Several weeks ago, Nicole Wolverton emailed me and asked me if I wanted to read and review her new novel, “The Trajectory of Dreams”. She also sent along the first chapter. It seemed intriguing, so I said yes and Nicole kindly sent me a copy of her book.

In this novel, Lela White is a sleep lab technician who has a dark and troubled secret life separate from her seemingly normal everyday existence. Lela is obsessed with the sleep of astronauts and believes that years ago her mother set a bomb on a space shuttle, killing all on board. Lela is determined to make sure that the astronauts are deep sleepers and has an involved mission (including breaking into their homes) to further her objectives. Then Lela becomes attracted to and friendly with a Russian cosmonaut and he threatens the orderliness of her world and her mission.

SPOILER ALERT! In a nutshell, Lela appears outwardly normal but is seriously mentally ill, to the point of being paranoid and dangerous. She will make sure that no one stands in the way of her mission, even if it comes to murder. As this book progressed, I felt like I was on a roller coaster ride with Lela. Things were getting more and more bizarre, but I had this horrid fascination and could NOT stop reading! I had to know how things would turn out. I was reminded of reading Gillian Flynn’s work as I read this novel. I also was a bit reminded of Lehane’s “Shutter Island”.

Thanks, Nicole, for sending me your book!