Sweet Dreams, Irene

Irene Kelly #2

by Jan Burke

Irene Kelly is a reporter with a fierce integrity. Detective Frank Harriman is her lover and friend. Now they're both about to be plunged into political hellfire when a ruthless politician rocks a race for district attorney with a stunning allegation: his opponent's son is in the clutches of a satanic cult.

The charge takes a fatal turn when a local woman is brutally murdered, and the grisly crime scene bears unholy implications. Tracking the clues takes Irene behind the closed doors of an isolated home for troubled youths, where obscuring the truth is only part of a stranger's diabolic game. To win it, Irene will have the devil to pay.

Genres: Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Suspense, Audiobook

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars- I really liked this book even though I guessed who “The Goat” was from the beginning. I’m not sure why I knew so early on because there really weren’t any clues to their identity but I did know. This book however was a lot more grisly than the first one, with some scenes of torture and even attempted rape that I had a hard time reading. It was a little too much for me so I did deduct the .25 from my star rating just because it was a little darker than I wanted. Even with that though this was a good story. The author did a great job of describing Irene’s PTSD from all of the traumatic experiences she went through and I could palpably feel her tension, fear, and anxiety. It was very well written. I LOVED the ending so much!! And I loooooove Irene and Frank to the moon and back.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am SO happy that I decided to reread this series. It's bringing me such enjoyment! I read Sweet Dreams, Irene in a day and a half. Most of it this afternoon, in fact. Just curled up on the couch and inhaled it.

Is it weird that murder mysteries are my comfort reads? Specific kinds of murder mysteries -- ones written by authors I can trust to give me a happy ending with restored moral balance. Like Jan Burke.

[Betsy Cornwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1994, Irene Kelly is a refreshing change from 21st-century female ninja-heroes who can kick any bad guy's ass while working full-time, being a world-class mother, and never, ever sleeping. Irene manages to be intrepid, courageous, and human all at the same time. This is an edge-of-the-seat read with a little more pain than I'd like. Otherwise, the characters are intriguing and believable and the story kept me hooked. I'll definitely read another one of these.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook and I’m so happy I found this series! Great character development, great plot, great narrator. What more can I say? Loved it!

[Sylvie Geerts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brave thriller zonder gruwelijkheden die ik toch netjes heb uitgelezen. Het laatste hoofdstuk was er wel teveel aan. Was naar mijn mening enkel boekvulling.

[LJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

SWEET DREAMS. IRENE - VG
Burke, Jan - 2nd in series

Reporter Irene Kelly investigates a "satanic" cult, a dirty political race, and, of course, murder.

Burke is such a good writer. This was a very good read.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I checked it out of the library to read during some recent travel but it didn't even make it to the airport. Utterly craptastic.

[Amy Bruestle · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, love love love!

[Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first began reading this, I thought I had died and gone back to the time when Geraldo Rivera did television specials on the evils of satanic worship. It felt like that era was back in this book. Irene Kelly is a newspaper reporter. She is romantically involved with a homicide cop, and that creates a lot of tension in both places. The newsroom wonders whether she's holding stuff back; the cop shop employees don't trust him with information for fear he will run to her with stuff they'd rather keep secret. It makes for a tough environment to grow a romance. But the two are working at it, and they are doing fine.

As a local election draws near, Irene receives a visit from a teenage boy. His dad is running for the district attorney slot in town. The opponent has a teenage daughter, and the boy's father is certain he can capitalize on a family issue in his opponent's life. It seems the girl is into covens and witchcraft. The boy's father wants to expose that. The problem we have is the young man has romantic feelings for the girl. He really doesn't want his dad to go public with the information. That seems like pretty small potatoes until someone murders a girl who knew the lawyer's daughter.

I have dipped in and out of this series. So, I know the writing style improves as the books move forward. This one was ok. At one point, someone kidnaps Irene and threatens her life. The author fills the final chapters with suspense and a lot of nail-biting plot points. After I read this, I would think twice before getting into a sailboat. That's all I'm going to say about that. I will definitely continue with this series. I read the first book several years ago, and that's why I'm not writing about it now.

[Gail Sacharski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came into the Irene Kelly series at the third book & have been trying to read the first two in the series for quite some time, especially since it's been a long time since Jan Burke has written anything new. I finally read #1 last year & now have finished #2. I like the characters, there was a witchy theme as it starts around Halloween, Irene & Frank are still exploring their new relationship & trying to figure each other out, there's a big election story going on that Irene is covering that brings on several new problems including Irene's kidnapping. Great book.

[Vivien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book though at times I wish there was another perspective besides Irene's.
Thank god the truth is revealed before the election, I would hate for that liar politician to win & become DA. If he would lie about his opponent, I wonder what else he would lie about.
Frank's mother is a bitch, Irene should have let Frank take her away & never look back. It's her fault that she drove her own son away. She should have gotten what was coming to her instead of being forgiven.

[Mj Rapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason, I've never read a Jan Burke book before. I did enjoy this one but I think it was more about spotting all of the technological changes between 1994 and 2018. I doubt the plot could have stood up to having cell phones and computers, it was just too weak. That said, I will probably try another book in the series.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been a good long time since I read Ms. Burkes debut, Goodnight Irene. So, it was time to visit with Irene Kelly again, who's a combination of Nancy Drew and Lois Lane. A well crafted mystery, with Irene's sharp, witty humor, that isn't over done.

[Judith Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not stop reading this book! So scary!! But she got through all the scary parts and the end was great!! I just wish her other books were easily available but it is hard to find the rest!! Any one know where I could find them??

[Corinne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the overall story was interesting, there was altogether too much violence, and most of the story was gruesome. The main character was incredibly foolhardy and got into dangerous situations without a second thought.

[Shirley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always enjoy Jan Burke but this older one interesting as one recalls a time without all of today's technology--no cell phones, for example.

[Susan Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

2nd in the series. Less details about newspaper reporting and more violence than the first. It was all necessary to the story though, so I still enjoyed the book. Will see where #3 takes us.

[aprilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll continue the series

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure if I've read any of this author's books before but am enjoying the easy reading whodunnits.

[LaToya Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decided to revisit this one while on vacation. I started it decades ago and didn't complete it. Now that I'm older than the protagonist it lands completely differently. I enjoyed it very much.

[Mary Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow moving cute mystery

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Politics and murder mix in the second mystery, after Goodnight, Irene , to feature Southern California newspaper reporter Irene Kelly and her homicide detective lover, Frank Harriman. Jacob Henderson, teenaged son of a district attorney candidate whose mudslinging race Irene has been covering, asks her to prevent his father's opposition from announcing that the youth is a member of a satanic cult. Sammy, Jacob's girlfriend, tells Irene that the group is pagan but not satanist. She admits, however, that she and others in the group, most of whom live in a youth shelter, fear the man in a goat's-head mask who is their new leader. That night, Frank's elderly neighbor, founder of the shelter, is found murdered, with a rough drawing of a goat's head left on her front door. Then Sammy leaves Irene a message that she has run away from the shelter, which is run by the murdered woman's grandson. After another gruesome murder and mutilation, Irene is kidnapped and taken to a remote cabin where she is systematically beaten. Graphic torture scenes and Irene's cunningly crafted escape give the tale a jagged, somewhat unexpected edge.

[Bettie]

rosado mp3

Description: Irene Kelly is a reporter with a fierce integrity. Detective Frank Harriman is her lover and friend. Now they're both about to be plunged into political hellfire when a ruthless politician rocks a race for district attorney with a stunning allegation: his opponent's son is in the clutches of a satanic cult. The charge takes a fatal turn when a local woman is brutally murdered, and the grisly crime scene bears unholy implications. Tracking the clues takes Irene behind the closed doors of an isolated home for troubled youths, where obscuring the truth is only part of a stranger's diabolic game. To win it, Irene will have the devil to pay.

Can't do it, this is why they invented the word 'craptastic'. The first book I scraped up to a three star, however this went into free-fall from the outset and became as irretrievable as the black box from flight MH370.

3* Goodnight Irene
NOPE! Sweet Dreams, Irene

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another in the Irene Kelly Southern California newspaper reporter mystery series. As usual, Irene finds herself in the middle of murder and the target of the murderers. While covering city elections, Irene becomes involved with the children of the candidates, election smears, a shelter for runaways, witchcraft, Satanism, and scheming. By the time the mystery is solved, Irene has been kidnapped, severely beaten, and affected psychologically by the ordeal.

While this is a good series, one does get a bit tired of Irene always being in the middle of things suffering physical and psychological harm which carries over into the next novel and then being compounded by events in that story. A normal person would quickly become a basket case and probably institutionalized while Irene goes on carrying all these affects while basically never learning from all of this.

[Nora aka Diva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually liked this, I wasn't sure I was going to. Perhaps because the book I read before it sucked so bad. Maybe not, maybe it's just a good book. lol. I just discovered that it's the second book in a series. Well there you go, I intend to find the first one and the next one in the series so I guess I do like this book. lol The characters were believable. You could feel their emotions without it being overly done. There even was a romantic side to it, well a little. Thank the gods no overwhelmingly nauseating lovey dovey shit that I hate. You could tell that Irene and her cop boyfriend are in live and dedicated to each other but there wasn't any of the sappy crap one finds in actual romance novels(if that makes sense.)
Hmm, I may have read the first one. The title seem rather familiar. lol

[Teena in Toronto · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second in this series of nine (as of 2011). I'd read it years ago and am now rereading the series.

I enjoyed this one. It's been a while so I'd forgotten whodunnit so the mystery was still there for me.

I like the characters of Irene and Frank ... they are nice people who have recently found each other and care about each other. The other characters are secondary and there's no one annoying.

There is a kidnapping and beating situation that I thought was a bit extreme ... if anyone had taken that kind of punishment, there's no way they could have survived.

I am looking forward to rereading the third one!

Blog review: http://www.teenaintoronto.com/2012/05...

[Michael Sump · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is my 2nd Jan Burke novel and probably my last. I thought her first novel about Irene Kelly was pretty good. Irene is a newpaper reporter in a Southern California coastal city, the region was interesting, and I needed a new series. This novel has all the elements needed for an exciting story—a dirty campaign for district attorney in which family members are exposed to slanderous attacks, charges and evidence of Satanic cults, murders, of course, and—behind it all—a decades long struggle between a community minded woman and a hard driven developer for the soul and future of the city. What is doesn't have is a forward moving plot or snappy dialogue. It is slow and predictable and I was dying for the damned thing to end.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Burke’s second book (the third I have listened to on my MP3 player) was generally well written and kept the action moving along. Of course, since I know there are sequels the ‘fear’ factor that Irene, our heroine, wasn’t going to make it through some of the harrowing escapades wasn’t there, it was enjoyable. Maybe that is why I did like it. Wasn’t completely sure of the outcome, but knew she would survive. As before, there are enough clues to let you have a fighting chance of figuring out the mystery, but still there are a few, logical surprises.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had planned on giving this book more stars but when I looked at it sitting on my coffee table in front of me, I couldn't remember what it was about, even though I just finished reading it 2 days ago. I had to read the first full paragraph on the back cover to remember the plot. So I figured it must not have been very good. Although I did enjoy reading it while I was reading it. In fact, if I remember correctly, I got to bed late because I needed to finish the book. Is there a way to give it half a star?

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#2 in the Irene Kelly series.

Irene Kelly series - The sequel to Goodnight, Irene (1993) depicts this reporter in the newly minted relationship she enjoys with Las Piernas (California) homicide detective Frank Harriman. Now covering the dirty politics involved in a local district attorney's race, Irene Kelly investigates slanderous allegations of Satanism and witchcraft against one candidate's teenaged son. The cult-like murder of Frank's elderly next-door neighbor, meanwhile, complicates both Irene's job and her relationship with Frank.