Raymond Chandler meets Jonathan Lethem in this wickedly entertaining debut featuring Mark Genevich, narcoleptic detective.
Mark Genevich is a South Boston PI with a little problem: he's narcoleptic, and he suffers from the most severe symptoms, including hypnogogic hallucinations. These waking dreams wreak havoc for a guy who depends on real-life clues to make his living.
Clients haven't exactly been beating down the door when Mark meets Jennifer Times – daughter of the powerful local DA and a contestant on American Star – who walks into his office with an outlandish story about a man who stole her fingers. He awakes from his latest hallucination alone, but on his desk is a manila envelope containing risqué photos of Jennifer. Are the pictures real, and if so, is Mark hunting a blackmailer, or worse?
Wildly imaginative and with a pitch-perfect voice, The Little Sleep is the first in a new series that casts a fresh eye on the rigours of detective work, and introduces a character who has a lot to prove – if only he can stay awake long enough to do it.