In the Dark of the Night by John Saul
4.5★'s

From The Book:
Summer vacation becomes a season in hell for an ordinary family who unwittingly stir something invisible, insidious, and insatiable from its secret slumber–unleashing a wave of horror only the darkest evil could create, that only a master of spine-tingling terror like John Saul could orchestrate. For deep in the shadows in the dark of the night lurks something as big as life . . . and as real as death.

It has waited seven years for someone to come back to the rambling lakeside house called Pinecrest, which has stood empty since its last owner went missing. For upscale Chicago couple Dan and Merrill Brewster, the old midwestern manse is an ideal retreat, and for their kids, Eric and Marci, it’s the perfect place to spend a lazy summer exploring. Which is how Eric and his teenage friends discover the curious cache of discarded objects stowed in a hidden room of Pinecrest’s carriage house. The bladeless hacksaws, shadeless lamps, tables with missing legs, headless axe handle, and other unremarkable items add up to a pile of junk. Yet someone took the trouble to inventory each worthless relic in a cryptic ledger. It has all the makings of a great mystery–whispering, coaxing, demanding to be solved.

But the more the boys devote themselves to restoring the forgotten possessions and piecing together the puzzle behind them, the more their fascination deepens into obsession. Soon their days are consumed with tending the strange, secret collection–while their nights become plagued by ever more ghastly dreams, nightmares that soon seep into reality. And when a horrifying discovery surfaces, so does the chilling truth–about the terrifying events that rocked the town seven years before, the mysterious disappearance of Pinecrest’s last resident, and a twisted legacy with a malevolent life of its own . . . and a bottomless hunger for new victims.

My Thoughts:
This is a reread for me but several years have past since I read it the first time. I discovered John Saul's books almost forty years ago and eagerly read every book he wrote from that time on. It's more than just a horror story. It's seemingly impossible things happening to real families that could be your next door neighbors...your friends... or Heaven forbid...even your own family.

The plot is not especially unique...at least not to ghost story and horror story regulars but there are plenty of twists and turns. Overall just good creepy fun along the way as John Saul is famous for his creepy things happening to ordinary people type of writing. If you like that type of book then this authors writings will never disappoint.

2.5. Different take on what initially appeared to be a haunted house story, but still rather silly. Though I have to say, it was sort of entertaining -- perfect sort of beach read (if your taste in beach reads tends more towards horror and less toward chick lit).

DNF at 80-ish pages. It wasn’t scary and it seemed to be going down a path that was boring to me. I expected a ghost story and I don’t think it would have been that kind of story.

Such a disappointment. Probably the book that proves I've outgrown this author.

This was my first John Saul book. Good. Scary. Sort of no frills horror.

От една страна Джон Сол има лека ръка, приятно перо и умее да пише завладяващо. От друга, това е възможно най-най-шаблонният хорър който можете да си представите.

Малко курортно градче в щатите. До езеро. Тийнеджъри. Заспало зло, дето уж не спи.

meh...

This book was, quite frankly, atrocious. Saul pulled out all the stops to make his work as gruesome and disturbing as possible without regard for quality. Loose ends were left strewn about, several conclusions were drawn shakily without much basis, and the characters seemed overly predictable. I'm ashamed to have read past the first chapter of such a gory monstrocity.

In the Dark of the Night. John Saul. 2006. Ballantine Books. 390 pages. ISBN 9780345487025.

Now holding a title shared with many others of mass-market king, John Saul was one of my favorite authors as a pre-teen and throughout my young adult years. I first devoured Suffer the Children (1977) which is still wildly original and read everything written by Saul up through 1994, when I began to notice a tiring and homogeneous plot trend in his novels. I did revisit John Saul in 2006 to read his Blackstone Chronicles, which were super fun and renewed my confidence in Saul! Now, several years later, I have decided to read In the Dark of the Night.

In the Dark of the Night features a trio of upper-class close-knit families who vacation in a lakeside community that thrives with tourism in the summer. Three teenage sons -- one from each family (who coincidentally just happen to be best friends) discover a hidden room in an old abandoned boathouse on one of the properties and begin poking around where they shouldn't. Alas, evil soon unleashes, people start to die, and the peaceful community is in an uproar. Throw into the mix some hateful, local teenage rivals that hate rich kids, and the evil intensifies.

The novel sloooooowly builds suspense until after about halfway through, when we learn about why dark evil surrounds the mysterious "tools" the boys have found in the boathouse. After a long build-up by Saul (or his ghostwriter these days?), you'll be highly pleased and intrigued about the history of these "tools"! As you read on, your eyes will grow to the size of silver dollars and you'll say, "WOW! That's so original!"

But then, just as quickly as the excitement arrives, it fades away just as fast when you realize not much more is going to happen with these "magic tools" (I'm not giving away spoilers!) aside from people just dying. With such a unique horror concept, you'll expect more creativity from the plot but it just doesn't happen, and doesn't satisfy.

John Saul will always be a staple and harbor a solid place in my childhood library memories, but I'm just not sold on buying any more of his future novels. Regardless, although I'm still going to skim the synopsis of each new book, I can't promise that I'll be a devoted fan forever and ever.

John Saul's most recent horror novel is House of Reckoning (2009).

Read more reviews at http://dreamworldbooks.com.

Kind of schlocky, had to roll my eyes at several obvious twists or stereotypical characters.

This was a fun horror thriller.

John Saul is not a terribly sophisticated writer..more the equivalent of Cliff's Notes....

I could see where the story would end during the first 1/4 of the book.

Plot concerns the opening of Pinecrest, and the dark secrets it contains, and the pull of evil over time.

Not a bad read, a nice way to spend a few hours.


Jeff McIntosh

This book is called In the Dark Of the Night, but really what it should be called is The Cursed Axe.

John Saul's n  The Cursed Axen In the Dark of the Night is a very specific type of thriller. It's what some people call an "a-dime-a-dozen thriller." Why? Because there's so many of them, all similiar, none employing any special or unique technique. John Saul certainly didn't.

In this book, a family head out to a big, obviously haunted summer home. The hormonal teenage boy, Jack or something, discovers a classic secret-room-with-questionable-contents on the property. He and his friends, John and Bob, find the place mysterious and irresistable, but also start to fear it as strange things occur around town that seem to be connected with their musings in the room.
I've been looking at the other reviews on this book and apparently other people found said contents to be shocking and/or horrifying and/or incredible. Me, I was three-quarters of the way through the book, wondering, Where's that surprise those guys on Goodreads were talking about?
It wasn't to be found. As people start to die in freak murders around town, Jack, Bob and John work to get to the bottom of it. Unfortunately they never get the chance; an old guy with the titular Cursed Axe makes an appearance and ties the book up with a pretty bow in their place goes on a killing spree.

I think I'm done with thrillers. Permanantly. I'm going to go read Wuthering Heights; at least Catherine Earnshaw didn't dream of making lampshades out of a dead boy's flesh. (And if she did, she had the grace not to describe her dreams to the reader.)