Darkfall, by Dean Koontz

[rachelmanija]

ANOTHER bait-and-switch! Though this time, not the author's fault. My edition has this on the back cover:

Winter gripped the city. Terror gripped it, too. In a city paralyzed by a blizzard, something watches, something stalks.

There's plenty of watching and stalking, but I would not have even registered that it was snowing if the back cover hadn't told me; the only times the weather comes into play is when there's spooky cold drafts. I was expecting winter survival horror, and that is not an element.

It is, in fact, a mostly terrible horror novel about voodoo. (Almost all horror novels about voodoo are mostly or entirely terrible). If I'd known there was voodoo, I would not have picked this up.

(Spelling used to indicate the trashy horror use, not the actual religion.)

Members of the Mafia are found bitten to death in locked rooms; two cops investigate and find a trail leading to a bocor with a grudge. There's a houngan who helps the cops. You can tell Koontz is vaguely gesturing in the direction of sensitivity but it doesn't really help. I skimmed rather than DNF'd, which meant that I got to the ending where the hero hurls holy water into a pit, then closes it with his own blood which is holy because he's a good guy, yes really.

The best part is the first chapter, in which the hero's daughter hears a creepy noise in her bedroom at night. I kept reading way past when I should have given up on the strength of that first chapter. I'm not saying it's well-written, or even good, really. But it's got that grabby, compelling quality that makes you read on.

That first chapter shows the power of two techniques: having something that's scary but unknown and unseen (once we see the voodoo critters, they're no longer scary), and moment-to-moment writing. The latter is something used a lot in horror and also in romance - two genres which depend largely on evoking emotion. You follow the character in real time, getting every moment, every detail, every thought, every feeling. It's extremely granular. You might spend a paragraph describing them reaching for a light switch: every fumble, every texture, every worry that it won't turn on.

This can be done badly, but it's incredibly effective when done well. You can wring more suspense out of someone trying to reach a glass of water with their hands tied than from fifty giant explosions. Dick Francis and Stephen King are masters of this technique. And this one chapter in a pretty crummy book, in which a girl hears rustling noises and pokes at them with a plastic baseball bat, is an example of how effective it can be even when it's nowhere near that level.

If you want to take a look, here's the link to the Kindle edition which has a Look Inside: Darkfall: A remorselessly terrifying and powerful thriller

Comments

[sovay]

You can wring more suspense out of someone trying to reach a glass of water with their hands tied than from fifty giant explosions.

Have you read Dick Francis' Smokescreen (1972)? It has a strong component of this element, so much so that I always remember it as the majority of the plot when really it comprises only the last section of the book.

(So as to avoid further bait and switch in recommendations, mild rot13: fcrpvsvpnyyl, V nyjnlf erzrzore vg nf gur bar nobhg gur npgbe ybpxrq gb gur fgrrevat jurry bs uvf pne naq yrsg gb qvr va n ubg pyvzngr—yvxr gur cerzvfr bs uvf pheerag cvpgher, n fbeg bs neg-ubhfr cflpubybtvpny guevyyre—orpnhfr jura gur frdhrapr neevirf, vg'f yvxr Senapvf ghearq vagb Tnel Cnhyfra sbe guerr puncgref. V yrnearq nobhg pbyyrpgvat zbvfgher gb qevax sebz gur pbaqrafngvba ba cynfgvp sebz guvf obbx.)

[grayswandir]

Apart from the book sovay mentioned above, are there any other works by Francis or King that you'd recommend in particular for this technique?

[sholio]

Koontz is a weird example of an author who can build breathless suspense in the first few chapters - I've started a lot of his books on the basis of this - but rarely manages to keep it going for the whole book; invariably Something Goes Wrong in the middle, usually around the time that you find out the villain is a amoral atheist serial killer and the characters start talking about God a lot and/or a golden retriever shows up to save everybody.

... I feel as if Koontz Bingo ought to be a thing. I am torn on whether the free space should be a preternaturally insightful child with Down's syndrome or a golden retriever named after one of his dead dogs.

[dantesspirit]

I read Koontz mostly in high school through my early 30s.

His later books (ie more recent ones) don't seem as good as his earlier books. Not sure if it's the writing or my tastes.

[scioscribe]

Man, those subtitles Kindle editions tack on sometimes are always overwrought, but this is a particularly painful example.

hero hurls holy water into a pit, then closes it with his own blood which is holy because he's a good guy, yes really.

What.

Koontz's decline really is a shame, because he has a good authorial toolkit if he'd only bother to focus on craft and not weird personal tangents and his characters being the Best and Purest Ever. Even in his awful later period, he sometimes comes up with premises I really like and wish I could read a better author's take on!

[mildred_of_midgard]

Small request: when it's convenient for you, could you tag this post with Dick Francis? I use your tag when I'm looking for recs and anti-recs on which of his books to read next. Thanks!