Something More than Night

By: Kim Newman

Narrated by: Tim Campbell

With his signature wit, the award-winning author of Anno Dracula, Kim Newman, reimagines the lives of Raymond Chandler and Boris Karloff in this daring and horrifying tale.

Hollywood, the late 1930s. Raymond Chandler writes detective stories for pulp magazines and drinks more than he should. Boris Karloff plays monsters in the movies. Together, they investigate mysterious matters in a town run by human and inhuman monsters.

Joh Devlin, an investigator for the DA’s office who scores high on insubordination, enlists the pair to work a case that threatens to expose Hollywood’s most horrific secrets. Together, Chandler and Karloff will find out more than they should about the way this town works. And about each other. And, oh yes, monsters aren’t just for the movies.

©2021 Kim Newman (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Excellent!!

I enjoy Kim Newman's work, this was a delightful addition to my library! More please!

They The Big Sleep is a confusing film...

it's got nothing on this book. I usually like these fictional pairings of non-fictional characters. This had all the hallmarks of something great. What I ended up with was a somewhat disjointed story that reads like two or three novellas mashed together. Interesting novellas to be sure, but this does not flow particularly smoothly. I fully admit that 1930's detective fiction is not my forte, but I can't help feeling that this should have worked... better.

Concepts were great. Characters were interesting. And yet, the sum seemed less than it's parts.


Perhaps if you lean into the Raymond Chandler style detective story, you might find something you really enjoy. Me? I was there more for the Boris Karloff side of the equation. His character is perfectly fine here, but, just not for me.

Part Detective Noir, Part Diabolical Slapstick

I really loved Kim Newman's take on historical figures with "Anno Dracula" and particularly "The Bloody Red Baron." This story is told from the old hard-boiled detective genre and noire. Tim Campbell handled a diverse cast of characters straight out of Hollywood's initial years. Imagine a murderous version of the Marx Brothers converging on your hideout after murdering witnesses using poison pies thrown in the face, an attempt at actually having a safe fall on our heroes and an all-out assault using the equivalent of vaudeville gags and skits. It starts a bit slow, but eventually gets there. I would love to know whether Kim Newman had to get permission from Karloff's daughter who was pretty active with her family name up till a few years ago. Try Kim Newman, then dig in to The Bloody Red Baron.

This hit me just right

A new Kim Newman novel is here and as is tradition I bought it on the first day of release and listened to it in one go. I’ve been visiting LA for a while and before I get into how much fun this book is I just had to say Newman captures that alluring doom of Hollywood really well.
Like Mr. Newman, I’m a lifelong fan of the great horror classics of Hollywood’s golden age. The love I have for cinema was started by movies like Dracula and Frankenstein. Reading this made me feel like a 12 year old boy watching Universal monster movies and pulpy noirs on VHS again. There’s a really fun mix of horror, film history, and the charmingly cynical pulp stories of the Chandler years here. The noir style and voice Newman experimented with in Johnny Alucard has evolved into a really genuine sounding pastiche. It’s quite effective and the narrator does a good job of giving the story the edge and grit it needs.
As usual Newman brings his signature wit, skill, and sense of humor to a REALLY fun take on the pulpy serials and horror stories of yesteryear. It’s tone is like a mix of Newman’s earlier works “The Man From The Diogenes Club” and “Anno Dracula: Johnny Alucard”. There’s a pulse to this story, a fun and bonkers kind of energy that gels really well with the setting. Add to that really well-written and interesting main characters and it becomes a horror themed buddy story. The dynamic between the two main characters feels genuine and deep and the mysteries around them are always intriguing and unpredictable. There are monsters, hard-boiled detectives, sleazy studio execs, mystery, mayhem,and murder. What’s not to love?!
To read a book this entertaining at a time when I’m living in Los Angeles myself is so much fun it’s intoxicating. While I think the Anno Dracula series is still his opus, “Something More Than Night” is a great stand-alone story that movie geeks and horror aficionados will truly appreciate. Newman is a consistently great (and underrated) author and as usual I can’t wait to see what he does next.