Customer Reviews

From Whisper To Scream

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A Whisper to a Scream
By Samuel M Key (Charles DeLint)

This is Charles De Lint's first full length Newford Novel. He released it under the pen name of Samuel M Key, because of the dark tone to the story. I did not find that the tone of the story was much darker overall than most of his works, but the details are described in much more detail. This story also did not contain the balancing "light" supernatural entities, which usually balance the "dark" ones. This is a supernatural thriller.

Officer Thomas Morningstar assigned to the Slasher serial killer case. At first it seems straight forward, someone is killing prostitutes in Combat Zone (red light district of Newford). The problem is that no one has a clue who. The killer seems to literally come out of and disappear to nowhere. As the case continues he finds he must reevaluate his beliefs and the teachings he grew up with on the reservation. He finds that he must face his own heritage and his own past.

Photographer Jim McGann's hobby is taking photos of graffiti for a show he is hoping to put on. His day job is taking photos for the local paper, which has brought him to the murder scenes. While on the scene of the fourth murder he can't help but clicking a few frames of the graffiti at the site. Intuition causes him to take a few photos of a girl he sees there as well. Although he cannot explain why he believes there is a connection between the girl, the graffiti and the murders. Not really having any evidence be begins a quest to find the girl.

The two stories slowly come together. Adding in the Irish mob, Creole voodoo practitioners and friends they meet along the way. Culminating, as such a story must, with the battle against the Slasher.

Overall I found this to be a well written, engrossing story. The end was a bit of a let down, but I don't know that I have seen it handled better elsewhere. Things happened much the story line indicated, saving a few last minute twists for the end.

This story was definitely a "I can't put it down book", but I still felt left a bit of an unsatisfied feeling at the end.

In 1988 Newford police officer Thomas Morningstar chases after a speeder only to have the other driver pull a gun on him forcing the cop to fire and kill the man. The follow up investigation exonerates Thomas, but also shows the victim is pediophile Teddy Bird, who had three dead little kids in his trunk and several others in his apartment. Thomas eliminated a monster.

Two years later, Thomas believes a new serial killer targeting teenage prostitutes displays a similar MO to Bird. Since he personally saw Bird buried, Thomas wonders what is going on, but turns to his Native American heritage for the answer. Jumping off of conclusions drawn by a reporter, Thomas believes that Bird's malignant spirit is chasing after someone named Niki, but not sure why. Having stopped Bird when he was human, Thomas feels it is his responsibility to halt Teddy now that that he is as deadly as ever as a spirit.

This is a reprint of an early much darker Newford novel written under the pen name Samuel M. Key. The story line contains all the de Lint magic that makes him a fan favorite as the author in this case uses a malevolent essence as a form of symbolism to display the uglier side of modern society. The paranormal serial killer investigation is intriguing as Mr. de Lint provides his audience with a deep mystical thriller with an even deeper message.

Harriet Klausner

The action happens at night, in places called the Tombs and the Combat Zone. Amongst deserted streets and crumbling, abandoned buildings, we meet folks whose lives are lived out in the nighttime hours - a newspaper photographer, a mafia henchman, a homicide detective, a runaway. Charles de Lint paints a dark picture in  "From A Whisper To A Scream."

The depths and mysteries of voodoo, and our own childhood play the nastiest tricks in a story that tells of runaway Chelsea's impending and violent encounter with her father and her past -thought to have died years before. Brought into the tale is Jim McGann, photographer for a city newspaper. His camera lens, and his need to make aesthetic, if not logical, sense of what's there lead him through life. In this violent and dark story, "what's there" is the appearance of graffiti near several brutal murder scenes that states simply "Niki."

One of the city police detectives working to find the murderer is Thomas Morningstar, a Native American who seemingly has grown out of the milieu of his heritage. He's left the reservation for the city, and left the ancestral spirits for cool, informal logic and formal police procedure. In the course of the investigation, Thomas Morningstar meets with a voodoo priest, and is invited back to the reservation to speak with the tribal shaman, both of whom intimate that spiritual forces are involved in the goings-on in the Zone.

Pulling all of these people together is the increasingly alarming, strange series of murders in the Zone. All four victims were blonde, teenage women, three of them hookers. A witness to the fourth murder gives a consistent, but very puzzling description of the attack. Jim McGann identifies the same woman in several photographs he's taken of the crime scenes and crowd shots of several of the murder scenes. By chance Jim comes across Chelsea. We quickly learn that Chelsea knows, like the voodoo priest, that spiritual forces are involved; in fact, she's convinced that she knows the identity of those forces, and she's terrified.

Charles de Lint draws a circle of new characters into the story in each of the first four chapters, and the growing list, twists of plot and sorting out of voices kept me busy. Then through the next half or more of the story, the unfolding of the central murder mystery kept me hooked. De Lint achieves a consistency and logically satisfying development of most of the characters. This, and not the plot development, is the most deeply satisfying aspect of the story. In spite of some weak narrative and rhetorical devices (in one place, he introduces a character's flashback with "He could remember a day..." - ellipsis included), his characters do come through looking and behaving in ways consistent with the tone and logic of the story. The fate of Ryan, mafia henchman, I thought was especially well developed in this regard.

I am rather surprised that the most frightening, aspects of the story are more psychological than spiritual or magical in nature. The reality of the vulnerability of children and women in our world is grim and saddening, beyond tales of the supernatural. De Lint feels this, and pens his most graphic and disturbing passages and dialogue in this vein. For the sake of the story, the supernatural elements are entertaining, but most so when in the service of the deeper emotional and psychological mysteries and tragedies of modern life. "From A Whisper To A Scream" is a gritty, dark, but satisfying story of the violence not so much of the city, but of human relationships, and the potential for affection and compassion.

I loved this book, don't expect the usual from de Lint. It is a little out of the ordinary, but worth exploring. If you enjoy this, read the other books that he originally published under the psuedomyn "Samuel M. Key"

The story is about an evil man returning from the dead, and the battle to banish him again, before he accomplishes what he came back to do!
An interesting mix of people from his past, journalists, police men, indians and vodoo priests populate the novel, and charles de lint-readers will recognize classic newford-novel areas like The Tombs and Crowsea.

I think Charles de Lint fails to use several obvious possibilities for suspense in this novel. Much to early he makes it very clear what and who 'the slasher' is, and the reader then waits arround for the different characters in the novel to catch on as well... The story in itself has got lots of potential for being dark and sinister, and it succeeds from time to time. But often things and emotions are "over-explained", and the reader is kept too well-informed about what is going on. This doesn't leave enough space to doubt and wonder and be spooked.
The main character of 'Chealsea' is one of the best drawn, and because you don't get to go inside her head from the start, she remains interesting and surprising throughout the story.
It's a good story, and charles de lint is a great urban fantasy writer, but he needs a bit of practise in being "dark".

This is a really fascinating, can't-put-it-down thriller with the touches of magic you would expect from Charles De Lint. However, I must say there are several glaring errors in continuity that the editor seems to have missed- I won't go into it here but it should be fairly obvious to an attentive reader. I could see this happening in a first edition, but this is a reprint. This aside, I thoughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone trying to understand the struggle survivors of childhood abuse undergo as they try to let go of the past. Though grim, it is also empowering and hopeful, and a very well told story.

For those of you who have read The Onion Girl and Widdershin, the resolution of good and evil in Whisper to a Scream will come as no suprise. The theme of child abuse and the role it plays in the life of the abused is developed with Chelsea in Whisper and expanded and more fully developed with Jilly in these two later novels. In a very real sense this becomes a psychological thriller with a psychological resolution not a spirit world resolution as in some de Lint novels.

The usual de Lint themes of varied spiritual traditions (here First Nation and Voodoo), urban decay, and the lives of those on the fringes is presented. Most of the main characters have some issues/conflicts they are grappling with and except for Chelsea these are not really resolved. Tom Morningstar is First Nation and his tribe feels betrayed, especailly his father, by his marriage to a White woman and his role in the White world as a police officer. Being First Nation also creates problems for him on the force. He and his wife Angie are having a rough patch because of work and his inner conflicts. Jim has given up his freelance photogtraphy for a fulltime job on a paper to please his girl only to have her leave him. Cindy is on the run and although she seems together is really unable to develop close relationships. Some other characters get their problems solved directly or indirectly by being victims of The Slasher, the source of the evil haunting Newford. The role of the two spiritual traditions also do not come to any conclusion. Although the two work together and heavy hitters are called in to help by both sides this goes no where.

In the end those who have read Widdershun will recognize the resolution. For me it was an "Oh, this is a theme he will develop more fully" moment. The same could be said for the lack of development/resolution of the other themes. This feels like a beginning which it is. If this is your introduction to de Lint go to some of the later Newford novels. They are more complex and satisfying. Two picky points--Kickaha the First Nation Band is so similar to the farcical Kickapoo tribe of Lil Abner it always makes me squirm and why Time Magazine (US) and not McLane's (Canadian).

This is one of Charles de Lint's dark novels, which was originally written under a pen name. It was about a serial killer, and the investigation by the police, and a photographer who somehow got involved and the victim. So there are three storylines throughout the book, and we hear about each and how they end of meeting together in the climax of the book. One can easily see the familiar styles of de Lint in this book, but it is a murder mystery with the supernatural. So even though the writing is similar in style it is a graphic novel, with death, sex, and vile language. Is that wrong? No, it is a great adult thriller. After reading so many urban fantasies by de Lint it was very refreshing to read such a mature book, as a change of pace. I thought it was well written and was a great novel. In fact while I was reading this novel, I though what a great horror movie this would make. And it would, it's a great book. I hope de Lint tries his hand at horror/thriller again in the future.

As a devoted fan of De Lint's work, this was no let down. Magic realism at its finest!