Just Jennifer

Night Night, Sleep Tight by Hallie Ephron (William Morrow, March 2015)

Award winning author Hallie Ephron is back with another novel of suspense and betrayal, one that will transport readers back to the Hollywood of the 1960’s and 1980’s, a time when anything went, including murder.  In 1985, Deirdre Unger returns to the Beverly Hills home of her childhood to help her father, screenwriter Arthur Unger, ready it for sale.  Deirdre is devastated when she finds her father’s body at the bottom of the lap pool he has used daily for many years.  Certain that this was a tragic accident, Deirdre is stunned when she learns the police have opened a homicide investigation and is even more shocked when she becomes a person of interest during the course of the investigation.  Dazed by these events, Deidre is even more thrown when she realizes the Realtor Arthur had contracted with was Joelen Nichol, the daughter of a once legendary actress, Bunny Nichol, and Deirdre’s best friend through school, a friend from whom she has not heard since 1963 when they were fifteen.  One fateful night after a party at the Nichol’s home, Bunny’s boyfriend was stabbed to death, a murder to which Joelen confessed.  In his rush to remove Deirdre from the scene, Arthur was involved in a car accident that left Deirdre with a lame leg.  At the time, Deirdre never considered that these two events might be connected, but as she, as literary executrix, begins to sort through Arthur’s papers, she uncovers clues to secrets that have been hidden for over twenty years, secrets that someone is obviously willing to kill for in order to keep them buried; but just how far is the killer willing to go and how many more people will die if these secrets are revealed?

This novel is full of the glitz and glamour of an early era (Ephron grew up in Beverly Hills during this time); subtle reminders of times gone by (Deirdre purchases an outfit ala Jennifer Beals in Flashdance) keep readers firmly in the past lest they forget and wonder where the cell phones and internet are.  It feels as if Deirdre has been floundering in the last two decades since her accident and the divorce of her parents and her mother’s relocation to a meditative compound where she is out of communication most of the time, even with her children (Deirdre has an unmarried brother Henry still living in the family home with Arthur).  Readers watch as Deirdre grows stronger, firmer in her resolve not to be a victim and to find the truth, not only with regards to her father’s death but the truth from 1963.  Once she learns the truth though, she realizes how dangerous the knowledge is and must make a difficult choice to save lives, leading to an unsettling by satisfying conclusion.  Ephron continues to be at the top of her game as she creates tension and suspense with nuanced characters and an unforgettable plot with more twists and turns than the canyon roads Deirdre travels on her way home.