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    Killer Dreams
    Killer Dreams
    Killer Dreams
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    Killer Dreams

    Written by Iris Johansen

    Narrated by Jennifer Van Dyck

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Countdown returns with a knock-out suspense thriller that pits a mother and son against a killer who's the stuff of nightmares.

    If you close your eyes, he’ll get you. Sophie Dunston knows all too well how dreams can kill. As one of the nation’s top sleep therapists, she specializes in the life-threatening night terrors that her ten-year-old son, Michael, suffers from. But she is also an expert in another kind of terror–the kind that can turn a dream life into a living nightmare in the blink of an eye.

    Someone is watching. He’s a shadowy figure from out of her darkest fears and he hasn’t forgotten her. In one shocking moment of violence, he’d shattered Sophie’s world forever and left her with only one thing to live for: her son. But the nightmare isn’t over for Sophie Dunston. It’s just begun. He’s been waiting. Sophie was supposed to die the first time around, but fate intervened. This time he’ll make sure that not even a miracle will save her.

    It wasn’t a miracle that saved Jock Gavin, but it was pretty close. A semiretired hit man, commando, and jack-of-all-deadly-trades, he knows what Sophie is up against–and that she’ll need help. But the man he’s chosen for the job is as unpredictable as he is dangerous. Matt Royd is a wild card–hard, cool, merciless–and putting him into play changes the game completely. But to whose advantage?

    Sophie will soon find out. She will have to trust Royd because she has no choices left. Because the bogeyman haunting her dreams is all too real and he’s on the hunt again. Because the nightmare he’s got planned for Sophie won’t end when she wakes up screaming. It won’t end. Ever.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
    Release dateMay 30, 2006
    ISBN9780739324844
    Killer Dreams
    Author

    Iris Johansen

    Iris Johansen is the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Night, Blood Game, Eve, and Eight Days to Live, among others. She began writing after her children left home for college, and first achieved success in the early 1980s writing category romances. In 1991, she began writing suspense historical romance novels, and in 1996 she turned to crime fiction, with which she has had great success. She lives near Atlanta, Georgia.

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    Reviews for Killer Dreams

    3.5/5

    161 ratings9 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Killer Dreams grabs you from the first few pages and you can’t let go of the story of a woman who is trying to prevent a dangerous substance from being released while keeping her son safe. Full of action and heart Iris Johansen provides proof of what a person will go through in order to help/take accountability for her past.
    • 5/5
      Have read and love most of Johansen's books. As in all her novels, I love the fast paced action and romance. She has kept me reading way into the night for years now and will remain one of my favorite authors for years to come.
    • 5/5
      Behind on my reviews. Not even sure what date I finished reading this book. Usual put in right after I'm finished. I read books really fast and start another one but the reviews I have trouble with.
    • 2/5
      I picked up the paperback version from the library because I like scary stories and the cover and blurb on the back seemed to promise that. (A woman and child running through what looks like a forest in the dark, and the font of the book title almost looking like it was written in blood, only black in color.) The prologue DID grab me. An event that I promise you won't see coming knocked the socks off me and I thought a great story was in store. Instead, the story didn't seem to match the cover and blurb on the back. The plot itself was pretty good, but the heroine got on my nerves. She and her child are in danger and lots of folks are risking their lives to save them and instead of appreciation, the heroine is utterly defiant through most of the book. It left me feeling as though they ought to just drop her off on the nearest street corner and leave her to fend for herself. Also, I didn't see anything on the cover or back to suggest that this was a romantic suspense story, and I don't like those at all. Granted, this wasn't at bad as the "her heaving bosom, his throbbing..." types, but as the outside of the book gave no hint of it coming, I was sad to see it in the story. The evil plot was pretty good; if this book was written without the romance or without such a hateful heroine, it would be MUCH better.
    • 2/5
      I found Killer Dreams a very laughable book. I don’t think Iris Johansen meant this work to be a comedy and it certainly was not funny. It was more the “You gotta be kidding me” type of laughter.

      Here’s the setup in a nutshell: a brilliant biochemist, Sophie, has a son suffering from night terrors. She is working on a formula for a drug that will alleviate this problem. Her boss sees mind control possibilities and wants the formula so he can sell it to the highest bidder. She rebuffs the idea, is forced out of the company and he takes revenge. So far, if you’ve read or seen The Manchurian Candidate, you’ve got the idea, only it is drug induced blind obedience, not conditioning or brain implants.

      Now the story becomes a parody. Enter not one, but two, former members of the original brain washing experiments. One is a clear “good guy” the other, a character named Royd, is described by other characters as “unstable” and “unpredictable”. I’ve got no problem, with characters like that, in fact they add to the story. What Johansen gives us is a guy who goes from being a plus ten on the good guy scale to plus ten on the dirty rotten SOB scale the space of a single period between sentences. He becomes Rambo and James Bond all at the same time and it does not work.

      As expected, there is a lot of sexual tension between Royd and Sophie. He spends most of his time strutting around like a turkey at mating season while all the time telling her how good it will be in such a way that he gives late night infomercial pitch people a bad name. Why someone with Sophie’s supposed brains puts up with this is beyond me.

      Supporting this is an equally bad cast of stereotypical bad guys, predictably alumnae of the same training school Royd went to, and mysterious good guy benefactors that just happen to have access to the resources needed to quell the bad guys’ plans. Yawn.

      I am still trying to figure out what it was that kept me reading this to the expected end of the book. If you surgically removed all the over the top parody, this would make a decent sized novella or longer short story. I don't think the story would improve any, but at least your suffering through it would be diminished. If you are into romance thrillers, this story may do it for you. If you prefer them as separate genres, however, this is a definite buzz killer. My over all impression is under average. I even feel that is being generous as I’m adding at least one star because I did feel compelled to stay with the book until the end.
    • 5/5
      Love, Love, Love this book!! In my opinion one of the best from Iris so far. It starts out with a bang and then just keeps up the pace throughout the whole book. Not one dull moment in this one i promise... If your not an Iris fan , you will be after you read this one.
    • 5/5
      What a BOOK! She had me turning pages late into the night! I really liked the premise of the book.

      Sophie is a sleep specialist and had developed a program to help people who suffer from chronic nightmares. However, someone has found away to use it for military purposes. Sophie tries to take down the mastermind behind these horrible experiments.

      Enter Matt Royd. He is a victim of this testing. He too, is trying to take down the evil mastermind. And he won't let anyone get in his way.

      One of my favorite things about Johansen's writing style is how she can create an entirely different story inter-weaving characters through out. She is a master storyteller and this is a work of art!
    • 4/5
      Killer Dreams is a very good romantic suspense thriller. Johansen pulls off the connection between a previously brainwashed hired killer and the scientist who invented the formula with which he was brainwashed, very well. The romance takes a backseat to the action though only serving to create enough friction to make the plot a little deeper. The rest is a worldwide chase to find the man whose playing god with the formula the heroine developed to help people and to escape the brainwashed killers he keeps sending to kill and her son. It's very exciting, action packed, edge of the seat stuff and kept me reading all day and most of the night until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.. My first Johansen book and definitely not my last..
    • 3/5
      An interesting book but not Johansen's best work. I listened to the audio version and it was decent. The
      plot centers around a formula for REM 4 a mind control substance but the science is not explained quite enough to understand how it works or to really make it believable.

      Sophie, the main character is a bit of a poor me type person but she gets stronger throughout.

      Jane Maguire has a small role and some others characters from Johansens earlier books.