No Sleep Till Wonderland: A Novel

Paul Tremblay

Apr 2021 · Mark Genevich series Book 2 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

Narcoleptic Southie PI Mark Genevich returns in this sequel to The Little Sleep from the Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Survivor Song and The Cabin at the End of the World.

Like most private eyes, Mark Genevich is something of a lone wolf. So group therapy isn’t a great fit. But his landlord/mother is convinced it will help his narcolepsy—ignoring the fact that his disorder is a physical condition. Truth is, he has the time. It’s been a year and a half since his last big case, or any case.

It’s never a wise choice to go on a two-day bender with someone you meet in group therapy, but there’s something about Gus that intrigues Genevich. And when his new drinking buddy asks him to protect a female friend who’s being stalked, the PI finally has a case. 

Unfortunately, he’s about to sleepwalk right into a very real nightmare. Before long he’s a suspect in an arson investigation and running afoul of everyone from the cops to a litigious lawyer and a bouncer with anger management issues. Genevich must keep his wits about him—always a challenge for a detective prone to unexpected blackouts and hallucinations—to solve the crime and live to show up at his next therapy session.

In Paul Tremblay’s follow-up to The Little Sleep, unreliable narrator Mark Genevich once again leads readers on a surreal and suspenseful wild ride through the mean streets of South Boston and his own dreamlike reality.

Ratings and reviews

I eagerly dove into No Sleep Till Wonderland by one of my favorite authors, Paul Tremblay. When I had learned that Tremblay also had a series of mystery fiction in addition to his renowned horror/suspense stories and books, I was prepared for an immersive experience. What I did not know was that this was the second in the Mark Genevich series (the first being The Little Sleep). So I was unexpectedly thrust into the noir world of a sarcastic, self-deprecating narcoleptic Boston-based investigator. Under the thumb of his mother/landlord, Mark is compelled to attend group therapy meetings as a condition for free rent. It is at one of these meetings that Mark encounters Gus, a magnetic stranger who first befriends and later hires him to help out a lady friend “in need.” As is typical in these types of stories, the dame is bad news and leads our sleepy hero on a twisting and dangerous quest. It is obvious that Tremblay is having a bit of fun poking at the tropes of the hard-boiled detective novel and the misanthropic/misogynistic traits of the narrator. In between racing into fires, getting beat up and having awkward sex, Mark battles with his condition and the constant dream-like state it produces. Since the reader is only privy to his point-of-view, the storyline becomes a meandering series of confusing episodes that may or may capture reality. The gritty vibe and caustic humor is enjoyable at first, but becomes wearing after a while. Mark is “too clever by half” and knows it, and his treatment of women makes him difficult to embrace. Perhaps I would have had a better appreciation for his quirks if I had read the first book. As it was, the impression that I got was that while Tremblay playfully toys with provocation and extremes, the unfortunate result is a collection of wisecracks and misogyny with a plot that fails to be compelling. The novelty of a narcoleptic narrator is unique, but also contrived and unnecessarily distracting. No Sleep Till Wonderland requires a lot of patience from the reader-who may struggle to empathize with Genevich and question his puzzling choice of a profession for which he seems so ill-suited. I could go back and read The Little Sleep to give Tremblay the benefit of the doubt, but I am much more likely to anxiously await his next thriller release instead. Thanks to the author, St.Martin’s (Griffin), and Edelweiss Plus for an ARC of this book in return for a partial review.

About the author

Paul Tremblay has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book Awards and is the New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie, The Beast You Are, The Pallbearers Club, Survivor Song, Growing Things and Other Stories, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, and the crime novels The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland. His novel The Cabin at the End of the World was adapted into the Universal Pictures film Knock at the Cabin. Another is his first children’s book. He has been teaching high school math for a long, long time, and he lives outside Boston with his family.