The Sleepwalkers

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.