The book has an amazing story. Read it, enjoy it. Bizarre take on vampires, completely unique.

- clergy can use it as each chapter is virtually a pre-written homily
- retreat masters will find that every chapter is a topic for group spiritual discussion
- scripture students will find the insights on the silent bystanders most original

You can't tell from the title but Wright's book is a guide for spiritual reflection rather than an historical analysis of the life and times in which these people lived. While Wright does discuss what the subtle meanings of certain actions - like the father of the prodigal son running to greet his wayward offspring, significant because men don't run in the Middle East as it is a sign of not having one's affairs in order - he does so in order that the reader might have a better undestanding of the points the Gospel writer was trying to make.

Overall Wright's book is a easy to read and easy to digest and is an excellent compendium of spiritual reflections on the often overlooked silent bystanders in the Gospel.

What more can I say?

Jack Erthmun is a New York homicide detective with an odd way of gathering information at crime scenes - he gets it by reading the corpse, a sort of bonding with the deceased. His partner thinks he's crazy, and finally he is taken off a troublesome serial murder case due to his escalating bizarreness. For a while he is even a suspect.

Flashbacks to Jack's childhood help reveal some of what's going on. We meet his angry father, his haunted mother, his sisters...and the creatures in the woods. But even at book's end, not everything is clearly explained, which may frustrate some people, although it shouldn't. Some things cannot be explained, or are better left to the imagination, making this novel ideal for contemplation and discussion.

There is much pain and violence in LAUGHING MAN, but it's a book with a beating heart, and it bestows upon the reader flashes of insight into the human condition. Not bad for a 'horror' novel.

After passing away, Harry Briggs finds himself in another reality, which he slowly comes to realize must be the afterlife. Rather than heaven or hell or limbo, the hereafter seems to be what each individual makes of it, composed of the people and setting most important to that individual. It seems also that each person's afterlife is unique.

Breaking the mold, Harry becomes a distinct part of his deceased wife's reality. Already an anomaly, Harry creates further trouble when, pursuing his afterlife fantasy of becoming a private detective, he creates an unearthly serial killer so powerful that he is able to cross back into the "real" world, where he begins to fulfill his murderous destiny. Harry travels back to set things straight and subdue his creation.

It wouldn't be fair to reveal any more details about the book--I'll leave those pleasurable discoveries to you. Sleepeasy is a clever, witty, thoughtful novel if there ever was one, and finds the author at the top of his considerable form. Wright hooks his readers within the first four pages and never relinquishes his grip--the audience is ready to follow Harry anywhere, and that's just where Wright takes them, providing plenty of food for thought along the way. With its take on the afterlife as unique and powerful as Richard Matheson's What Dreams May Come, Sleepeasy is a book you'll hate to put down.

Sleepeasy is part of the slightly connected cycle of Dark Fantasy afterlife/ghost novels, which include A Manhattan Ghost Story and The Waiting Room, that T.M. Wright has been writing over the years. Each novel is a well crafted tale that is a delight to read (if you are in the mood for surreal, reality bending supernatural antics that walk the tightrope between playful and frightening that is), but gain more power when seen as a part of a larger, more complex vision. T.M. Wright is a dark fantasist that deserves a much larger readership than he has now. Highly recommended.

What a wonderful, unique, creative and enthralling work! It's not for everyone. If you're a fan of Dick Laymon, you won't like T.M. Wright. But if you like dark fantasy that makes you a part of the action, and characters who you really care about, and prose that's unbeatable in the field, then Wright is for you.
Sleepeasy is a gem!

Yes, I know that I'm not being very "helpful" with this short review, but that's not why I'm here, anyway. I just wanted to cast my vote for this fine novel. Wright does a wonderful job, slowly pulling you into his story, and into a Manhattan that the rest of us never get to see. Lucky us.

Mr Wright is an adherent of the quiet horror school,and this,his debut novel,is set in a remote woodland area in upstate New York,where city dwellers Grace and Paul Griffin have relocated.There new home is a somewhat derelict cottage which lacks even the basic amenities,and has been subject to major incidents of vandalism while standing empty.
They are befriended by a local man,Lumas,a carpenter who not only remembers the previous cottage dwellers ,a deeply religious family who killed themselves while in residence ,but also knew Paul's father who died on the land his son and daughter in law now inhabit
The couples'life on their new property is a literally gloomy one as they are without electricity or telephone and only Paul's romantic notions of living from the land keep them going
Soon they are aware of a family of feral children living in the woods surrounding their property,ones moreover with vampiric tendencies

The novel proceeds to unfold the tale of how the couple seek to come to terms with their situation
I ran out of patience with the tale pretty early and found myself wanting more action rather than the overly elliptical striving after atmosphere with which the novel is burdened.Later novels by the author managed to get the balance a bit more deftly but this bears all the marks of a prentice work and is a tad tiresome

The book is, actually, on a number of "Best of the Genre" lists, including one by Stephen King (in Danse Macabre) and one by Douglas Winter, and several others. Sure it's atmospheric, but the atmosphere draws you into the characters, and their inevitable doom. At least that's what it did for me.

The reviewer, whether or not it was Mr. Wright (to whom I am not related, by the way) got it right when he or she said that the book was not for the "MTV" generation, as the previous reviewer so clearly demonstrates.