Customer Reviews

In the Dark of the Night: A Novel

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

(SPOILER WARNING)

The idea of items that serial killers use containing a leftover "evil" power is a great idea. But Saul doesn't really use it much--he could have had the boys become "possessed" by the spirits of Lizzie Borden, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ed Gein, et al. But nothing really happens to the premise and the book concludes with "Lizzie" running amuck. (In fact, this was the real flaw in the book because the axe she was accussed of using was NEVER found.)

And other than the subject matter, this is really a YA novel -- the main characters are teenagers and the secondary story -- "townies" versus the "summer boys" -- is merely filler and goes nowhere.

Would have been much more interesting to see the ADULTS become slowly obsessed with the items. Again, interesting idea, just doesn't work.

3 best friends are looking forward to their upcoming summer vacation in The Pines, a vacation community on the cusp of Phantom lake. Tad and Kent and their families take the trip every year. When the infamous PineCrest house becomes available for rent, their families convince Eric's family to rent the summer vacation house to join them in their summer fun on the lake. After some convincing of his Agoraphobic mother, they agree. The three friends are ecstatic to be spending the summer together.

Pine Crest is an old Victorian Gothic house that reminds them all of a haunted house, whose previous owner , Dr. Darby mysteriously disappeared 7 years prior. It has since been empty. When the boys arrive, and begin to explore portions of the house's carriage house, they begin to find secrets they will soon regret exploring. Time spent in the room seems to pass quickly, as they continue to search for the secrets of PineCrest. As the semi-subconscious voices they hear continue to lure them into the room, things seem to be awakened in the town that had been asleep for many years.

I don't wish to further venture into any plots or storylines, not wanting to spoil the read for anyone.

Between the well written story writing, and Mel Foster's voice characterizations in the audio book, In The Dark of the Night is an entertaining listen. It serves as a good introduction to John Saul, as it was for me.

In the Dark of the Night has a central premise that is difficult to resist - what if the belongings of famous serial killers were gathered in one place? A better writer than John Saul really could have done something with this idea. But, unless you're 14, there's not much here to snag your attention or scare you. The three high school buddies out to get laid on their summer vacation stumble into a nightmare of a situation from which they can't extricate themselves. Why they couldn't have figured out what was going on after their first week at the lake doesn't say much for their intellectual powers. Saul's writing is formulaic. Phrases that were overused in some of his previous titles keep popping up here as well. "It was as if..." "All he could think/ see/ feel was...."
There's nothing new or genuinely horrific here, and what this book does contain isn't worth the time it takes to read.

Again, I am back to rant about John Saul. Who I keep reading despite the fact that he hasn't, in my humble opinion had a good or original novel since The Presence (which is my favorite Saul book). After last years luke warm Perfect Nightmare (read my review), I was hoping for something a step up from that.

This book begins like all Saul books, a mysterious person is doing something unsavory and someone dies. Then, we cut to the present where sixteen-year-old Eric Brewster is agonizing over that he might have to spend the summer in Chicago, instead of spending it with his friends Tad and Kent in Phantom Lake. First complaint, obviously we know that something bad is going to happen just by the name of the town, too cliche. We meet his mother, who through the whole book is worrying about everything. It becomes quite tedious. Eventually, as predicted, all three family's end up at Phantom Lake. The Brewsters have rented a house that has been abandoned for years (predictable). Tedious everyday occurences happen until maybe 100 pages into the book when things start taking a wrong turn.

You see, the original owner of the house was a physiciatrist who investegated serial killers. And in a back room that is hidden in the old carriage house on the property, the boys find artifacts belonging to famous or infamous serial killers. At first it seems like fun to poke around and then bad things start happening. Also, there is a creepy hermit who rows around in a boat with a cross attached to it and in my eyes is a pretty worthless character. What he is thinking all the time is kind of boring.

Everything comes to a head on the Fourth of July when everything starts to make sense. But it is too little, too late. My problems: the mother is a worry wart, we get it move on. The house is creepy, stop saying it. We never learn who the person in the prologue is (but you can pretty much figure it out) and we never find out what happened to Dr. Darby. With a worthless epilogue that is kind of dumb, In the Dark of the Night is definitely not one of Saul's best. This plot in a more capable writers hands probably would have been much scarier.

John Saul has written a chilling tale about haunted houses and serial killers in this exciting novel. The story centers around Eric Brewster and his friends Kent Newell and Tad Sparks. Tad and Kent's families have been coming to Phantom Lake, Wisconsin for several summers. However, Eric has always been left behind in Evanston, Illinois. This year, however, Eric's family has finally decided to rent their own home on Phantom Lake. Now, the boys will be able to spend their summer together. There is a problem, however. Eric's Mother Merrill is a constant worry-wart, and she thinks the whole idea is bad, but after some reassuring from her husband Dan, the family, along with sister Marci, sets off for Wisconsin.

The name of the house they are renting is called Pinecrest. It has sat empty for several years after the former owner, Dr. Darby, mysteriously disappeared. Some believed he committed suicide; others believe he was murdered. There's also a strange old hermit who lives in a run-down shack on the lake. He has a boat with a large cross on the front, and he's constantly rowing near Pinecrest, as if drawn there by some supernatural presence.

Once the families are settled in, the boys begin to explore their surroundings. They encounter a couple of local teenagers; Adam Mosler, Ellis Langstrom, and Chris McIvens. Bad blood forms between the two groups of boys, and the tension will remain high between them throughout the course of the book. Most of the days are spent fishing, going into town, and exploring the grounds around Pinecrest. One particular area of interest to them is the carriage house. One day, the boys decide to explore the carriage house. They find a curious cache of items stored inside; a bladeless hacksaw, a shadeless lamp, a table with a missing leg, a headless axe handle, and surgical insturments in pristine condition. However, someone took the time to catalog each of these items in a neatly-organized ledger; complete with dates of acquisition and price paid for each item. The items have the making of a great adventure, demanding to be solved.

However, the boys' devotion to learning about the objects soon turns into obsession, as they spend hours at a time inside the room trying to piece together the mystery. To make matters even more confusing, the boys begin to have a recurring nightmare about the objects, as if the objects are somehow speaking to the boys. As a series of strange events takes place, the boys wonder if they are the ones who caused these events.

During their study, the boys learn that all of the materials contained within the room were once owned by famous serial killers; Jeffrey Dahmer, Jack the Ripper, Lizzie Borden. Meanwhile , the voices keep speaking to the boys, and the nightmares become more intense. One person has already been killed; did the boys do it, as their dreams suggest, or was it the power of the objects coming from the room?

All of the events culminate on the Fourth of July weekend. Are the boys at fault, or is something or someone else responsible?

This is a first-rate suspense novel. John Saul's thrilling story is well-conceived, and it leaps off the pages and immediately draws the reader in. The characters are well-developed, and the action is fast-paced. This is the first book by John Saul that I've read, but after reading this one, I'll definitely be reading others.

I highly recommend this fine book. Suspense and horror fans will love it.

Finally, at long last, Eric Brewster has something look forward to as his summer vacation draws near: His parents have caved in and rented a picturesque home on Phantom Lake in northern Wisconsin, the same place his two best friends, Tad and Kent, go every summer with their parents. Eric's mother, Merrill, is a self-professed worrywart, and she has a bad feeling about the house when they pull up to it: Pinecrest is a hulking Victorian, with a sinister quality that even a fresh coat of paint and bright flowers can't hide. But Eric can't contain his excitement; he envisions a summer of male bonding with his buddies: fishing on the lake, walking through town, scoping out the girls. Little does he know that he and his friends will be spending their summer in an entirely different manner: huddled in a dank, stuffy carriage house, squinting to read old documents in the faint light, poring over the notes of Pinecrest's previous owner, Dr. Darby, who myseriously disappeared years ago.

When Eric and his friends discover the carriage house's hidden room and its bizarre contents (a lampshade made of human skin, pristine surgical instruments, a table missing a leg), they are at first more confused than anything. But gradually, as they begin to uncover the meaning behind the strange items, they become entranced, losing all concept of time as they delve further and further into Dr. Darby's research. And then, they start having strange dreams -- all three of them dreaming exactly the same thing -- which become startlingly true. And they begin to notice a strange man who rows the lake at night, with a cross fitted on the bow of his boat, as if to protect himself from some evil presence...

IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHT has a great premise, and as someone who is morbidly fascinated with serial killers, I was really eager to read it. The whole notion that part of a killer's soul can live on in a physical object is as interesting as it is terrifying; the problem is, it just wasn't developed as fully or as well as I would have liked in the novel, which was disappointing. I really felt like Saul could have done a lot more with the idea than he did; for instance, he could have had Merrill, the worrywart mother, discover the hidden cache and become possessed by the spirits of the killers -- that would have been much more unexpected, and somehow much scarier.

Instead, while IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHT has a few spine-tingling moments, it's mostly just a YA novel about (and for) teenage boys. The subplot revolving around the "townies" versus the vacationers is utterly ridiculous, and the dialogue in those parts of the novel is just laughable. The plot meanders, which makes the ending seem that much more abrupt and inauthentic -- there's no build-up to it, no increase in suspense. Basically, IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHT is a mediocre novel with a meandering plot and relatively forgettable characters. And that's really, really disappointing -- because Saul had the opportunity to do so much more with his chilling premise.

I really like John Saul as a writer but this one, I was really disappointed in. I had to force myself to finish it. It was just very boring. I think it could have been good, but it really did drag with nothing exciting happening. Read something else of his if you have never read him before. Try, When the Wind Blows.

"In the Dark of the Night" has a great premise for a thriller/horror novel. Can the evil that possesses serial killers live on in their "tools of the trade"? And if so, what if the wrong person - - or any person- - gets their hands on them?
Saul in the past has proven that he can scribe some seriously creepy books, but this one just fails to deliver. The problems? The only noteworthy adults in the book are either psychotically disturbed, bland and underdeveloped or worrying to the point of neurosis. There is absolutely nothing to identify with. The teens and children of the book are much more developed, and maybe the book would have been better directed at the young adult market (with revisions to the gorier parts of the book), as another poster stated. They are more so the heroes/heroines of the book than the adults, who are clearly supportive characters. Another failure with the book is the lack of explanation for exactly what Dr. Darby was doing, with his research, and what happened to him. The lack of explanation left a gaping hole in the story. Another negative point for me was the predictability of the story. Absolutely nothing happened that I didn't expect or see coming, which was a disappointment.
As far as the good goes, the book was a quick and easy read (it took me about 3 days from start to finish) and the chapters were relatively short.
The overall storyline idea was an interesting (and chilling) concept (which ranks the 3 stars), but Saul didn't develop the idea to its fullest extent. As such, the book just wasn't up to his usual standards and I would wait to get this one at the library if you're a fan.

When John Saul gets it right he hits a definite home run and writes very satisfying creepy, suspenseful thriller novels. He is gifted at using teens as main characters in novels meant for adults. This is pretty much a beginning formula for him and he adds a unique and satisfying plot for a great read. Sadly, when he misses he totally strikes out. Don't get me wrong - I love John Saul. I have read everything he has written. But IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHT is at the bottom of the list. The novel never picks up any steam after page one. The basic story is of Eric Brewster, a teen and two of his friends and the dangers they face at a summer home.

The Brewster's have rented an age old house and Eric's mother has a bad feeling about the house all the way there and even after they arrive. The reader should take this as a sign and have the same fear about this book. Turn back and avoid it. Sadly, there are no redeeming factors here. The horrors the boys face are not suspenseful and the story lacks any momentum. It never picks up and the ending is less than satisfying.

I highly recommend John Saul, just not this novel. If you are new to Mr. Saul start with his early works, DARKNESS in particular or his latest FACES OF FEAR. Both of these are quality psycvhological suspense thrillers.

John Saul can definitely do it right. Just make sure it is the right book.

I have read every book John Saul has written. I have never been bored and usually start and finish the same day because i cannot put it down, This book was no different. His books are riveting,suspenseful,entertaining amd fascinating. I hope he keeps them coming for a long time to come!