wicked chills, and in that regard The Sleep Room, with its creepy narcosis treatment room, definitely succeeds. Alma Katsu is the author of The Taker and The Reckoning (both Gallery).