Nine-year-old Ann has been taken to a nature reserve by her Aunt Rachel. As they are leaving, she sees a strange young man staring at them. After his panic subsides, the young man, Mart, realizes that they may be able to connect him to the girl he's just strangled. Hence a game of cat and mouse begins as Mart stalks them and other inhabitants of their small Australian town. Will Ann and her aunt escape?
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
This taut, suspenseful thriller packs a wallop into a slim volume. When Martin Deeford, a lonely, emotionally stunted store clerk with a history of violence, picks up Rose Gault, a free-spirited young woman waiting for a bus on a rainy Sunday afternoon, he knows she isn't really waiting for a bus. And when he offers her a ride, she doesn't really expect to be escorted home, so she doesn't protest when he takes her to an isolated lakeside nature reserve. But he isn't interested in Rose's willingly proffered sexual favors; he only wants to talk. When she begins taunting him, he strangles her, pushes her body into the lake, and walks away, certain that his crime has gone unnoticed. But as he leaves, he encounters a woman walking in the reserve with a child he assumes is her daughter. His subsequent efforts to find and silence the witness, who could lead the police to him, create a suspenseful game of cat and mouse. But the mouse--Rachel Penghill--has no idea that she's being stalked, and the cat--Mart himself--does not realize that he's already being sought by the police. Rose, who survived the attack on her life, has identified him to the authorities. Rachel is surprised but not alarmed when the man she saw at the reserve turns up at her jewelry store. And even when he locks her in her own vault, she assumes that burglary is his motive and that she will be freed in a matter of hours.
The narrative is energetically driven by the alternating perspectives of criminal and victim. Patricia Carlon's technique illuminates both Rachel's lonely, spinsterish existence, which all but ensures that no one will notice her disappearance until it's too late, and Mart's own insecurities and ineptness. A long way from a criminal mastermind, he may nevertheless be the agent of her destruction. This is a suitably creepy psychological thriller that maintains its suspense until the last sentence. Although the author all but ignores the exterior landscape (somewhere in Australia), she focuses brilliantly on the inner one. --Jane Adams
From Publishers Weekly
Readers looking for a gripping tale of suspense in the classic mode need look no further. Carlon, an Australian writer whose superb mysteries (Crime of Silence, etc.) have only recently become available in the U.S., tells the story of just a few days in the lives of Rachel Penghill, her nine-year-old niece, Ann, and the deeply troubled Martin Deeford. Mart has strangled a young woman he's met by chance, and rolled the body into a lake. As he leaves the scene of the crime, he encounters Rachel and Ann, who are picnicking in the woods. Although they haven't seen him commit murder, Mart decides that he must kill them, too, in case they can identify him to the police. But he doesn't know their names or where they live. How can he find them before the body is discoveredDand how will they be able to stay safe from this deranged criminal? As the long night after the strangling passes, a cat-and-mouse game between the stalker and his victims ensues, with each step carefully choreographed for maximum tension. Carlon strips this novel down to the bare bones of narrativeDwhich only highlights her storytelling prowess and mastery of the form. Those who have compared her to Hitchcock are not overstating the case, for this clear, concise thriller is like a limpid distillation of the best of the suspense genre. Readers are in for a treat indeed. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Small Town Suspense,
By
This review is from: The Unquiet Night (Hardcover)
Patricia Carlon is a popular Australian writer. This book, originally written in 1965, is one of a series being published in the United States by Soho Press. This slim volume of about 190 pages is a tale of suspense, similar to the work of Ruth Rendell or Mary Higgins Clark. Rachel Penghill takes her nine-year-old niece for a picnic near a lake. When it begins to rain, they grab their belongings in order to leave, and Rachel notices a strange young man looking at them. Martin Deeford has just strangled a young woman and dumped her body in the lake. He becomes obsessed with the idea that Rachel can identify him and connect him to the crime.The events that follow create a tangled web of confusion and stir the residents of the village into an assorted range of reactions...fear, denial, and rationalization. Martin's delusional thought processes lead him from one plan to another, and alll who become involved have their own interpretation. Even the local radio news broadcaster puts his verson of a spin on the events. Eventually he does locate Rachel, and he creates a situtation that is the heart of the book's suspense. Again, various characters come close to resolving the situation, only to convince themselves that things are different. Rachel's very survival hinges on the outcome. I read this book in a day. It is one of those "can't put it down" reads. Although the village is quaint, and the procedures a bit dated by today's standards, the plot was very clever. The twists and turns lead to a resolution that still has the reader wondering what could happen next.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A superb thriller just recently published in the U.S.,
By
This review is from: The Unquiet Night (Hardcover)
An independent-minded young jeweler, a lonely and deranged man, an innocent child--take these three ingredients, mix them together, let your imagination run wild, and boom! You have the well-oiled engine which begins running from the moment you open up Patricia Carlon's superb 1965 thriller "The Unquiet Night" (only published in the U.S. in the last few years). Carlon, an Australian writer, has published only a handful of books and this is the only one I've read thus far--but it's made me want to pick up her other work as well. The tale is set in Australia. Rachel Penghill is the independent young jeweler, feeling a bit at odds with her boyfriend, trying to make a go of her business, and spending time with her nine-year old niece to try to take her mind off her own problems. Thus is the action set into place (after a very scary first chapter which actually involves another female character--can't say much more without giving too much away). Martin Deeford, the off-balance, enraged man Rachel has the misfortune to meet up with, is convinced of something about Rachel which actually turns out to be untrue--but he doesn't know this yet, and his beliefs about Rachel are enough to send him stalking and finally finding her. I can say little else without giving away too much of the plot, and I will say that I found the ending unsatisfactory. Without going into detail to ruin it for those who haven't read "The Unquiet Night," the ending somehow struck a false note for me--as though Carlon had simply and suddenly tired of the book and decided to slam the covers shut. Other than that though--and it is a fairly minor quibble--this is a taut and worthy thriller.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A bone-chilling thriller!,
This review is from: Unquiet Night (Paperback)
The Unquiet Night has bone-chilling thriller written all over it! I couldn't put it down -- the haunting scenes made me curious about what would happen next. What I first considered to a desperate attempt at reading something different and obscure turned into one of the best reading investments I've made in quite a long time.Set in Australia, Carlon tells the story of Martin Deeford -- a lonely and deranged man who seeks the company of someone who can understand him. He sees Rose as his saving grace, but his disarming attempt at having a faithful listener ends in murder. Martin thinks that the murder will never be traced back to him -- but little does he know that the nightmare has just begun...
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