White Darkness (Hardcover)

~ Steven Salinger (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Haiti and New York may seem worlds apart, but in this tense and engrossing novel they're literally right next door to each other. When Brooklyn jeweler Moe Rosen plays the good Samaritan and saves his next-door neighbor, restaurant-owner Miz Ark, from a mugger, his impulsive act opens a door into a whole different world. The Haitian community that revolves around Miz Ark's restaurant embraces Moe as a wanga, a good-luck charm, and Moe's luck starts to change personally and professionally. Meanwhile, young Fabrice Lacroix flees Haiti on a raft when the family he works for is murdered by the evil Col. Hugo Ferray. The two plot lines begin their slow, tense advance toward each other as Fabrice makes his way from Haiti to New York, and Ferray is squeezed out of Haiti by the CIA. That both men are heading for Miz Ark should feel like a plot contrivance, but thanks to Salinger's storytelling and the way the Haitian worldview permeates the novel, every coincidence feels like the deliberate work of the l'wahs, Haitian deities like the erotic Erzulie and the evil Ogoun Ferraille. The characters are believable and complex Moe Rosen is more than just a symbolic Caucasian in the world of Haitian immigrants, and his relationship with Marlene, one of Miz Ark's waitresses, never feels like the obligatory romance that so often mars a good thriller. Having lived and worked in the Caribbean, Salinger (Behold the Fire) doesn't flinch from beginning this picaresque thriller with a dose of harsh reality, and the threat of imminent violence looms over the rest of the novel. If this sophomore effort is any indication, Salinger is obviously favored by the l'wah of good writing.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

From its blood-chilling opening scene, White Darkness will grab you by the throat and keep on squeezing.

On the island nation of Haiti, the shadowy Colonel Hugo Ferray is making another of his surprise nighttime visits. While he sits in the elegant dining room entertaining Mr. and Mrs. Dalwani and their three teen-age daughters with witty conversation, his armed troops outside are silently snipping the telephone wires and surrounding the house. When preparations are complete, the colonel slowly and mercilessly transforms his polite social call into a sadistic ritual of pillage, rape, arson and murder.

Fabrice Lacroix works for the wealthy Jouvier family. He spends his days tending their garden and daydreaming about living in America with his girlfriend Antoinette. But a terrifying, late night confrontation with Colonel Ferray will propel Fabrice on a journey toward America more harrowing than he could ever have imagined. His escape will leave his precious Antoinette to face the colonel's savage fury alone. Both Fabrice and Antoinette will place their lives in the hands of the l'wahs, the revered Voodoo spirits who are the living gods of Haiti.

At thirty-nine, More Rosen is struggling to maintain the family jewelry store in a once elegant Brooklyn neighborhood now crowded with West Indian immigrants— people whose language, customs and beliefs he does not understand. When Moe rescues his Haitian neighbor from a brutal mugging, he will be drawn into her strange, alien, darkly superstitious world where romance and success will lead to violence, kidnapping and the very real threat of death.

After methodically destroying all traces of his former life, Colonel Ferray will relocate to America and assume a new identity. When he discovers that much of his stored treasure has been stolen, his lust for vengeance will take him straight to the West Indian section of Brooklyn. Rather than subduing his vicious impulses, the change of scene will actually increase his appetite for innocent women and orchestrated bloodshed.

As the evil of the island seeps into the streets of New York, a deadly clash involving the colonel, Moe Rosen, Fabrice Lacroix and the mystical spirits of Haitian Voodoo will become inevitable.

In settings that range from the high seas of the Caribbean to the canyons of New York, from a poverty-stricken Haitian village to a Miami bank vault filled with stolen gold, from a shootout on a lonely West Indian mountaintop to an authentic Voodoo ceremony in a crowded Brooklyn basement, White Darkness tells the story of men and women whose love, strength and courage will be tested to their limits in a final battle that will either destroy them or set them free.

Praise for Steven D. Salinger's Behold the Fire:
"It would be hard to pack more suspenseful action into these pages..." — People
"Debut thrillers don't get much better than this." — Chicago Tribune
"Jolting...impressive....sees a lot of action and covers a lot of ideological ground without losing a grip on itself...Salinger writes as if language were his lifeline to a new world." — The New York Times
"The best first novel I've ever reviewed." — Philadelphia Inquirer

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (June 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609607286
• ISBN-13: 978-0609607282
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,974,243 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A chilling thriller, June 5, 2001

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Brooklyn jewelry store once was exclusive during his father's ownership, but now after a decade of trying Moe Rosen knows he is nearing financial failure. However, every morning he arrives at his store in the changing neighborhood, but now he mostly sells junk. While unlocking his door, he notices a man coming towards his neighbor Miz Ark, owner of a restaurant he has never visited. The man attacks Miz Ark so Moe, ignoring the voice of his father inside his head, rescues the woman.

Though Miz Ark is injured, Moe is a hero among the Haitian population that frequents her restaurant. They begin showing up at his store making purchases and he starts to go next door to eat. Moe even takes out a waitress (from Queens). Moe is unaware that his action of interceding leads to fulfillment for the first time since he returned home from California, but danger that started in Haiti has flowed into the streets of Brooklyn.

WHITE DARKNESS is an exciting urban thriller that provides readers a glimpse of Haitian beliefs, which still hold sway even in Brooklyn. The story line works because the key cast seem genuine, the romance real, and the voodoo and related beliefs intermingle and propel the plot to a rousing finish. Different and refreshing, Steven D. Salinger provides a thrilling tale that will send readers seeking his previous work, BEHOLD THE FIRE.

Harriet Klausner

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Caribben Gothic, June 8, 2001

By	Paul Stern (Cherry Hill, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

It is a pleasure to find a book that far exceeds one's expectations for the Thriller Genre. In White Darkness, Salinger has created believable characters moving through a world which might best be called Caribbean Gothic. How else to describe a story that takes the reader from Haiti to Brooklyn, from the utterly evil Colonel Ferray to the good natured jeweler Moe Rosen? Salinger weaves a tale where we meet Miz Ark, Moe's neighbor and owner of the gathering place of Brooklyn's Haitian community, her employee, a goddess-like waitress, Marlene, who proves to be a passionate love interest for Moe, and a truly delightful character, Fabrice, the Haitian house boy , a brilliantly created naif whose Candide-like adventures and misadventures connect the rest of the cast. Salinger's knowledge of Voodoo brings considerable verisimilitude to much of the action. We are led through a world where things aren't what we expect them to be, a world filtered through the perceptions of a community most of know little about. In a curious way, the Voodoo vision adds a reality to the horrors, the escapes, and rescues that punctuate the book. The observant reader will also appreciate Salinger's subversive sense of humor. But to say more would give away too much and spoil some of wild incongruities and sheer delight intersperced in this world of terror and intrigue.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MESMERIZING! SCARY! BELIEVABLE!, December 4, 2001

By	Mozella R. Sunshine (United States) - See all my reviews

WHITE DARKNESS, by Steven D. Salinger, is an up close view of unabashed evil perpetrated by sociopathic mercenaries lacking empathy or compassion for fellow humans. It's about Haitian history, Haitian voodoo and the impact of diverse cultures and adjustments that result as life pursues happiness and the American dream.

WHITE DARKNESS is painlessly education, a college course one can attend in your nightie, snuggled in a sleeping bag munching trail-mix and listening to Buddy Guy at the same time. Upon completion, you can wow your erudite friends by asking them if they're familiar with the 4C's of evaluating the quality of a diamond or the definition of words like "naif," and "zabocah".

My only complaint, I couldn't get this book in large print.

Otherwise, I wish this tale could have continued for at least a thousand pages. WHITE DARKNESS IS A MASTERPIECE!!!