DON'T GO TO SLEEP

After a yearslong reprieve, the Axeman who haunts survivor Gianna’s nightmares stalks New Orleans’ Italian grocers again.

In this true-crime reimagining of the infamous Axeman of New Orleans with a supernatural spin, the hunter becomes hunted by one of his surviving victims. Seven years ago, Gianna and Enzo were brought together through shared trauma—both of their families survived brutal attacks by an ax-wielding intruder. After 17-year-old Gianna’s reoccurring nightmare of the attack changes in a threatening way, the Axeman strikes again. Believing her dreams are connected to the killer, Gianna and Enzo scour her nightmarish visions for clues, and the grisly crime scenes pile up. Aside from the Axeman’s terrorizing of New Orleans’s maligned Italian community, the city also simmers with the tension of the Great War abroad and the 1918 influenza pandemic; readers will feel déjà vu as they learn about the historical reception of face masks and lockdowns. The supernatural elements—Gianna and the Axeman’s connection, an Italian fortuneteller—offer eerie plot tendrils to follow (though some of these are dropped) and come into play in ways that heighten the dangers during big scenes. The graphic violence grounds the story and stakes. Gianna’s parents emigrated from Italy as young adults; Enzo is third-generation Italian American. Their romantic storyline is perfunctory but does not distract from the story’s tension.

A delightfully dark historical cat-and-mouse game blending the psychic and psychological.