TO WAKE THE SLEEPER

In the sixth volume of a mystery series, dramatically set against the exuberant delights and eccentricities of New Orleans, a woman’s dark past is finally revealed.

The continuing saga of Jeff Chaussier and his stunning wife, Bryna Boudreaux, picks up several months after the explosive conclusion of the fifth installment. Bryna has given birth to a beautiful little girl, but upon seeing the baby, she suffers a mental breakdown. Convinced the infant is not hers, she accuses Jeff of all sorts of diabolical machinations. He brings the baby home, where his mother and surrogate second grandmother, Miz Rhonda, alternate caring for her. While Jeff is grieving, Bryna is receiving highly unorthodox “treatment” from disreputable therapist “That Bastard Henry.” But as fans of the series know, Jeff’s vast and entertainingly quirky assortment of family and friends will not allow Sanchez’s angst-driven, reluctant hero to languish for long. Jeff is quickly pulled back into the search for the anonymous, powerful “megalomaniac” behind the constant attempts to destroy Bryna. As Jeff repeats every chance he gets, he is an actor, currently working in a local theater owned and managed by his friend and mentor Don, who has his own scheme to pull the hero out of his emotional paralysis. Enter Rita, Jeff’s first love, back to tempt him into a new romance. The magic of New Orleans—the sights, sounds, aromas, tastes, colors, and music that poetically infuse the author’s Crescent City—is here, but there is far less violence and page-turning action this time around. The developing relationship between Jeff and Rita and the investigation into Bryna’s past amble at a languid pace until the high-octane conclusion. As always, it is great fun to spend time with Jeff given his love of words, passion for literary references, and snarky, often self-deprecating humor. But new readers are advised to begin with the earlier novels to best appreciate the many secondary characters in this enjoyable, melancholy story. This may—or may not—be the series closer. Sanchez offers a final tantalizing wink, but no promises, in his concluding author’s note.

A compelling, complex protagonist in a sultry, engaging, and lyrical, albeit disturbing, mystery.