No Sleep till Wonderland: A Novel [Paperback]

Paul Tremblay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2010

Mark Genevich, narcoleptic detective, is caught between friends and a police investigation in this wickedly riveting PI novel with a twist—a follow-up to The Little Sleep

Mark Genevich is stuck in a rut: his narcolepsy isn’t improving, his private-detective business is barely scraping by, and his landlord mother is forcing him to attend group therapy sessions. Desperate for companionship, Mark goes on a two-day bender with a new acquaintance, Gus, who is slick and charismatic—and someone Mark knows very little about. When Gus asks Mark to protect a friend who is being stalked, Mark inexplicably finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation and soon becomes the target of the police, a sue-happy lawyer, and a violent local bouncer. Will Mark learn to trust himself in time to solve the crime—and in time to escape with his life?

Written with the same “witty voice that doesn’t let go”* that has won Paul Tremblay so many fans, No Sleep Till Wonderland features a memorable detective whose only hope for reconciling with his difficult past is to keep moving—asleep or awake—toward an uncertain future.

*Library Journal, starred review for The Little Sleep

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While somewhat derivative of Hitchcock, Tremblay's second novel featuring South Boston PI Mark Genevich improves enough on the first, The Little Sleep (2009), to suggest that the unusual hero—a narcoleptic sleuth subject to unpredictable blackouts—can sustain a series. Genevich is scraping the bottom of the barrel after one of his frequent screwups leads to his following the wrong woman on what should have been a straightforward investigation of marital infidelity, a goof that leads his client, an investment company CEO, to consider suing him. Genevich gets another opportunity from a fellow member of the group therapy sessions his mother forces him to attend, who asks him to protect a female bartender from a stalker. That assignment winds up placing Genevich on the police radar as an arson suspect. The plot twists satisfy more than surprise, but the clever writing will keep readers turning the pages. (Feb.)
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Review

"No Sleep till Wonderland delivers on the tremendous promise of The Little Sleep, simultaneously paying homage to classic noir fiction while creating a damaged and irrevocably lost anti-hero in PI Mark Genevich, who is always on the verge of emotional and physical collapse. This is a novel filled with black humor but an even blacker subtext that makes the reader question the nature of reality and self; heady stuff for a crime novel, for sure, but Paul Tremblay is a fearless writer and No Sleep till Wonderland is positively magnetic fiction."--Tod Goldberg, author of Other Resort Cities and Simplify

"Snappy prose, a brilliantly original detective and a cast of sharply drawn low lifes—Paul Tremblay mixes it up with style. In the end, No Sleep till Wonderland is much more than just a crime book—it’s all about the narrator's unique take on the world. Thoroughly recommended."--Simon Lewis, author of Bad Traffic

"Paul Tremblay somehow manages to channel Franz Kafka, write like Raymond Chandler, and whip up a completely original, utterly whack-a-doodle reinvention of the detective novel. This book rocks."--Mark Haskell Smith, author of Salty

"Like The Little Sleep, this one plays it straight. There's no gimmickry with Genevich's narcolepsy, and there's no condescension with his character, and like TLS, the writing sings with all these wonderful weird free associations. As much as I liked TLS, I liked this one even more. Tremblay's voice is one of the most original in hardboiled PI fiction, and he has definitely breathed new life into the genre. This is great stuff, and I can't recommend it strongly enough. Nobody right now is writing more original or better PI novels than Tremblay."--Dave Zeltserman, author of Pariah

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (February 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805088504
• ISBN-13: 978-0805088502
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,456,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Tremblay is the author of The Little Sleep (Henry Holt, March 3, 2009). and No Sleep till Wonderland (February 2010).

He is a three-time nominee of the Bram Stoker award has sold over fifty short stories to markets such as Razor Magazine, Weird Tales, Last Pentacle of the Sun: Writings in Support of the West Memphis Three, and Best American Fantasy 3. He is the author of the short speculative fiction collection Compositions for the Young and Old and the forthcoming In the Mean Time (October 2010), and the novellas City Pier: Above and Below and The Harlequin and the Train. He served as fiction editor of CHIZINE and as co-editor of Fantasy Magazine, and was also the co-editor (with Sean Wallace) of the Fantasy, Bandersnatch, and Phantom anthologies. Paul is currently an advisor for the Shirley Jackson Awards as well.

Paul is very truthful and declarative in his bios. He once gained three inches of height in a single twelve hour period, and he does not have a uvula. His second toe is longer than his big toe, and yes, on both feet. He has a master's degree in mathematics, teaches AP Calculus, and once made twenty-seven three pointers in a row. He enjoys reading The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher aloud in a faux-British accent to his two children. He is also reading this bio aloud, now, with the same accent. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts and he is represented by Stephen Barbara, Foundry Literary + Media.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful follow-up, February 15, 2010

By 

Neal Hock "bookhound78" (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Sleep till Wonderland: A Novel (Paperback)

The bar was set high by Tremblay's first release, The Little Sleep. However, in this follow-up to The Little Sleep, Tremblay delivers a powerful story featuring the unique narcoleptic detective, Mark Genevich. While Tremblay's wit is displayed throughout this novel, the mood and atmosphere is much darker than The Little Sleep. The reader is plunged into Genevich's world, often wondering what is reality and what is dreaming. Genevich becomes involved in a police investigation of an arson and death, becoming a suspect himself. As Genevich delves deeper into the mystery, the line between dream and reality becomes more blurred. His search for answers leads Genevich down a very dangerous path. Does he have the ability to discover the truth? Can he handle that truth?

You won't be disappointed by this book. Tremblay is truly at the top of his game, and you would be missing a gem of a story if you miss out on this one.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars thoroughly enjoyable, August 5, 2010

By 

Dave Zeltserman (Needham, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Sleep till Wonderland: A Novel (Paperback)

Both of Paul Tremblay's Mark Genevich books, The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland, are maybe the most inventive and enjoyable contemporary PI novels I've come across. Tremblay has a wonderful voice with very clever and funny observations that populate his writing. While The Little Sleep pays homage to Chandler's The Big Sleep is about Genevich uncovering dark secrets about his past, No Sleep Till Wonderland pays homage to Chandler's The Long Goodbye and is all about Genevich's present. The story has to do with Genevich trying to help out a friend and keep a woman safe, and while No Sleep is strongly plotted, it's Tremblay voice and strong+sympathetic characterization of narcoleptic PI, Mark Genevich, that makes this such a wonderful ride. It's impossible for me to recommend these two books strongly enough. Anyone with the slightest interest in crime fiction needs to read these, which in my mind are the very best of the Boston PI series.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trembley Delivers Again! Great Writing & A Truly Classic Private Eye, August 19, 2010

By 

R. A. Barricklow "Scaramouche" (Las Vegas NV USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: No Sleep till Wonderland: A Novel (Paperback)

I couldn't wait to reacquaint myself with private eye/narcoleptic Mark Genevich, not that I was losing any sleep over it. Like Mark says about being disrepectful to stories(in a group therapy-like setting), they don't happen the way that most are told. In real stories there's no order, no beginning, middle, or end. They are messy, unpredicable, and usually cruel.
This then, is the in & out-of-it world that has become the reality for Mark, since the accident that led to his narcolepsy? It is the slipping between the worlds of sleep/awake that bring a metaphysical/wonderland-rabbit-hole perspective that the character appears to: dress-in/adress-to, make sence of what is real? His dialogue slip streams with this awareness that others are not privy to, but the reader is/Sounds like something the asleep me would do. He's a rascal, that one./My Jurassic age has giant gaps in the fossil record. Am I remembering what actually happened or remembering some previous retelling or reshaping of what actually happened?
The author never loses a grip on his character. This has to be phenomenal tasking on the author's part simply because/I'am a barely there cadaver who shouldn't be donated to science/It's a place for small-timers, their small deals, and their smaller dreams. I feel right at home/Oh, he's so smooth, like chunky-style peanut butter.
That's the kind of writing that nailed it for me in The Little Sleep & continues in spades with Wonderland. That the author can write such an easy to follow story with such an original off-beat character and do it so the reader readily goes along for the ride is/The driver doesn't believe in smooth acceleration or stop, bouncing me around the backseat like a ball bearing in a spray can.
So tell your family & friends to take a not-so-sleepy ride with Tremblay's narcoleptic detective, Mark Genevich/Great somebody told her, and I'm sure she's hardly the only person swinging on that grapevine.

HIGHLY Recommended !!!!!!!