It begins at the Chilton Theme park, a man with a knife, and a family strapped into a ride, helpless to stop their massacre.

Detective Superintendent Sophie Gabriel is from Scotland Yard’s counter terrorism unit (SO15) and glad to be out from behind her desk. She’s focused and capable, putting aside a previous incident that allowed an Islamist extremist to escape the country.

Together with her team she is tracking and learning about Gareth Fletcher as the heads of various Home Office departments clamour for an arrest.

Fletcher releases a video with the usual hate rhetoric from The National Resistance Force. A group thought to be on the low end of the threat scale. Gabriel know in her gut that the theme park murders are just the beginning.

While this all taking place, the Coalition Government devises ways to turn the incident to their advantage with political maneuverings.

The Sleep of Reason is an acronym heavy book at the beginning, and while needed to differentiate between government agencies, it’s somewhat annoying.

You won’t be deep in character development in this story. There is some of course, enough to give you an idea of the personalities involved. But this is a tense, plot driven book that is a great read. And quite frankly, would be a good movie or television series.