{ARC Review} Sleep Tight by Caroline Mitchell

As I’m still a newbie to the crime/mystery genre, I worried going in that I might find a second investigation less compelling, or somewhat stale. I can safely say this book quickly laid those fears to rest!

Everything I enjoyed about Love You To Death seemed improved upon here in ways that far surpassed my expectations. And I was left reeling when I came to the final act of the story.

I really enjoyed seeing the characters get to grow and flourish a bit here. Where the first book did well establishing the characters in terms of personality, background and motivations, Mitchell goes above and beyond here to really flesh every character out. I feel like a lot of time ancillary characters have the tendency to fall by the wayside in terms of development and characterization when an author needs them to fit within a specific niche.

Mitchell takes painstaking care to develop every member of Ruby’s investigative team. They each have their own secret pains and heartaches that moves them away from cookie-cutter sidekick characters and makes them feel like a real people. At this point, I feel connected to the members of her team and care for each of them in different ways. It makes for really compelling reading, especially in a series where no one is safe.

Ruby remains my favorite character, and she’s quickly climbing the ranks as one of my favorite female heroines. She’s smart, she’s brave and she cares – perhaps too much. While she makes decisions that find super frustrating at times I get why she does it. Mitchell has established her perfectly as a force to reckoned with among leading ladies investigating crimes.

It also should be said that it’s not just Ruby and the team that gets developed. Strangely enough, Mitchell even takes the time to give her victims and her killers backstories. It helps things pack a necessary emotional punch when you’re dealing with a killer as twisted as the one in this novel.

I loved the deranged take on classic fairytale characters here. It was demented and probably not for the faint of heart in some places, but through it all it was truly memorable.

I really look forward to seeing where this series goes next!