Flawed 5th act scuttles Huston`s `Sleepless`

New York: ‘Sleepless’, the new novel from the writer of the moment, Charlie Huston, kept us up all night through 275 pages.A flawed fifth act, though, cuts down what might have been the most satisfying achievement in Huston`s dizzying ascent from unknown to one of the most interesting writers working the crime/mystery/supernatural beat. Still, Huston has woven a serious novel full of ideas about our future, concerns about our present and dead-on characterizations. Parker Haas is a novelty in the near-future world Huston has created. The young LAPD detective is a man of conviction in a time when it`s everyone for himself. He`s interested in the common good, when no one else — not the government, not the police and certainly not the many competing interests in the novel — seems to give a damn anymore. The world is unraveling thanks to a new progressive disease that has rendered 10 percent of the population unable to sleep. And the number is growing. At the same time, the U.S. is hit with droughts, domestic terrorism and widespread panic. Haas` Los Angeles is a war zone. Authorities have put the city under martial law and multiple columns of smoke dot the horizon from suicide bombing attacks by religious zealots and firefights involving gangs and private security forces. In the midst of all this, Haas is dealing with a sleepless wife, a newborn child who may be infected and a nearly impossible assignment. He goes deep underground to search out black market sales of the only drug that seems to help the afflicted, and it`s a long fruitless search for the most part. As Haas makes headway, he thinks he`s found an international conspiracy, but he isn`t sure. He`s having trouble sleeping and keeping the facts straight, he`s in constant fear for his wife and child, and he stumbles into a multiple murder that seems to be connected to the drug trade he`s investigating. Yet his superiors tell him to drop it. "Sleepless" is at its best when Huston is describing Park`s relationship with his wife. It`s poignant and sweet and has a depth and emotion beyond anything Huston has attempted so far. When it comes time to answer all the questions Haas has been asking, though, Huston gives us a tidy, even abrupt, ending in a world that no longer seems to value neatness and order. In the Henry Thompson Trilogy and the Joe Pitt Casebooks, Huston showed he can spin an adept thriller. With his most recent books, "The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death" and now "Sleepless," the author shows us that he`s willing to stretch and reach for something with more meaning. Let`s hope there`s more on the way. Bureau Report