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Shockingly poor, with an increasingly preposterous plot and an awkwardly abrupt narrative, Don’t Wake Up is comparable only to the misery of a six-hour wait in A&E surrounded by inebriated football hooligans. For me, this novel sums up everything that is wrong with the over populated female friendly psychological thriller market.. far fetched scenarios, unlikely occurrences to satisfy the twist component and inane decision making by unconvincing characters devoid of both consistency and logic. That Liz Lawler’s narrative is unwieldy adds to the overriding feeling that Don’t Wake Up is an amateur attempt at capitalising on the relatively unexplored territory of dark and unsettling medical mayhem.

When twenty-eight year old Bristol based doctor, Alex Taylor, wakes up in theatre with only drapes covering her modesty, strapped to the operating table with her ankles in stirrups and two large cannulas inserted into her arms, her medical training kicks in. Struggling to drag herself from a sluggish lethargy obviously induced by anaesthesia she finds a masked figure looming over her who she assumes is a doctor, although she fails to recognise the voice. As the mystery voice threatens to staple her lips, she is told that her coil has been removed and that she is due to undergo a vulvectomy (removal of the vulva). Her only chance to halt the planned treatment comes when she is asked the question, “what does ‘no�� mean?��, the intimation of which is that saying ‘no�� whilst dressed like a strumpet is equivalent to saying ‘yes�� and leading a man on.

When she reawakens for a second time however, Alex finds herself greeted by two of her closest colleagues; her boss and senior consultant, Dr Caroline Cowan and her best friend and senior nursing sister, Fiona Woods, who are insistent that she was simply discovered in the hospital car park and suspected of being hit by a falling branch in the gale force wind. They attribute her confusion and panic to concussion and are mystified by her assertions that she has been raped. Despite their reassurances Alex insists on reporting her alleged abduction and rape to the police, for which no supporting evidence is found. Riddled with inconsistencies, the first fifty pages were enough to show me that Lawler’s developing plot owed more to being selective with the information she presents than overtly up front about the circumstances. Naturally no one believes Alex and whilst several close colleagues connect it to the unprocessed trauma of an incident a year back, knowledge of which is a closely guarded secret.

Despite this harrowing event Alex is convinced by her arrogant boyfriend of a year, vet Patrick Ford, to hightail it to Barbados for a week’s respite during which time she fails to mention the incident and is intimate with her partner, which is laughable. Back on home soil and Alex’s claims return with a vengeance and it becomes clear that both Patrick and her colleagues think she is losing the plot and suffering from post-traumatic stress. As she attempts to return to her demanding job, her colleagues reticence to engage with her and their obvious disbelief exacerbates her paranoia and as she struggles to cope she turns to both alcohol and diazepam to manage her fears. Two weeks later the emergency admission of a pregnant nurse and the young woman’s death bed words lead Alex to believe that she has been a victim of this same attacker. Reporting the death as suspicious, the police start questioning Alex’s sanity and after the blame for near-fatal drug error is laid at her door and she is present at another suspicious death, Alex wonders whom, if anyone, she can trust, and how to establish her own innocence. As she begins to suspect that the only answer is to proactively search out the psychopath intent on destroying her life the stakes become ever riskier.

As a central protagonist I was convinced by Alex’s insistence of the initial episode but it is is the rapidity of her swings in mood and distress that smack of unconvincing. From sitting fully clothed in the shower addled by vodka and taking daily doses of diazepam in order to keep some semblance of calm, Lawler manages to follow up each tale of woe with Alex needing very little persuasion to go to a nightclub or evening out with colleagues, and her seamless transference of romantic interest does nothing to make her situation more believable. The characters were largely one-dimensional, and the police and medical staff largely unprofessional, from SIO DI Greg Turner who goes weak at the knees over Dr. Taylor and is unwilling to even countenance her potential involvement, to immature DC Laura Best and her attempts at a single-handed character assassination of a talented medic, going out of her way to dig dirt and intent on claiming her scalp. From biased cops to doctors under the influence, the moral of this story seems to be steer clear of anyone working for or operating under the guise of the emergency services.

The premise of Don’t Wake Up on which the novel is marketed makes it sound like the plot has some element of substance, so despite the woefully inept opening chapters I persevered. Comically bad, the plot and execution is dire but nothing can mask the fact that there is little sleight of hand in evidence and for readers to even imagine these incidents are the work of a increasingly delusional Alex takes a massive suspension of disbelief. Seeing as these incidents did manage to confound the entire CID personnel I was clearly alone is seeing through this transparent plot and whilst clear medical know how is evident and well researched the police response (personal wild goose chases, hours of navel gazing and muck racking) is risible.

When the elaborate motive is revealed it feels desperately unlikely that a person would go to such extraordinary lengths to destroy someone’s career and sanity and stretches the bounds of credibility immensely, given that the risk reward ratio is stacked against a successful execution and that it relies on the perpetrator having superhuman powers and infinite resources to hand. Apart from the early insight into how rape crisis victims are handled and what an utterly degrading experience such a process is, Don’t Wake Up, has few redeeming aspects and my rating reflects the neatly tied up loose ends which by and large answered most of my remaining questions, although one or two still admittedly linger. Although Alex is belatedly referred to a psychoanalyst to help her tackle her problems, this line of thread is largely untapped despite its obvious potential and felt like a missed opportunity.

Abysmal writing, inane plot and come year end, a reading lowlight!