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Ellen Datlow's 1999 Reviews
Instruments of the Night by Thomas H. Cook (Bantam) is a
riveting thriller about a writer who has sublimated a childhood trauma
and his complicity in it into a popular series of historical crime
novels. Paul Graves's novels about a detective and the serial killer he
is unable to capture are getting darker over the years. While
vacationing at Riverwood, an artists' community in upstate New York,
Allison Davies, the estate's owner, asks him to research the mysterious
murder of her best friend years before, and he's grateful for the
distraction. As Graves investigates, his past haunts him as more of his
memories surface from his subconscious. Psychologically rich, horrifying
in its believable depiction of corruption of the innocent, and
ultimately poignant.
White Bird in a Blizzard by Laura Kasischke (Hyperion) may not at first seem dark enough for some horror readers, but for those with open minds, and a love of good writing, puzzles, and unexpected darkness welling up from apparent normality this novel will intrigue. One day in the mid 1980s, Eve Connors, an increasingly withdrawn and dissatisfied housewife, abandons her bland husband and their teenage daughter. The story is told from the point of view of Kat, the daughter who, initially seems unaffected by her mother's disappearance. But over the three-year period during which the novel takes place the reader begins to see how profoundly Kat's mother affected her both before and after she disappeared. As Kat grapples with her emerging sexuality and her womanly power, she dreams unsettling dreams about her mother. And gradually, the true picture comes into focus in a powerful surge of suspense. A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O'Nan (Henry Holt) is a short, heartwrenching horror novel about Jacob Hansen, a deeply religious Civil War veteran who is constable, preacher, and undertaker for the small town of Friendship, Wisconsin. A tramp's mysterious death and the appearance of a raving woman from a secretive religious enclave set into motion a series of horrific events that challenge Hansen's faith. He is caught between two deadly threats: a diphtheria epidemic and out of control brushfires circling his town—either of which could destroy his family and his community. One of the best novels of the year. Winner of the International Horror Guild Award for Novel. Every Dead Thing by John Connolly (Simon & Schuster) is a refreshing, hard-hitting, and grisly debut by a Dublin journalist who brilliantly captures two quintessential American cities—New York and New Orleans. Former policeman Charlie (Bird) Parker is haunted by the sadistic murders of his wife and young daughter. Working as an unlicensed detective, Bird is unexpectedly drawn into New York mob rivalries and a series of thirty-year-old murders by what seems to be a routine missing persons case. Complicating things, he begins having visions of a young woman murdered in a manner similar to his family, years earlier in the bayous of Louisiana. Bird's journey south takes him down an increasingly intricate and twisted path of secrets, discoveries, and betrayals. Connolly develops believable, flawed characters who conduct relationships that make sense, and he holds the reader in his hand all the way. Hannibal by Thomas Harris (Delacorte Press) is every bit as inventive, grisly, and suspenseful as Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs. But Hannibal is given an additional dimension by its depiction of the continuing pas de deux between serial cannibal, Hannibal Lecter and FBI agent Clarice Starling that began in The Silence of the Lambs. Since escaping from custody seven years earlier, Lector has been living a life of comfort, culture, and satisfaction in Florence, Italy. During that same period, Starling's career trajectory has been in a downward spiral since capturing the serial killer dubbed Buffalo Bill, as she deals with FBI bureaucracy and politics, and resentment of her early success. In the meantime, a surviving victim of Lecter's plots a gruesome revenge for the doctor. Although these three form the nexus of Hannibal, there are other, equally fascinating characters who play important roles in the plot. But the novel, as fitting its title, becomes Hannibal's story—gradually shifting focus from Clarice. Harris does well to make the mysterious Dr. Lecter's perversions/interest in Starling more comprehensible by giving him a believable past. By giving Lecter a life beyond his murderous impulses Harris keeps the book lively and the reader on her toes. And the ending is perfectly if perversely apt. This does not mean the book is perfect—the shifting point of view with Harris addressing the reader directly is off-putting. I also find the very last scene makes the ending more literal than necessary, damaging the delicate psychological and moral balance Harris has so carefully constructed. L. A . Requiem by Robert Crais (Doubleday) is the eighth title in this entertaining series about an L.A. private eye with the unlikely name of Elvis Cole. Just as Cole's lover Lucy Chenier and her young son move cross-country as a commitment to their relationship, Cole's partner/friend Joe Pike asks Elvis to help find a missing ex-lover. When the woman is found dead, her powerful father hires Pike and Cole to monitor the police investigation. Joe Pike has been a shadow figure in each of the previous Cole novels—tough and silent, he keeps to himself except when his partner needs help. Here, the reader learns a great deal of Pike's backstory as his past as an L.A. cop comes back to bite him in the ass. Crais does an excellent job developing his characters, providing the reader with insights into them over time and giving the characters themselves realistic problems to deal with. L.A. Requiem is a suspenseful and colorful addition to the series. The Extremes by Christopher Priest (St. Martin's Press) is a futuristic suspense novel about Teresa Simons, an FBI agent whose husband, also an agent, died in a Texan killing spree the same day as another spree took place in England. Simons goes to the town of Bulverton, England in an attempt to make some kind of sense of her husband's death—and to explore the meaning of the coincidental events. She visits the local ExEx (Extreme Experience) parlor, where anyone can enter virtual realities based on hundreds of scenarios involving sex and/or violence, including spree killings like the one that killed her husband. She is warned by GunHo (the company that produces the scenarios) representatives to leave because her investigations may contaminate the ExEx project they are creating using memories of the survivors. As Simons get sucked into playing various mass murder scenarios in an attempt to effect the events within them her reality starts shifting. The ambiguity of this ambitious and chilling novel's ending is perfectly apt. A fascinating precursor to the Cronenberg movie eXistenZ, which came out soon after the book was published in the U.K. and for which, (all too logically) Priest was hired under a pseudonym to write the novelization. Mr. X by Peter Straub (Random House) is a feat of complexity as Straub deftly intertwines the experiences of two families in a Southern Illinois town. Each birthday, Ned Dunstan has experienced convulsions during which he sees horrific visions of slaughter perpetuated by a mysterious man Ned thinks of as Mr. X. Ned has grown up fatherless and in foster homes, left there by his eccentric jazz singer mother throughout most of his childhood. He knows Star loves him but only begins to understand her seeming abandonment of him when he visits her on her deathbed. Before she dies, Star whispers two names, leading Ned on a quest for his true father. As Ned nears his thirty-fifth birthday, he is forced to accept his family's powerful genetic legacy—and the possibility that the mischievous doppelganger shadowing him might be his brother. The story is told from the shifting viewpoints of Ned and Mr. X, a man who follows the beliefs of a cult relating to H.P. Lovecraft and who is hunting Ned. Straub is one of the finest stylists writing in horror today, and has an imagination that continually creates colorful and memorable characters and strange magical places. This is a terrific multi-layered novel with both supernatural and psychological horror elements. Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Novel. King Rat by China Miéville (Macmilllan/Tor) is about a young man whose life is turned upside down when he's framed for the murder of his father. A mysterious man/creature calling himself King Rat effortlessly helps a bewildered Saul to escape jail, leading him through the sewers of underground London. King Rat informs Saul that his mother was a rat and that he, King Rat is Saul's uncle. This strange creature seeks revenge against the piper of Hamelin, who killed his minions and stole his power 500 years earlier. In the meantime, something vicious and powerful is murdering Londoners, and the cops who arrested him for his father's death believe it's Saul. Music and politics both play crucial (but not intrusive) roles in this beautifully written first novel. A dark fairy tale that is a welcome addition to the tradition of alternate Londons such as those conceived of by Michael Moorcock, Christopher Fowler, Neil Gaiman, Iain Sinclair, and Peter Ackroyd. Heartwood by James Lee Burke (Doubleday) is the author's second novel about Deaf Smith, Texas and Billy Bob Holland, the defense lawyer and former Texas Ranger who lives there. Billy Bob, literally haunted by the best friend he accidentally killed years earlier, gets drawn into the circle of the wealthy and arrogant Dietrich family. Billy Bob feels compelled to defend an unlucky local accused by the Dietrich family of theft. Unfortunately his loyalties, not to mention his emotions, are torn every time he encounters Peggy Jean, his first love, now Earl Dietrich's wife. Not unexpectedly, he uncovers greed and ruthlessness among the rich, and corruption in a justice system stacked against the poor. But Burke's true talent is multi-dimensional characterization. Billy Bob may be the protagonist of this complicated novel, but he's deeply flawed, continually struggling against his uncontrollable violent streak and his guilt for past sins. Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem (Doubleday) has for its protagonist and narrator, Lionel Essrog, a victim of Tourette's Syndrome. This means he twitches, tics, mumbles, and often yells curses uncontrollably. Lionel is one of Frank Minna's "boys." Minna is a local neighborhood tough who mentors Lionel and three other orphans living at Saint Vincent's Home for Boys in the early 1970s, giving them something more interesting to do than just hang out after school—little "moving" jobs that none of the boys question. Once they leave the Home, the four work for Minna's shady detective agency under the guise of a limousine service, loyal but ignorant of most of Minna's activities. Until the night Frank Minna is knifed to death and they are suddenly without a rudder. The unlikely Lionel, who because of his affliction is assumed to be stupid, sets out to find out who murdered Minna and why. This is Lethem's second unconventional foray into detective fiction; his first novel, Gun, With Occasional Music featured an evolved kangaroo as the villain. In Motherless Brooklyn, the author injects humor and irony into what could be a standard crime fiction plot. But what raises this novel exponentially out of any genre is his brilliant creation, Lionel, with his trials and tribulations. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Marriage of Sticks by Jonathan Carroll (Tor) is a return to what Carroll does best: create marvelous characters then systematically dismantling their reality little by little, forcing them to come to terms with the mysteries hovering around them. Carroll's work always has the underpinnings of horror; his characters are forced to face the dark just under the surface of their seemingly cheery lives. This novel is no exception. The ostensibly charmed life of lovely rare book dealer Miranda Rominac is completely altered by her high school reunion in Crane's View, New York (where Carroll's previous novel, the mystery Kissing the Beehive, takes place). Hoping to rekindle her high school romance with bad boy James Stillman, she is shocked to discover that he died a few years earlier. Upon her return to New York City she meets two fascinating people—Frances Hatch, a wealthy, elderly woman who knew just about everybody in her youth and Hugh Oakley, a married man who knew Stillman. Carroll's panoply of images leave imprints in the reader's mind: A woman in a stadium surrounded by every person she has ever encountered during each of her past lives; a lone woman in a wheelchair by the side of a teeming highway. But the author's depiction of Rominac as a kind of psychic vampire destroying those around her is perplexing because this supposed character trait is never sufficiently rendered. As a result, the reader is left with a sense of authorial intrusion rather than a natural perception of Rominac's character. The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead (Anchor Books) is an ingenious mystery-alternative history that takes place in an unnamed big city modeled on New York in the 1940s. Two factions of elevator technicians are feuding: the empiricists and the intuitionists. Intuitionist Lila Mae Watson, whose work is under the strictest scrutiny because she is the first "colored" inspector in the city, and a female to boot, is under suspicion for an accident in one of her buildings. In order to clear herself, she accepts the assignment to search for the rumored lost notebooks of the founder of the intuitionist movement. The internal contradictions might make it unclear exactly when this story takes place but there's no doubt as to the racism permeating the world. The mystery is secondary to the author's fascinating riff on the Zen of elevator maintenance plus his overt and covert attack on racism. But this makes the book no less enjoyable. Collectors by Paul Griner (Random House) is an absorbing and sinister short novel about the peculiar mating dance between a sociopath and a troubled neurotic with a suspicious past. Talented advertising art director Jean Duprez meets an attractive young man named Steven at her cousin's wedding and responds to his advances despite her misgivings. A beautifully written, unnerving tale that unfolds with a stark inevitability. The Boy by Naeem Murr (Mariner Books) is the powerful debut about a human monster—a beautiful boy who insinuates himself into the lives of those around him, destroying them. One foster father, whose family has been victimized by the boy's maliciousness, is searching for the Boy (who goes under different names), tracking him to a group home, then to the streets where he sells his body. Murr weaves a masterful web of interrelationships and creates a fascinatingly ambiguous character in this beautifully written and ultimately terrifying novel. Black Light by Elizabeth Hand (HarperPrism) is a wonderful dark fantasy, related to the author's Waking the Moon. Charlotte Moylan, (known as "Lit") is a typical seventeen year old living in the very untypical town of Kamensic, in upstate New York. Her actor parents and their friends are quirky and a little peculiar (not that Lit notices). The town is preparing for a huge Halloween bash being thrown by the charismatic film director Alex Kern who years before consorted with Andy Warhol and his entourage. As guests gather and the town prepares, Lit sees startling visions of ancient creatures that seem to be trying to communicate with her. And she is attracting the attention of Kern and others who see her as a powerful tool to create a New World order. |