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Sleeping Policemen
Horror combines with noir motifs and a fast-moving plot in this tale of four college students who run over a pedestrian while driving at night in the Smoky Mountains. Finding a sheaf of hundred dollar bills and a mysterious key in the pockets of the dead man's coat, their curiosity is piqued and the friends follow clues to a bus station locker and a homemade video depicting the rape and murder of a missing teenage girl. In the hours that follow, the students find themselves under pressure from both a private detective who claims to represent the father of the missing girl and a state trooper who has connected them with the man they left for dead on the fog-shrouded mountain. Suddenly, into their nightmare of guilt and confusion, a shadowy underworld figure known as the Pachyderm appears, vehemently demanding his money and video back. Inexperienced young people battle both criminals and their own flawed instincts in this disturbing lesson about greed, excess, and cultural corruption.
198 pages, Hardcover
First published April 6, 2006
5 people are currently reading
126 people want to read
About the author
Dale Bailey
125 books170 followersDale was born in West Virginia in 1968, and grew up in a town called Princeton, just north of the Virginia line. His stories have appeared in lots of places—The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, Sci-Fiction, Lightspeed Magazine, and various anthologies. Several of them have been nominated for awards, and “Death and Suffrage,” later filmed as part of Showtime’s television anthology series Masters of Horror, won the International Horror Guild Award.
In 2003, Golden Gryphon Press collected his stories as The Resurrection Man’s Legacy and Other Stories. Two novels, The Fallen and House of Bones, came out from Signet books around the same time. A third novel—Sleeping Policemen, written with with his friend Jack Slay, Jr.—came out in 2006. He has also written a study of haunted-house fiction called American Nightmares.
He lives in North Carolina with his wife and daughter.
In 2003, Golden Gryphon Press collected his stories as The Resurrection Man’s Legacy and Other Stories. Two novels, The Fallen and House of Bones, came out from Signet books around the same time. A third novel—Sleeping Policemen, written with with his friend Jack Slay, Jr.—came out in 2006. He has also written a study of haunted-house fiction called American Nightmares.
He lives in North Carolina with his wife and daughter.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 29, 2016
A sleeping policeman, according to the opening pages of the book, is another term for a speed bump. This was my first encounter with the phrase, so I looked it up, and sure enough, this is a common term in Britain, Malta, and the Caribbean. It comes up early in the story because three of the main characters are returning from a night out and run over a pedestrian. One of the characters -- oddly enough, the one born and raised amid the Louisiana oil rigs, who was least likely to know the phrase -- says it aloud when they hit the man, making the connection, but as the story progresses, we learn that the phrase has a double meaning. As the characters try to escape and evade what they've done, they're drawn into a circle of crime involving corrupt police, who are effectively sleeping, waiting for their opportunity. Their downward spiral is dark, profane, and graphic.
Bailey and Slay seem to be channeling Jack Ketchum with this story. It's chock full of violence and sex and the fine line that exists between the two, but it's lacking whatever it is that exists in Ketchum's fiction ("charm" isn't the right word, though it's the one that comes to mind) to elevate it to that level. Part of it, I think, is that the characters aren't that likable. The authors do a good job of giving them much to lose -- three of them come from privileged backgrounds, while the fourth is looking to leave his dead-end hometown -- but they don't do much to make us like them. Nick, the main character, is the closest thing to a protagonist here, but early in the story, a choice he makes distances the reader from him, so there's a drive to see how the story ends for these characters, but there's no connection with them to make us care for them.
The authors have a great command of the language. Their style is introspective and poetic, and their observations on the human condition are thoughtful and apt. The story itself, though, is brutal and difficult to read, which is odd because the language and the tension kept me engaged. It's the kind of story that shocks and might offend, but it's also the kind of story that you can't turn away from.
Sleeping Policemen is a dark journey into youth, privilege, and greed. I enjoyed reading the book for the narrative voice, but not for the story itself. I get the feeling that, a year from now, when I try to recall details from the book, I'll come up blank, though I'll definitely remember the imagery and certain scenes. Fans of dark, nihilistic fiction, like Jack Ketchum or Chuck Palahniuk, are probably the right audience for this book.
Bailey and Slay seem to be channeling Jack Ketchum with this story. It's chock full of violence and sex and the fine line that exists between the two, but it's lacking whatever it is that exists in Ketchum's fiction ("charm" isn't the right word, though it's the one that comes to mind) to elevate it to that level. Part of it, I think, is that the characters aren't that likable. The authors do a good job of giving them much to lose -- three of them come from privileged backgrounds, while the fourth is looking to leave his dead-end hometown -- but they don't do much to make us like them. Nick, the main character, is the closest thing to a protagonist here, but early in the story, a choice he makes distances the reader from him, so there's a drive to see how the story ends for these characters, but there's no connection with them to make us care for them.
The authors have a great command of the language. Their style is introspective and poetic, and their observations on the human condition are thoughtful and apt. The story itself, though, is brutal and difficult to read, which is odd because the language and the tension kept me engaged. It's the kind of story that shocks and might offend, but it's also the kind of story that you can't turn away from.
Sleeping Policemen is a dark journey into youth, privilege, and greed. I enjoyed reading the book for the narrative voice, but not for the story itself. I get the feeling that, a year from now, when I try to recall details from the book, I'll come up blank, though I'll definitely remember the imagery and certain scenes. Fans of dark, nihilistic fiction, like Jack Ketchum or Chuck Palahniuk, are probably the right audience for this book.
October 9, 2020
Ultimately I did not enjoy this novel very much, for two reasons that may not bother you as they did me
I can't say anything against the quality of the writing - it is the style of the writing that grated on me throughout the book. For we are buried deep inside the mind of the main character Nick. We know his thoughts and we see, hear and feel everything he sees hears and feels. That is fine, except that it seems like on every page and indeed at times in every paragraph Nick remembers something from his past. Whether it is from his childhood or right up until two minutes before, he is constantly remembering or reliving something he has seen or heard. Constantly. Perhaps it is intended to give the narrative a manic, tense edge, or to show Nick's state of mind. It did not work for me and made for hard slogging as I progressed through the book. If you are okay with this writing device, you are already going to like the novel more than I did.
The other reason I had trouble with the book, and I need to be vague so as not too give too much away, involves a scene that the main characters witness. What they see is very disturbing and lives at the heart of the novel after that. My problem isn't that the scene is in the book but rather that the characters viewed the entire scene when they had every opportunity to stop watching. It made it harder for me to care what happened to people who could sit through the entire thing willingly. I and (hopefully) everyone I know and care about wouldn't have sat through it.
But you may not feel the same about that, either, so all I can say is that if you enjoy thrillers and what I have hinted at doesn't put you off, I would give it a try, because like I said at the outset, it is well-written in many ways. I like how it doesn't fall prey to some of the stereotypes of other thrillers cranked out by best-selling authors. You know, where every female character is sexy and who throw themselves at the hero, and indeed where the hero is darn near perfect. And where there is always a conspiracy high up in government, or the police force, or wherever. This book does not fall into some of those traps and I would recommend you give it a whirl just for that reason..
Finally, one of the other reviews refers to this novel as a sci-fi thriller, and I am not sure where they see the science fiction coming into it. But it is a dark sort of noir thriller, and as such may be right down your alley if you are not bothered by the two areas that worked against my enjoying it.
I can't say anything against the quality of the writing - it is the style of the writing that grated on me throughout the book. For we are buried deep inside the mind of the main character Nick. We know his thoughts and we see, hear and feel everything he sees hears and feels. That is fine, except that it seems like on every page and indeed at times in every paragraph Nick remembers something from his past. Whether it is from his childhood or right up until two minutes before, he is constantly remembering or reliving something he has seen or heard. Constantly. Perhaps it is intended to give the narrative a manic, tense edge, or to show Nick's state of mind. It did not work for me and made for hard slogging as I progressed through the book. If you are okay with this writing device, you are already going to like the novel more than I did.
The other reason I had trouble with the book, and I need to be vague so as not too give too much away, involves a scene that the main characters witness. What they see is very disturbing and lives at the heart of the novel after that. My problem isn't that the scene is in the book but rather that the characters viewed the entire scene when they had every opportunity to stop watching. It made it harder for me to care what happened to people who could sit through the entire thing willingly. I and (hopefully) everyone I know and care about wouldn't have sat through it.
But you may not feel the same about that, either, so all I can say is that if you enjoy thrillers and what I have hinted at doesn't put you off, I would give it a try, because like I said at the outset, it is well-written in many ways. I like how it doesn't fall prey to some of the stereotypes of other thrillers cranked out by best-selling authors. You know, where every female character is sexy and who throw themselves at the hero, and indeed where the hero is darn near perfect. And where there is always a conspiracy high up in government, or the police force, or wherever. This book does not fall into some of those traps and I would recommend you give it a whirl just for that reason..
Finally, one of the other reviews refers to this novel as a sci-fi thriller, and I am not sure where they see the science fiction coming into it. But it is a dark sort of noir thriller, and as such may be right down your alley if you are not bothered by the two areas that worked against my enjoying it.
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August 28, 2017This was definitely a suspenseful, scary trek into surrealism. So many things happening right after each other. Enjoyed this book a lot. Very thrilling and intense!
May 6, 2011
3.5 stars. Suspenseful and well-crafted. Very descriptive but a little gory for my stomach.
August 24, 2014
Very well written. A little darker than I'm used to reading. Saw the end coming, but overall I enjoyed reading it.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews