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Sing Me To Sleep: A Ghost Story
Laura and Owen's new home should be lovely. But soon after moving into the secluded cottage on the edge of the Peak District, Laura starts to hear faint snatches of birdsong. Her husband, wrapped up in his job, is rarely at home. Nervous and confused, Laura cannot decide whether the noise is real - or is coming from inside her head. Her doctor can find nothing wrong with her hearing. Then an archaeological dig on a neighbouring hill unearths some disturbing finds - and Laura's life starts to become terrifying.
302 pages, Paperback
First published December 15, 2014
161 people are currently reading
1029 people want to read
About the author
Chris Simms
64 books82 followersI was born and brought up in rural Sussex, three miles from the nearest shop. Childhood holidays – which lasted for weeks as my dad was a teacher – were spent in a secluded spot in the heart of Exmoor. Sitting round the campfire at night, the haunting cries of owls floating in from the blackness beyond the flames, he would read me the ghost stories of MR James. The short walk to the safety of my tent was always taken at a sprint.
Books that interested me growing up? Plenty of mysteries – especially the Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators series. I also loved Roahl Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected and read plenty of Pan Horror Stories, too.
Later, it was novels that gave insights into unusual minds: the twisted desires of Frederick in John Fowles’, The Collector; the tormented thoughts of Scobie in Graham Greene’s, Heart of the Matter; the violent urges of Francie in Patrick McCabe’s, Butcher Boy all had a major influence.
After school and university came a series of abysmal jobs punctuated by travelling. Quite a lot of travelling, actually. Then, just after my 30th birthday, the idea for my first novel came to me. I was broken down on the hard shoulder of a motorway in the early hours of the morning, waiting for a rescue vehicle to arrive. It’s about the driver of a van who roams the roads in the dead of night, looking for stranded motorists to murder…
Ideas for subsequent novels have occurred at all sorts of odd moments: glimpsing a derelict church from the window of a moving train; browsing a newspaper report about a walker who claimed he’d been attacked by a panther; half-reading a doctor’s surgery article on how some tinnitus sufferers don’t hear whistles or buzzes – they’re tormented by birdsong; listening to a radio program about a flotilla of yellow ducks that fell from a cargo ship and floated slowly across the Atlantic.
Books that interested me growing up? Plenty of mysteries – especially the Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators series. I also loved Roahl Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected and read plenty of Pan Horror Stories, too.
Later, it was novels that gave insights into unusual minds: the twisted desires of Frederick in John Fowles’, The Collector; the tormented thoughts of Scobie in Graham Greene’s, Heart of the Matter; the violent urges of Francie in Patrick McCabe’s, Butcher Boy all had a major influence.
After school and university came a series of abysmal jobs punctuated by travelling. Quite a lot of travelling, actually. Then, just after my 30th birthday, the idea for my first novel came to me. I was broken down on the hard shoulder of a motorway in the early hours of the morning, waiting for a rescue vehicle to arrive. It’s about the driver of a van who roams the roads in the dead of night, looking for stranded motorists to murder…
Ideas for subsequent novels have occurred at all sorts of odd moments: glimpsing a derelict church from the window of a moving train; browsing a newspaper report about a walker who claimed he’d been attacked by a panther; half-reading a doctor’s surgery article on how some tinnitus sufferers don’t hear whistles or buzzes – they’re tormented by birdsong; listening to a radio program about a flotilla of yellow ducks that fell from a cargo ship and floated slowly across the Atlantic.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
December 31, 2025
3☆
Sing Me To Sleep had a lot going on, and it all comes together in the end. Admittedly, I had doubts about all of the side stories and wondered if they would add to the overall piece, but Simms neatly put my doubts to rest.
I had a difficult time staying focused on reading this book? I think it was more a me issue than a story issue. The first two thirds of the story seemed to drag, but once the action started it took off quickly. This novel reads like a psychological thriller and a mildly eerie horror story.
The main character, Laura, is definitely a flawed character whose perception of events is shaky at times and unhinged at other times. Her thoughts and behaviors cause her to be maddening and yet, she also illicits sympathy. None of the additional characters are given much depth, which was unfortunate.
The story was good it just didn't grab me as I had hoped.
Sing Me To Sleep had a lot going on, and it all comes together in the end. Admittedly, I had doubts about all of the side stories and wondered if they would add to the overall piece, but Simms neatly put my doubts to rest.
I had a difficult time staying focused on reading this book? I think it was more a me issue than a story issue. The first two thirds of the story seemed to drag, but once the action started it took off quickly. This novel reads like a psychological thriller and a mildly eerie horror story.
The main character, Laura, is definitely a flawed character whose perception of events is shaky at times and unhinged at other times. Her thoughts and behaviors cause her to be maddening and yet, she also illicits sympathy. None of the additional characters are given much depth, which was unfortunate.
The story was good it just didn't grab me as I had hoped.
February 1, 2023
A difficult read!
For the first two thirds of this book I was struggling to stay awake - I thought the story laborious and pedantic. However, I kept going and the story began to liven up and become more interesting. In fact the final third of the book was quite riveting and with a satisfying conclusion. Perhaps the author was attempting to convey a slow build up of tension, leading to an explosive finale? If so, it didn't work for me. This could have been a four or five star tale but it took far too long to get going and many readers would have switched off well before anything meaningful happened. An opportunity, sadly, missed in my honest opinion.
For the first two thirds of this book I was struggling to stay awake - I thought the story laborious and pedantic. However, I kept going and the story began to liven up and become more interesting. In fact the final third of the book was quite riveting and with a satisfying conclusion. Perhaps the author was attempting to convey a slow build up of tension, leading to an explosive finale? If so, it didn't work for me. This could have been a four or five star tale but it took far too long to get going and many readers would have switched off well before anything meaningful happened. An opportunity, sadly, missed in my honest opinion.
June 23, 2016
Haunted house story 101:
1. A lonely cottage in the English countryside with a dark past
2. A lonely woman living in said cottage with a past history of mental illness
3. Said lonely woman starts hearing noises and can't identify their source
4. Ominous and mysterious clues as to what happened in that house given by either extremely taciturn village members or a mentally disabled person who unfortunately cannot articulate himself very well
5. Everybody - including the lonely woman herself - believe that she's lost the plot... again
6. After much debating, analysing and losing her cool in public, she realizes: it must be the house!
7. It is the house!
8.
Recommended only to people who do not read a lot of haunted house stories. Otherwise, you'll feel like you've read that story before.
1. A lonely cottage in the English countryside with a dark past
2. A lonely woman living in said cottage with a past history of mental illness
3. Said lonely woman starts hearing noises and can't identify their source
4. Ominous and mysterious clues as to what happened in that house given by either extremely taciturn village members or a mentally disabled person who unfortunately cannot articulate himself very well
5. Everybody - including the lonely woman herself - believe that she's lost the plot... again
6. After much debating, analysing and losing her cool in public, she realizes: it must be the house!
7. It is the house!
8.
Recommended only to people who do not read a lot of haunted house stories. Otherwise, you'll feel like you've read that story before.
March 22, 2015
When Laura and composer husband Owen move to an isolated cottage, echoes of the buildings horrific past are gradually revealed. As Laura is driven to distraction by the scary and strange goings on, those around her seem at pains to discredit her concerns, convinced it seems, of her mental instability. And so we are taken on a chilling journey as Laura determines to discover the truth, despite the escalating danger. The writer subtly balances the frailties of a crumbling relationship against a background of dark secrets and darker deeds. The suspense builds to a satisfying and chilling finale’. As someone who lives in a very similar cottage to that depicted (with equally strange goings on) I found this utterly compelling. Superb writing and wholly recommended!
June 8, 2022
I'm rather disappointed by this book.
70% had practically no build up.
Suddenly stuff starts to happen but it's minescule and it completely lacked atmosphere.
Which is a shame because the writing is good.
If you're looking for a dark and unsettling psychological thriller, don't bother with this one.
70% had practically no build up.
Suddenly stuff starts to happen but it's minescule and it completely lacked atmosphere.
Which is a shame because the writing is good.
If you're looking for a dark and unsettling psychological thriller, don't bother with this one.
January 1, 2016
Laura and her somewhat elderly husband Owen have moved from Richmond to a little village outside Manchester so that Owen can pursue his masterly conducting career and leave a rather frail lonely, and previously ill wife at home (well done Owen) The cottage they now live in appears to have questionable links to the previous owners and their son William. Laura feels something or someone is haunting both her and the cottage.... and good old Owen doesn’t give a **ck!
This is a below average horror story that for a limited period is a free download for the kindle (thank goodness it was free) and Chris Simms the author is a much respected crime writer “Outside the White Lines” was an excellent debut. However Sing me to Sleep is a very poor example of a haunted house/haunted community story, I recently read The Moorstone Sickness, and Sweetheart Sweetheart by the brilliant and often disregarded Bernard Taylor (both reviewed by me) They are astounding horror/suspense stories building rhythm and characters slowly and methodically expertly concluding in the most surprising and horrific manner.....I urge you to search out and read rather than waste your time on this inferior story.
This is a below average horror story that for a limited period is a free download for the kindle (thank goodness it was free) and Chris Simms the author is a much respected crime writer “Outside the White Lines” was an excellent debut. However Sing me to Sleep is a very poor example of a haunted house/haunted community story, I recently read The Moorstone Sickness, and Sweetheart Sweetheart by the brilliant and often disregarded Bernard Taylor (both reviewed by me) They are astounding horror/suspense stories building rhythm and characters slowly and methodically expertly concluding in the most surprising and horrific manner.....I urge you to search out and read rather than waste your time on this inferior story.
July 17, 2022
3.5. This book had a very atmospheric, Ramsay Campbell-esque feel to it in the build-up. I’d definitely recommend it for fans of Campbell. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
October 25, 2022
great
This story was great and the characters were believable. It’s hard to imagine I read this book in 4 hrs. It reads like a ghost story but is anything but one
This story was great and the characters were believable. It’s hard to imagine I read this book in 4 hrs. It reads like a ghost story but is anything but one
January 16, 2016
This story combined all my favorite things to read, suspense/mystery/ghost story. Chris Simms knows how to pull a reader into a story and the characters lives. You learn something about tinnitus in the ears. Laura was hearing bird song in her house. The doctor diagnosed it as tinnitus but you knew it was something deeper and more chilling. I guessed the ending all wrong, this story leads you in one direction and you are thinking there might be a conspiracy or Laura is crazy. She had a psychotic break earlier in her life. My only criticism is I would have liked more information on her husband, Owen and also what caused the first psychotic break. Don't read this before bedtime. It is a page turner that I could not put down. I had to find out what happened. It kept me up way past my bed time.
May 19, 2022
Gripping story
I started this book just because it showed up at the end of a Patricia Fisher story and I couldn't decide where to go next. Wow! What a fantastic read. I just couldn't put it down. Totally unexpected storyline - very puzzling, not quite sure what was happening but I was convinced that I would figure it out in the next few pages. Did I heck! It puzzled me until the last page and, boy, what an ending!
I started this book just because it showed up at the end of a Patricia Fisher story and I couldn't decide where to go next. Wow! What a fantastic read. I just couldn't put it down. Totally unexpected storyline - very puzzling, not quite sure what was happening but I was convinced that I would figure it out in the next few pages. Did I heck! It puzzled me until the last page and, boy, what an ending!
January 15, 2016
The tension grew as the story unfolded with supernatural, gothic style horror. I don't think the author likes birds since they have a strong presence in this story and in the next. I would have liked the intensity that we find in the last half of the book, in the first half but overall a good read.
October 14, 2018
I really enjoyed this novel, I needed something very different after my last train wreck of a novel and this was exactly it. The book is fairly short, exciting start to finish and mildly terrifying at times.
I did find that the two parts of the story didn’t quite mesh together in the end, as I was reading I was expecting different conclusions. Part of the novel focuses on an archaeological dig site and the sudden discovery of skeletons buried in a way inconsistent with the suspected time period they’re studying. The other part of the novel is the slow descent into madness up at Lantern Cottage as Laura Wilkinson tries to find the source of birdsong only she can she can hear while unravelling a long buried secret about her new home.
At the end of the novel I was expecting these two lines of story to connect and .... they didn’t.
Otherwise, I very much enjoyed the pace and plot of this story, a few editing mistakes in the spelling and grammar that forced a pause but overall a great read.
I did find that the two parts of the story didn’t quite mesh together in the end, as I was reading I was expecting different conclusions. Part of the novel focuses on an archaeological dig site and the sudden discovery of skeletons buried in a way inconsistent with the suspected time period they’re studying. The other part of the novel is the slow descent into madness up at Lantern Cottage as Laura Wilkinson tries to find the source of birdsong only she can she can hear while unravelling a long buried secret about her new home.
At the end of the novel I was expecting these two lines of story to connect and .... they didn’t.
Otherwise, I very much enjoyed the pace and plot of this story, a few editing mistakes in the spelling and grammar that forced a pause but overall a great read.
October 6, 2017
Laura an ex-ballerina and her older husband Owen a composer move back to his home village near the peak District so he can perform a specially written piece locally.
Laura is left alone for days on end and begins to feel the signs of tinnitus in the form of birdsong.
She is in contact with a woman in the US on a tinnitus forum- and the local vicar, but other than that she has no friends.
A mentally challenged man (boy) has come to visiting her house- as it was once his house before his mother died and his Dad was put in an care facility. He too hears the birdsong. He knows whjat is going on but cannot tell her as he has the mind of a child.
Laura is left alone for days on end and begins to feel the signs of tinnitus in the form of birdsong.
She is in contact with a woman in the US on a tinnitus forum- and the local vicar, but other than that she has no friends.
A mentally challenged man (boy) has come to visiting her house- as it was once his house before his mother died and his Dad was put in an care facility. He too hears the birdsong. He knows whjat is going on but cannot tell her as he has the mind of a child.
January 26, 2025
When I first started reading Sing Me To Sleep, I thought it was just another couple move from the city to the country and something awful happens. This was more than that. The characters of Laura and Owen were well written, yet I had so many questions about them. I enjoyed trying to figure out if Laura was having a breakdown, or was Owen gas lighting her. Was Lantern Cottage haunted? Who were the Halls and what happened to them? I finished the book in two days. I had to know what it was all about. I still have a question or two I would like answered.
January 14, 2025
The writing of this story way lovely, but I just could not root for the main character Laura. Maybe that was the point. I can sympathize with her struggles to conceive but otherwise I found her pretentious, self absorbed and lacking any kind of self reflection. I pushed through because I had been searching for a genuine ghost story to read and I feel like I finished the book with a sigh of relief that it was finally over.
November 13, 2024
Chilling
A supernatural tale with just the right amount of intrigue: the quaint house with the odd shaped chimney; the archaeological dig beside the church making small discoveries; the distinct sound of birdsong that nobody else seems to be aware of. Then there are the rumours of the past. A great read for a winter night.
A supernatural tale with just the right amount of intrigue: the quaint house with the odd shaped chimney; the archaeological dig beside the church making small discoveries; the distinct sound of birdsong that nobody else seems to be aware of. Then there are the rumours of the past. A great read for a winter night.
June 1, 2018
Suspenseful horror, but with a slow start, a touch of ending fatigue, and a slightly jarring tonal change from psychological suspense to supernatural horror near the end. It was still quite creepy, and when the story picked up it was difficult to stop reading.
October 18, 2022
Not rave review material
The book had been advertised and hyped up on FB. Guess I just expected more to the story. Found it a boring read at times. The visits to Dr. and references to past "medical issues" left me feeling incomplete about v that section.
The book had been advertised and hyped up on FB. Guess I just expected more to the story. Found it a boring read at times. The visits to Dr. and references to past "medical issues" left me feeling incomplete about v that section.
August 1, 2024
Good, but slow
I wasn't sure I was going to be able to finish it. It was slow and not much going on. It wasn't till the last few chapters that it got really interesting. This book could have been cut down to half and been better.
I wasn't sure I was going to be able to finish it. It was slow and not much going on. It wasn't till the last few chapters that it got really interesting. This book could have been cut down to half and been better.
November 1, 2025
3.5 rounded up. I don’t usually read horror but I did enjoy this one. I thought it was well written and very scary. Too scary to read another, imo. I think it could have used some editing to cut out a few irrelevant parts.
September 23, 2017
Meh.
Wasn't really scary. Was super predictable. BUT, the author is very talented at creating atmosphere through description.
Wasn't really scary. Was super predictable. BUT, the author is very talented at creating atmosphere through description.
January 9, 2020
Slow starter but once it gets rockin’ those old bones really rattle.
July 12, 2022
Really enjoyed this book just a bit disappointed with the end
January 3, 2023
I loved this book. It was well written and kept building on the atmosphere and questions until it all came to view. I would highly recommend.
January 17, 2023
Very good
A very good read kept me wanting me to read more leading me to finish it in 2 days definitely recommend it and will read more Chris Simms books.
A very good read kept me wanting me to read more leading me to finish it in 2 days definitely recommend it and will read more Chris Simms books.
July 19, 2023
I really couldn’t get through this I kept coming back and trying again but it just wasn’t for me
July 16, 2024
Pretty good. The ghost story is a little generic but the characters are very well formed and entertaining to read.
October 16, 2024
slowly entices
All seems normal ….. until the canary starts to sing … who else can hear it?
I had to read it in one sitting
All seems normal ….. until the canary starts to sing … who else can hear it?
I had to read it in one sitting
June 16, 2025
Creepy
Creepy and disturbingly open ended. Really was hooked by the end of this book! I will be looking for more books by Chris Simms.
Creepy and disturbingly open ended. Really was hooked by the end of this book! I will be looking for more books by Chris Simms.
June 15, 2019
I enjoyed this book from beginning to end. I cared about the lead character and what was happening to her. The side bar of the Vicar was perplexing but didn't break the story. There were many creepy parts and a satisfying though sad ending. Well done.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews