Three thrillers one after another, in a short space of time, are enough to make easy sleep an unrealistic option, particularly when the books are as gripping as these recent releases.
There was an unnerving coincidence about two of them and enough realism in the third to make them all page-turners of the first degree.
It starts just as the cover claims: Suzanne Perry has someone with her in her bedroom and she cannot move a muscle.
She awakes from the nightmare and finds a photograph taken of her in her sleep.
The plot quickly moves along in a mind-bending thriller with murder, torture and young women of similar physical characteristics imprisoned in coffin-like boxes.
Detective Inspector Phil Brennan has to solve a mystery that at first no-one believes because of Perry's history with unfortunate, unproven stalking incidents in the past.
Brennan is saddled with a duplicitous boss who in turn forces him to use a suspect psychologist and the boss' latest lover - both of whom are working to thwart the solution to the case, but for different reasons.
Carver has an urgent style of writing and her descriptions of some of the grittier sides of life left this reviewer occasionally closing the book for a few minutes to let the image disappear.
Until nearly the end, Carver leaves much of the violence involved in the capture and torture of young women to the imagination of the reader.
And at the end, the threads of a fine read come together at furious pace.
The extraordinarily happy ending - which comes almost as an aside - is the only part of the book to grate.
It would have lost nothing by removing the last chapter.
Police politics come to the fore as consultants compete to prove their competence in identifying death and its causes.
A policeman goes bad and it is finally revealed how his indiscretions caused many others to hide vital evidence through lies and deceit.
The love interest of one of the main characters is hiding a secret that slowly emerges after she is attacked, not by Monk but by someone else involved in the cover-up.
Monk, although guilty of murder, is not guilty of everything put his way and, as the way some people have died on the moors is revealed, it becomes obvious their death was slow and cruel.
Again, a top policeman is involved - with much hanging on the claim that Monk committed all of the murders - and he is prepared to play the game of politics to ensure his career remains unblemished by failure.
Blood Count (Bantam, $39.99, pbk), is completely different but just as compelling to read.
A highly regarded surgeon saves the life of a Bosnian criminal who goes on to become a war criminal of some notoriety, now facing life behind bars as The Hague prepares to put him on trial.
The rape, murder and genocide authorised by him came after the surgeon saved his life - something playing on the surgeon's conscience but buried until he is approached by the daughter of the war criminal.
There is apparently a fortune hidden in accounts around the globe that the family domiciled in South America would like to have as its own.
The man managing the accounts is not taking calls from the family and the surgeon is sent to find the accountant and ensure the money is transferred to the Cayman Islands.
Failure means the surgeon will be exposed as the man who saved the life of the Bosnian who, in payment for his life-saving operation, authorised the murder of the surgeon's wife.
The search by the surgeon for the accountant as the pressure mounts on him and his family is well-written and seemingly well researched.
Dene Mackenzie is Dunedin reader.
