By Christine Yunn-Yu Sun
The third and last instalment in Australian author Ellie Marney’s “None Shall Sleep Sequence” was recently published.
It is time to review these awesome crime thrillers.
Published in September 2020, None Shall Sleep is set in 1982 in Virginia, where Emma and Travis, both in their late teens, are recruited by the FBI Behavioural Science unit to conduct interviews with convicted juvenile killers for information on cold cases.
This arrangement makes sense due to their unique experiences – Emma is the sole survivor of a brutal serial killer three years earlier, while Travis’ father was a US Marshal murdered by the country’s most infamous juvenile serial killer.
An additional rationale is that juvenile killers tend to clam up against adult detectives and psychiatrists but are more likely to communicate to other teens.
However, when Emma and Travis are called to provide insight and advice on an active case, they must turn to Simon, the incarcerated teenage sociopath and killer of Travis’ father.
Highly intelligent and manipulative, Simon agrees to help, but quickly develops a fascination with Emma.
He also has a long game to play, while the killer out there continues to wreak havoc.
It is easy for adult readers and fans of psychological crime thrillers to enlist works such as Silence of the Lambs and Mindhunter in their criticism of the book.
Indeed, in the story, Emma and Travis often struggle against the prevalent adult stereotype that teenagers are naval-gazers incapable of working as independent, effective and efficient professionals.
This constant tension is highlighted in the book as a flaw in the FBI system.
More importantly, it alerts Emma and Travis to their own mindset and work while helping to strengthen their friendship and mutual support.
As a novel targeting readers in their late teens – something else that adult readers tend to forget – the story is intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking as it explains the complex and challenging investigation process and the intricate nature of forensic science and psychoanalysis.
Meanwhile, instead of detailing and/or sensationalising the gory details of past and present crimes, the author trusts us to utilise our own imagination.
Our attention is then drawn to the emotional and psychological transformations that the criminals and their investigators are experiencing.
This helps to build reader empathy for the characters and their struggles, especially in the case of the teenage protagonists.
Further, by refusing to dumb down the content, the author shows respect to her teenage readers while inviting them to reflect on the inner worlds of those young
people whose tragic circumstances have forced them to grow up too quickly.
Both Emma and Travis are realistic and relatable characters, whose dynamic relationship serves as the story’s backbone while easily escaping those romance tropes that can so effortlessly bog down any ordinary story.
Another outstanding character is Simon, whose sophistication and efficacy reminds us of Dr Hannibal Lecter but seems even more terrifying as a 19-year-old.
This reviewer looks forward to reading more interaction between him and Emma.
