Robert Westbrook - Insomnia

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Robert Westbrook - Insomnia (Onyx, May 2002)

Blurb:
In a remote part of the world where the sun doesn't set...

Los Angeles detective Will Dormer has arrived in the wilds of a small Alaskan town to hunt down the killer of a teenage girl. Already on the edge, Dormer faces an unnerving twist in the case when a second murder occurs ... and he's left holding the gun. The crime is now under investigation by local detective Ellie Burr, but when Dormer comes up with an unexpected alibi, he isn't even considered a suspect. The truth of what happened need never be revealed. He doesn't have to say a thing.

The only darkness is in the soul of man ...

But Dormer has something else he never counted on. A witness. A killer who's going to make his life a waking nightmare.

Under investigation by the dreaded LAPD Internal affairs department, grizzled Detective Will Dorner and his partner, Hap Eckart, are temporarily located to Nightmute, Alaska, "Halibut fishing capital of the world," to investigate the murder of a 23 year old student. Kay Connell was beaten to death, her corpse stuffed in a bin bag and deposited on the town dump. The killer first treated her to a post-mortem shampoo and manicure.

As hostile as her colleagues are to the idea of two city big shots muscling in on their case, Ellie Burr, 23, couldn't be happier. The only woman on Chief Nyback's team, Ellie made detective just three weeks ago, and already a chance to learn from the best (Dorner's fame precedes him).

Dorner soon finds that the Alaskan summer doesn't agree with him on account of there is no night. As exhausted as he is, he finds it impossible to sleep, and now good old Hap Eckhart has let on that he's intending to cut a deal with John Warfield, head of Internal affairs, to save his own skin. Dorner knows that Warfield isn't the least interested in Eckhart, it's him the bastard wants to nail, and whatever Eckhart lets on about their "complicated" procedures will bring that a step nearer. He despises Hap as a traitor.

A breakthrough in the Connell case. Some kids find Kay's holdall in a decrepit fishing cabin on the beach, among her soggy possessions, a diary and a paperback, 'Otherwise Engaged. Another S. Brodie mystery.'

The police stake-out the cabin, but the killer is more familiar with the territory than they and, taking advantage of the thick fog, escapes into a disused mine shaft of several interconnected tunnels. As the cops flounder in pursuit, he blasts one of their number in the leg. Dorner, who can just make out a grey shape darting through the fog, returns fire and scores a direct hit .... on his partner. Hap Eckhart dies in his arms, accusation in his eyes.

Chief Nyback has an inkling of what's happened but attributes Eckhart's murder to the as yet unidentified Connell suspect. It falls on Ellie Burr to compile a report on the tragedy. Dormer, hating himself for it but knowing that if he doesn't cover his tracks Warfield will crucify him, is reduced to tampering with the scant evidence.

Which brings us to the eight page photo-inset.

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Ah, the photo-inset. Should you be thinking to read Insomnia, then leave the stills - or at least, their captions - until last as they are even worse than Vault spoilers.

Even hero worship has its cutoff point and Elle, nothing if not diligent, soon has reason to doubt Dormer's version of events in regard to the convenient fatal shooting of his partner. She's not the only one. Back at the Pioneer Lodge Bar, the sleep-deprived detective receives a phone-call from Kay Connell's murderer, who witnessed the incident. Chatty and polite, the killer has done his homework and knows all about Will's problems back in LA. He casually - and very deliberately - lets slip enough personal information for Will to identify him as Walter Finch, the author of the very same 'J. Brody mysteries' as endorsed by the late Miss Connell. Finch suggests a meeting would be to their mutual benefit. Dormer has already realised that, now he's told one big lie, henceforth his life will be an endless round of them. If he sometimes straddled the line between the legal and the illegal prior to the shooting, by making the evidence go away there is no doubt he has crossed permanently to the dark side. Flattering himself that he's one step ahead of his tormentor, Will breaks into his apartment - just as Finch knew he would.

Approaching the home straits now. Mr. Westbrook has everything simmering nicely.

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I BRAKE FOR HALLUCINATIONS

With Walter Finch holding all the aces, Will Dormer complies in framing Kay's boyfriend, fist-happy Randy Stotz, for her brutal murder. Woman-beating lowlife he may be, but Stotz is as yet innocent of homicide. Dormer is sharp, but six days and nights without sleep have taken their toll - "You've beaten my record" marvels Finch - and the creepy author has ran rings around him. Back at his temporary lodgings, Will confides in the landlady, Rachel. About the time he planted evidence to secure a conviction against a child molester who tortured and killed a little boy over several days. About the circumstances behind Hap's death. He no longer knows whether he meant to shoot his self-serving partner or otherwise.

Our rookie detective Ellie Burr is torn between confiding her suspicions about Dormer to Chief Nyback or forgetting the whole thing, allowing him to board his flight home to LA now the Carroll case has been officially "solved". She drives to Finch's remote Lake Kgun summer house intent on retrieving the letters he exchanged with Kay. She can't pinpoint why the author gives her a really bad feeling, but ..... Oh, now that he's landed her a vicious blow to the head she can.

Dormer, possessed of some of his old clarity now he's shared his burden with Rachel, realises that Ellie, as a cop and an attractive young woman, conforms to Finch's ultimate fantasy victim. There is fifty miles between him and Lake Kgun. Can he yet put things right and, in doing so, save his soul?

From the moment Dormer and Eckart's plane touches down in Nightmute, Insomnia fair belts along. Only saw the film once so hard to draw a comparison, but if you find a copy going begging and you've a fondness for psychological thrillers, you could do worse than pick it up.