Customer Reviews

Day of Reckoning: The Stereoscope (Blackstone Chronicles, Part 5)

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As I was expecting, the tension DID build in this installment of the Chronicles, but entirely too quickly. Yes, I did find this tale terrifying, but the rush-rush pace of the plot left "The Stereoscope" very unsatisfying. However, this story cannot be forgotten in the twisted web of the Chronicles because it reveals major aspects of the intriguing plot.

Arghh, still the same as the other installments, but a little better written than parts one and two and on par with three and four. Now let's see how he finishes it..

******THERE WILL BE SPOILERS OF EARLIER NOVELS******

And so the retribution continues. In the town of Blackstone, there is a project to renovate the inside of the now closed, but still hated and feared, Blackstone Asylum into a series of small shops and restaurants. Unfortunately somebody it taking a dim view of this, and they are now sending out cursed objects to the various people who had past, or have present ties to either the Asylum, or the renovation project. "The Blackstone Chronicles" is a novel serialized in six short (88 pages) monthly segments. In number one, an antique doll is sent to the developer, in number two, a locket is sent to the financer, in number three and four, old employees are sent a cigarette lighter and a handkerchief respectively. And misery, murder and destruction follow. This time a stereoscope has been left for Ed Becker and his family. Becker is the lawyer of the bank that is financing the Asylum renovation project. The stereoscope is found in a dresser which Ed Becker has purchased, and that he is trying to refurnish, from Melissa Holloway who is now running The First National Bank of Blackstone after the mysterious death of its original owner and manager. The pictures that can be used in the stereoscope are mysteriously of Becker's house. These pictures, or the possession of the stereoscope, are causing Becker to have dreams that he is interpreting as premonitions. And the dreams are getting more and more severe.

As this episode starts, assistant librarian Rebecca Morrison, who has been directly involved in two of the serialized novel's past incidents, has disappeared. People are suspicious. Was she involved in the town's mysterious happenings? Did she run away? Or was she disappeared by foul means.

In actuality, she was kidnapped in the previous installment, and throughout the novel she is kept captive. Although she is not excessively abused, neither is she treated well, and we are left wondering as to why she was abducted.

Her wannabe boyfriend Oliver Metcalf, who is the editor and publisher of "The Blackstone Chronicle", the town's weekly newspaper, is worried and is actively looking for her. And he seems to be the only one that believes that she is totally innocent of all suspicions. But he has his own troubles. Throughout the series he has been having migraines, and not only are they getting progressively worse, but each one is accompanied with visions of a small boy who is being tortured inside the Asylum.

Again, while the story is gathering steam towards its ending, and as we become more intrigued as how all these incidents will eventually fit together, the main problem just continues to be the novel's characters. The main characters seem to have come right out of central casting, while the supporting cast just seems like mobile furniture. Still, the story is full of suspense; even it will remind most of tv shows like "Friday The 13th" or "Warehouse 13". Unlike the other episodes, this story seems more like a bridge episode that is there to build up towards the grand finale rather than an almost stand-alone episode like most of the other episodes have been. You can't read this one without reading the previous episodes, and the curse this time seems rather weak.

For this site I have all six of these volumes in this series:


The Blackstone Chronicles #1: Eye for an Eye: The Doll (Blackstone Chronicles).
The Blackstone Chronicles #2: Twist of Fate: The Locket (Blackstone Chronicles).
The Blackstone Chronicles #3: Ashes to Ashes: The Dragon's Flame (Blackstone Chronicles, Part 3).
The Blackstone Chronicles #4: In the Shadow of Evil: The Handkerchief (Blackstone Chronicles).
The Blackstone Chronicles #5: Day of Reckoning: The Stereoscope (Blackstone Chronicles, Part 5).
The Blackstone Chronicles #6: Asylum (Blackstone Chronicles) (No 6).

The fifth volume of the Blackstone Chronicles, DAY OF RECKONING: THE STEREOSCOPE, was somewhat disappointing. It lacked the substance and clarity of the earlier volumes.

The objects in the earlier volumes had much more to do with the story than the stereoscope does in this volume. A doll, a child's only possession, makes people possessive. A locket belonging to a paranoid patient; makes the holder paranoid. A lighter involved in a burning death causes the holder to try and burn people. A handkerchief belonging to a delusional woman causes delusions. But not the stereoscope. This viewing device belonged to a young boy who reveled in killing things. Use of the stereoscope does not bring about any such terror.

After the events of the previous volume, Oliver is still looking into the past of his family and the asylum. Rebecca, the woman he loves has not been seen since she ran from the house in fright. Ed Becker, the attorney, comes into possession of the stereoscope when he finds it in a dresser he bought. The pictures are of his home several generation ago. Ed, who successfully defended quite a few murderers, begins to have disturbing dreams that seem to come true. Ed eventually suffers from an accident and the mysterious personage haunting the series prepares for the final volume by preparing a bloodstained knife.

I hope the concluding volume will be more like the first four and not like this one. We will have to wait and see.

Volume V of the Blackstone Chronicles continues the tales of vengeance wreaked by an unknown "dark figure" on the citizens of Blackstone, NH, following their decision to turn the long-closed Blackstone Asylum into a shopping mall. Terrible things have occurred inside the Asylum's walls, and someone does not want these horrors to be forgotten. Having discovered the closet where the personal "treasures" of former inmates have been stored, the "dark figure" begins giving artifacts to people in the town, creating havoc and changing lives forever.

(No spoilers.) A stereoscope in a mahogany case becomes the gift for Ed Becker, who discovers that the three-dimensional photographs that come with it are Victorian photographs from his own house. Ed, a civil lawyer in Blackstone, was formerly a defense attorney in Boston, and he now finds himself having nightmares, several of which come true. In some, he is assailed by the victims of killers whom he has defended, and soon he and his family become part of a living nightmare.

At the end of this novel, the reader still has many questions. Blood-drenched rooms, sudden explosions, unexplained attacks on seemingly innocent people, and wholesale destruction, all of which have filled the novels so far, continue in this novel, accompanied also by scenes of the torture which characterized "treatment" at the Asylum. At this point, however, any shock effect from the first few novels has worn off, dulled by repetition and lack of resolution. The victims are usually one or two generations removed from the events in the Asylum, and not directly responsible for what happened there, so one wonders why the figure emphasizes the "sins of the father" and punishes the children or grandchildren.

Little new information is revealed here. (Some people will already suspect the identity of the "dark figure.") Characterization is still weak, with the "dark figure" simply selecting the object from the Asylum storehouse, giving it to someone, and letting events unwind on their own. This figure has too little direct involvement in the unfolding events to make him a really terrifying force, and since he shows no cleverness or overwhelming sense of thwarted justice, the reader develops little understanding of him. With a huge number of issues still unresolved, the author will be hard-pressed to develop a satisfying conclusion to this series. n Mary Whipple