In the Dark of the Night (novel)

Last updated
In the Dark of the Night
In the Dark of the Night (novel).jpg
Author John Saul
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Ballantine Books
Publication date
July 18, 2006
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)

In the Dark of the Night is a thriller horror novel by author John Saul, published by Ballantine Books on July 18, 2006. The novel follows the story of teenagers who find various objects once owned by serial killers, and they soon become possessed by the spirits that haunt them.

Contents

Plot

When the Brewster family vacations to an old midwestern town known as Pincrest, Eric Brewster and his teenage friends discover various items such as bladeless hacksaws, shadeless lamps, tables with missing legs, and a headless axe handle, which they perceive as old junk.

They soon realize that there is a troubling great mystery behind these items; a mystery simply dying to be solved. But the fascination with the mysterious items grows into an obsession. Not only that, while their days consist of tending to the mystery, their nights become nothing but filled with ghastly nightmares that threaten to become reality. And soon they discover yet more information that soon blossoms into the shocking truth. They also learn about the terrifying events that occurred Pincrest seven years before, the horrifying disappearance of Pinecrest's last resident, and a strange legacy with an eerie life of its own, which may also be thirsty and awaiting for new victims.

Critical reception

Publishers Weekly said, "It's more YA novel than adult, but Saul has been in the business long enough to know how to send shivers up the spines of readers of any age." [1] School Library Journal's Larry Cooperman said, "Saul weaves a page-turner of a story that horror fans will enjoy from start to finish."[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Bloch</span> American fiction writer (1917–1994)

Robert Albert Bloch was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime, psychological horror and fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and television. He also wrote a relatively small amount of science fiction. His writing career lasted 60 years, including more than 30 years in television and film. He began his professional writing career immediately after graduation from high school, aged 17. Best known as the writer of Psycho (1959), the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock, Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over 30 novels. He was a protégé of H. P. Lovecraft, who was the first to seriously encourage his talent. However, while he started emulating Lovecraft and his brand of cosmic horror, he later specialized in crime and horror stories working with a more psychological approach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramsey Campbell</span> English author (born1946)

Ramsey Campbell is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awards. Three of his novels have been adapted into films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Shirley</span> American novelist

John Shirley is an American writer, primarily of horror, fantasy, science fiction, dark street fiction, westerns, and songwriting. He has also written one historical novel, a western about Wyatt Earp, Wyatt in Wichita, and one non-fiction book, Gurdjieff: An Introduction to His Life and Ideas. Shirley has written novels, short stories, TV scripts and screenplays—including The Crow—and has published over 84 books including 10 short-story collections. As a musician, Shirley has fronted his own bands and written lyrics for Blue Öyster Cult and others. His newest novels are Stormland and Axle Bust Creek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Newman</span> English writer and novelist (born 1959)

Kim James Newman is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. He is interested in film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternative history. He has won the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award and the BSFA award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Straub</span> American novelist and poet (1943–2022)

Peter Francis Straub was an American novelist and poet. He had success with several horror and supernatural fiction novels, among them Julia (1975), Ghost Story (1979) and The Talisman (1984), the latter co-written with Stephen King. He explored the mystery genre with the Blue Rose trilogy, consisting of Koko (1988), Mystery (1990) and The Throat (1993). He fused the supernatural with crime fiction in Lost Boy, Lost Girl (2003) and the related In the Night Room (2004). For the Library of America, he edited the volume H. P. Lovecraft: Tales and the anthology American Fantastic Tales. Straub received such literary honors as the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award, and International Horror Guild Award.

<i>The Hidden Staircase</i> 1930 book in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series

The Hidden Staircase is the second volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series written under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene, published in 1930 and revised in 1959. The original text was written by Mildred Wirt Benson, and she has said that it is her personal favorite of the Nancy Drew Books she wrote.

<i>At the Mountains of Madness</i> Novella by H. P. Lovecraft

At the Mountains of Madness is a science fiction-horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in February/March 1931. Rejected that year by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright on the grounds of its length, it was originally serialized in the February, March, and April 1936 issues of Astounding Stories. It has been reproduced in numerous collections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Edward Wagner</span> American writer (1945–1994)

Karl Edward Wagner was an American writer, poet, editor, and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. He wrote numerous dark fantasy and horror stories. As an editor, he created a three-volume set of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian fiction restored to its original form as written, and edited the long-running and genre-defining The Year's Best Horror Stories series for DAW Books. His Carcosa publishing company issued four volumes of the best stories by some of the major authors of the so-called Golden Age pulp magazines. He is possibly best known for his creation of a series of stories featuring the character Kane, the Mystic Swordsman.

<i>Fright Night</i> 1985 American horror film written and directed by Tom Holland

Fright Night is a 1985 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Tom Holland, in his directorial debut. The film follows teenager Charley Brewster, who discovers that his next-door neighbor Jerry Dandrige is a vampire. When no one believes him, Charley decides to get Peter Vincent, a TV show host who acted in films as a vampire hunter, to stop Jerry's killing spree.

<i>Something Wicked This Way Comes</i> (novel) 1962 dark fantasy novel by Ray Bradbury

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a 1962 dark fantasy novel by Ray Bradbury, and the second book in his Green Town Trilogy. It is about two 13-year-old best friends, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, and their nightmarish experience with a traveling carnival that comes to their Midwestern home, Green Town, Illinois, on October 24. In dealing with the creepy figures of this carnival, the boys learn how to combat fear. The carnival's leader is the mysterious "Mr. Dark", who seemingly wields the power to grant the townspeople's secret desires. In reality, Dark is a malevolent being who, like the carnival, lives off the life force of those it enslaves. Mr. Dark's presence is countered by that of Will's father, Charles Halloway, the janitor of the town library, who harbors his own secret fear of growing older because he feels he is too old to be Will's dad.

<i>The Old Dark House</i> (1932 film) 1932 gothic comedy horror film

The Old Dark House is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy horror film directed by James Whale. Based on the 1927 novel Benighted by J.B. Priestley, the film features an ensemble cast that includes Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Gloria Stuart, Charles Laughton, Lilian Bond, Ernest Thesiger, Raymond Massey and Eva Moore. Set in interwar Wales, the film follows five travellers who seek shelter from a violent storm in the decaying country house home of the eccentric Femm family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Etchison</span> American writer (1943–2019)

Dennis William Etchison was an American writer and editor of fantasy and horror fiction. Etchison referred to his own work as "rather dark, depressing, almost pathologically inward fiction about the individual in relation to the world". Stephen King has called Dennis Etchison "one hell of a fiction writer" and he has been called "the most original living horror writer in America".

<i>Torso</i> (Image Comics) Late-90s graphic novel about crime

Torso is a true crime limited series graphic novel written by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko, with art and lettering by Brian Michael Bendis. It is based on the true story of the Cleveland Torso Murderer, and the efforts of the famous lawman Eliot Ness and his band of the "Unknowns" to capture him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Clark (novelist)</span> British horror novelist

Simon Clark is a horror novelist from Doncaster, England. He is the author of the novel The Night of the Triffids, the novella Humpty's Bones, and the short story Goblin City Lights, which have all won awards.

<i>Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers</i> 1993 video game

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers is a 1993 point-and-click adventure game, created by Jane Jensen and Roberta Williams, developed and published by Sierra On-Line, and released for MS-DOS, Macintosh, and Windows on December 17, 1993. The game's story, featuring the voices of Tim Curry, Leah Remini, and Mark Hamill in the CD-ROM version, focuses on Gabriel Knight, a struggling novelist, whose decision to use a spate of recent murders around New Orleans as material for a new novel, leads him into a world of voodoo magic and the truth about his family's past as supernatural fighters.

<i>Tower of Evil</i> 1972 British horror film by Jim OConnolly

Tower of Evil, also known by the titles Horror on Snape Island and Beyond the Fog, is a 1972 British horror film directed by Jim O'Connolly.

<i>Midnight Voices</i> 2002 novel by John Saul

Midnight Voices is a thriller horror novel by John Saul, published by Ballantine Books on May 28, 2002. The novel follows the story of Caroline Evans, who moves with her new husband and children into a new building, which they begin to believe is haunted.

<i>The Devils Labyrinth</i> 2007 novel by John Saul

The Devil's Labyrinth is a thriller horror novel by John Saul, published by Ballantine Books on July 17, 2007. The novel follows the story of Ryan McIntyre, a teenage boy sent to a Catholic boarding school, where strange deaths and mysterious disappearances begin to occur upon his arrival.

<i>House of Reckoning</i> 2009 thriller horror novel by John Saul

House of Reckoning is a thriller horror novel by John Saul, published by Ballantine Books on October 13, 2009. The novel follows the story of teenage Sarah Crane, who along with her friends unravels the shocking story behind an old mansion upon arriving in a new town.

Ann Brewster was an American cartoonist and illustrator during the Golden Age of comics. She provided art for many different publishers, including Ace Magazines, Fiction House, and Atlas Comics. Brewster is most notable for illustrating romance comics. After a career as penciller and inker for comics, she transitioned to illustrating novels and children's magazines before retiring in 1980.

References

  1. "Fiction Review: In the Dark of the Night by John Saul". June 5, 2006. Retrieved 1 March 2012.