Sleeping with a Psychopath: A real-life psychological crime thriller, the unbelievable true story. THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER

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The 'story' seemed to finish halfway through however, and I wondered how there was still half a book to go. As it turned out, the second half of the book was telling the story of what happened after, with the police investigations and the court case etc. Not only was this very drawn out, it ended up giving me a completely different opinion of Carolyn. She came across as very 'elitist' and regularly implied that she better than things such as the benefits system and anti-depressants. I also found it hypocritical how she mentions MANY times in the book that she resent being called 'a divorcee', however, in the advertising for this book she calls herself

I admit it… I am obsessed by psychopaths. I love reading books with narcissistic, psychopathic characters and the more ruthless the better, however this is in the fictional books I read. Reading about psychopaths in a true crime, non-fiction account is absolutely TERRIFYING.

I felt that Carolyn didn't come across as a particularly likeable character - often stating her (perceived) personality traits for the reader. I.e. "I am a very strong/positive person", which were often at odds with the way she was behaving - she spent most of the book in a state of deep depression and despair, long after Mark was out of her life. What an incredible story this is! Carolyn Woods was a confident 54-year-old woman, divorced and financially well off until she met the man that nightmares is made from. Mark Conway as he introduced himself to Carolyn, was a confident, charismatic conman that walked into her life one day and ruined her financially and emotionally.

A rich Swiss banker (who later confided he was a spy), he offered Carolyn the companionship she’d unwittingly been missing and introduced her to an exciting, glamorous world. In fact, some things were so astonishing she questioned her new lover. Was all as it seemed? OMFG so so many alarm bells would have been going off in my head & the behaviour he exhibited in those first 24 hours would have had me running for the hills! Or is it just easy for me to say that having never been in this kinda situation before? I didn't realise this was a true story to start with, so I did a little research & read the news reports...what an absolute uncaring bastard (that's me being polite) he was! I don’t want to go into detail, about the lengths he went, you should read that yourself. I read so much with a dropped jaw. I liked the quotes at the start of each chapter that related to what had happened. I have to agree with Carolyn that there is something much deeper with this man. I don’t think there is a cure. It is who he is. One of the main reasons Mark got away with the extent of the fraud he did was due to his charismatic character. From the very first meeting it was clear that he was a bit of a creep and she'd have been best off staying well away from him. I felt those parts were written with the benefit of hindsight and she really failed in her quest to make the reader truly understand what it was that had drawn her to him in the first place - and what made her stay. In fact, some things were so astonishing she began to question her new lover. Was all as it seemed?This was in 2012, when there was already so much publicity about conmen and scammers! Yet she actually believed he worked for M16, was friends with every famous person you can think of, was rich enough to buy several airports and fleets of vintage aeroplanes, one day was in Spain, later that day was in Syria, received phone calls from the king of Spain. Come on! So many red flags. He told her he’d just been shot in the arm, then in the leg. Did she not notice he had no wounds when they were being intimate? The rudeness he showed towards her family would have made most women run for the hills, but she stayed. I think because she, right from the day she met him, loved the luxury champagne and limo lifestyle. Now I think I am a reasonably intelligent person, a good judge of character and a shrewd person when it comes to business and from listening to Carolyn’s book, so did she. So how did this loving, outgoing, independent women get hoodwinked into giving him her life savings and becoming a shadow of her former self?

I feel so sorry for any woman who finds herself in this situation, thinking she's found 'The one', yet he's just interested in milking her for everything she has, not caring what financial & mental destruction he is causing. The second part of the book which covered the investigation was easier to get through and a bit more interesting - perhaps because it was less about her. All in all, I won't be recommending this to anyone unfortunately. If you are sleeping with a psychopath (okay, let’s get real, you’re not just sleeping) there is a good chance that you’ve been (1) groomed and (2) courted by the psycho, and depending on where you are at in this psychopathic relationship, either you are (3) head over heels in love, or you were and now you’re (4) wondering what the hell is going on. Or, if the relationship has run its course, it is clear that (5) you’ve been played, you have suffered the effects of this entanglement, and to your psychopath’s amusement, you are in a great deal of pain, and are devasted from the experience. It’s so easy to say “I wouldn’t do that” or “couldn’t she see what was happening” but I was able to understand why Carolyn did allow herself to be dragged down this murky path. Simply put, she fell head over heels in love with a professional conman. A man who had spent most of his life honing his craft, learning how to read people and press the right buttons to get exactly what he wanted and to make his victims fall for his lies. So when I read this, I did believe that a grown woman with her own home, money in the bank, independent and strong willed woman could be wooed by this psychopath.I hope Carolyn Woods will make some money from this book. Being left with nothing - no money, no home, not a lot of self-respect - after going through such a trauma is horrible to even imagine. Most of all though, I hope she'll use the book to draw a line under the experience she had and move forward.

How can you spot a psychopath? Although there are many different characteristics of a psychopath to look out for, a 2015 study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences did find that psychopaths tend to be night owls. As the study found, people with psychopathic traits seem to work better at night. So if you want to know if someone is a psychopath, their night time habits can possibly clue you in. I wanted to like this book. I'm a fan of thrillers and true crime podcasts and things but this was quite a struggle to get through. At some point when your psychopath has felt like he or she has built a sufficient trust bond with you, his or her affections turn romantic, as you are overwhelmed by a relentless flood of affectionate attention and proclamation of love, even if you are already in a suitable romantic relationship at the moment. If you are in a relationship with someone else, the psycho will find ways to discredit the person you are in a relationship with now and create mind games that will have you thinking something is desperately wrong. Not surprisingly, you will probably start thinking that the person you love(d) is a “psychopath.” I'd 100% recommend listening to Sleeping with a Psychopath as I bet that throughout the book most readers will be asking themselves whether they could fall victim to a similar crime.I loved Dirty John when it was on Netflix, so if you too were a fan of that you'll find this book fascinating at the depraved lengths these men will stoop to! You’re right. It is totally extraordinary. My life is like a film; you couldn’t make it up.... But there’s something I have to tell you,’ he confided, as he leaned across the table towards me. ‘I’m not normal.’