The Night Class [Mass Market Paperback]

Tom Piccirilli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2002

The college winter break is over, and Caleb Prentiss faces yet another semester of higher education. Struggling with alcoholism and frustrated by his irrelevant classes, Cal seeks solace in the arms of his scholastic-conscious girlfriend and in somnambulistic conversation with a mystifying college radio DJ.

But CalÂ’s ennui is shattered when he discovers evidence of a murder which occurred in his room over the Christmas recess. Obsessed with unearthing the particulars of this gruesome and haunting event, Cal wanders down the grotesque hallowed halls of a university gone mad.

Run-ins with the two hard-nosed campus security guards, relationship hurdles with both friends and lovers, and enigmatic signals from the DeanÂ’s icily eminent wife force Caleb to question his place in the bizarre night classes of higher education.

Even as he gets ever closer to the truth, Caleb is plagued by the supernatural occurrence known as stigmata: his hands bleed in imitation of the wounds of Christ whenever someone close to him dies.

And CalÂ’s hands are bleeding a lot these days.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Piccirilli's predilection for emotionally scarred protagonists embarking on soul-searching quests (The Deceased; Hexes) runs amok in this hyperventilating horror mystery. Caleb Prentiss, upperclassman at an unnamed northern college, returns from Christmas break to discover that Sylvia Campbell, an 18-year-old student with falsified transcripts, was slaughtered in his room during the school break. In his mind, Sylvia becomes linked with his beloved older sister, whose suicide has left him tortured with guilt since childhood. Cal's obsession with investigating a murder that the school has inexplicably hushed up drives him to break into the library basement where Sylvia's effects are stored and to rifle registrar files in search of a clue to her demise. As dark secrets implicating the school's exploitative faculty come to light, Cal finds his life and those of his closest friends in jeopardy. The novel draws on the venerable tradition of stories that plumb the unbridgeable gulf between school learning and life lessons, but Piccirilli goes overboard in his efforts to give events philosophic weight. The text is freighted with unmerited allusions to faith and forgiveness and with snips of brooding song lyrics that are more pretentious than profound. Most of the major characters are prone to martyrlike behavior: a perfectionist premed student gives her body to keep her grades; a voluptuous ethics student works at a strip joint; and Cal himself's hands develop stigmata every time a murder occurs. All but Piccirilli's most devoted fans will find their interest in this tortuous tale out of school to be purely academic. (Dec.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"...draws on the venerable tradition of stories that plumb the unbridgeable gulf between school learning and life lessons..." -- Publishers Weekly

“All serious students of dark literature are urged to enroll in The Night Class. This is one course you won’t want to drop.” -- Cemetery Dance Magazine

“In THE NIGHT CLASS, Tom Piccirilli – America’s Fellini of horror fiction – stirs up a surreal stew of ambitions gone astray, romance, sex, madness and murder" -- Richard Layman, author of ONE RAINY NIGHT and BITE

“Loaded with grim characters, an unusual plot, and a murky, almost surreal atmosphere, THE NIGHT CLASS is a must-read for fans of the macabre.” --Masters of Terror --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books; . edition (November 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843951257
• ISBN-13: 978-0843951257
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,846,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tom Piccirilli is the author of more than twenty novels including THE LAST KIND WORDS, SHADOW SEASON, THE COLD SPOT, THE COLDEST MILE, and A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN. He's won two International Thriller Awards and four Bram Stoker Awards, as well as having been nominated for the Edgar, the World Fantasy Award, the Macavity, and Le Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire.

www.thecoldspot.blogspot.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Higher education, December 22, 2002

By 

bonsai chicken (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Night Class (Mass Market Paperback)

Cal Prentiss hasn't had an easy life; his sister killed herself in front of him when he was five, and his palms gush blood whenever someone close to him dies. Now he returns to university for his final semester to find that a girl has been killed in his dorm room over winter break. Not only has the incident been kept out of the media, but no one at the school seems to know anything about it. Or at least, they're not talking. Cal takes on the mystery of the murdered girl as his pet project, but completing it may cost him more than he bargained for. He's bleeding again.

This is an excellent, atmospheric mystery with full characters and a genuine feel for setting. There's something inherently creepy about a college campus in winter, and the author takes full advantage of that. With this second novel (mine, not the author's -- I'd previously read THE DECEASED), Tom Piccirilli has risen to the top of my list of horror authors to watch out for.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and eerie mystery, July 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Night Class (Mass Market Paperback)

I can see why this book won a Bram Stoker Award for Best Horror Novel of the year. Few authors are as capable as Tom Piccirilli of building up an unsettling and disturbing atmosphere of dread. Small details twist and coil and continue to add to all the other many touches of evil. The winter campus setting is also the perfect vehicle to tell this offbeat tale of a young man haunted by supernatural forces even as he tries to battle what appears to be a conspiracy of murder in the hallowed halls of his university. When Cal Prentiss returns from the winter break to find that a girl has been killed in his dorm room, he grows obsessed with bringing the culprit to justice. Is her ghost, and the spirit of his dead sister, actually haunting Cal or is he having a nervous breakdown as he suffers stigmata? Piccirilli takes us on a crazed investigation into the heart of malevolence and fear. Five stars, check it out.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic mixture, January 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Night Class (Mass Market Paperback)

Tom Piccirilli is one of the most consistently innovative horror writers currently working in the industry. All of his novels manage to raise the bar another notch and each one is completely unique and wholly different from the next. The Night Class has touches of the supernatural that are perfectly intertwined with a story that is, at its core, a mystery that leads the hero through his own dark night of the soul. The fact that the entire book takes place in a single night proves how well Piccirilli manages to frame his story within the context of his own subtle symbolism. This is a thriller that takes place on a university campus where a murder has occurred, but really it's the tale of one man's journey through a night of madness where everything he's come to believe is shaken and corrupted. A brilliant literary event.