Robert J. Wiersema Before I Wake

Before I Wake

Robert J. Wiersema

St. Martin's, May 2007, $21.95

ISBN: 0312363184

The truck slammed the car containing Karen Barrett and her three year old daughter Sherry Barrett; the driver failed to stay at the scene of the accident. Karen's injuries are minor, but Sherry suffers a head injury that leaves her comatose and surviving on life support. To the amazement of the medical community, a despondent Karen legalizes pulling the plug but the brain dead child lives on her own. Karen's spouse Simon deserts his wife and child moving in with another woman.

Nightmares even when awake haunt the hit and run truck driver Henry. He is so depressed over what he caused and compounded by fleeing he considers suicide. Unable to cope he leaps off a cliff, but instead of dying in the abyss, some force holds him safely back on the ledge. He joins the legion of ghostly immortals led by Tim.

Karen and the arthritic wracked nurse Ruth cares for the child. A miracle occurs when the nurse's arthritis is cured; soon her sister dying from lung cancer visits Sherry and her disease goes into remission. News spread of the miracle worker leading to those seeking a cure from the holy child and those led by Father Peter wanting to kill the blasphemous devil's offspring.

There are three prime subplots driven by key characters that merge into a great supernatural thriller. Readers will feel the despair that debilitates Karen and the suicidal despondency that haunts Henry even as the tense family drama spins into a miracle worker plot. Robert .J Wiersema provides a deep thriller that will keep his audience wondering until the revelatory final confrontation what is happening with Sherry and Henry and who is Tim and Father Peter?

Harriet Klausner