Kim Newman’s new horror mystery novel teams up Boris Karloff and Raymond Chandler
The award-winning author teams up Raymond Chandler and Boris Karloff in this daring and horrifying tale.
“If more mysteries were written like this, I’d read more mysteries.”—Grady Hendrix, author of The Final Girl Support Group
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 they 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.
Something More Than Night
By Kim Newman
Titan Books
Category: Gothic & Horror | Noir Mysteries
Buy Something More Than Night from Amazon (affiliate link)
Newman shared his inspiration for Something More Than Night in an interview with the Los Angeles Public Library:
“Initially—and revealing how long the idea was percolating—the idea sparked when Boris Karloff (born 1887) and Raymond Chandler (born 1888) had centenaries within months of each other. That prompted me to make connections between them... biographical, in that, I realized they both spent parts of their childhood in Dulwich, London (where Karloff was born, as William Pratt, and Chandler went to school) and adult years around Hollywood, Los Angeles... personal, in that they had contrasting attitudes as a British Anglo-Indian who projected ‘foreignness’ and an American people thought was British... and social, in that they were associated with genres (horror/monster, detective/noir) I love and wanted to explore. In the back of my mind was that the two real-life characters would make interesting casting for Holmes and Watson.”
“Newman (Anno Dracula) crafts a genre-bending mystery that twines meticulously researched history with the unabashedly campy tropes of early sci-fi and horror. Newman successfully integrates real historical figures into a tale that’s equal parts monster movie and detective noir, abounding with witches, murderous clowns, Frankenstein’s monsterlike creatures, and brooding gumshoes. The result is both an homage and a glorious reinvention, perfect for those nostalgic for the pulpy genre fiction of the past.” (Publishers Weekly)
“For more than 30 years, Britain’s Kim Newman has been producing thoroughly entertaining, startlingly original fiction. He has remained something of a cult figure on both sides of the Atlantic, but that situation could—and should—change with the publication of his immersive new horror thriller, Something More Than Night.” (The Washington Post)
Kim Newman is a popular and respected author and movie critic, known for his acclaimed alternate-history series, Anno Dracula (affiliate link). He writes regularly for Empire magazine and contributes to The Guardian, The Times, Time Out and others. He makes frequent appearances on radio and TV, and is the chief writer of the BBC TV series Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema. He has won the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, British Fantasy and British Science Fiction Awards and been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and James Herbert Awards. He lives in London.
Visit Newman online: The Kim Newman Web Site | Twitter: @AnnoDracula | Goodreads | Facebook: Kim Newman
Also by Kim Newman—his Anno Dracula series
Anno Dracula (Anno Dracula series #1)—Acclaimed novelist Kim Newman explores the darkest depths of a reinvented Victorian London in a rich and panoramic tale, combining horror, politics, mystery and romance to create a unique and compelling alternate history. Buy Anno Dracula from Amazon (affiliate link)
Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron (Anno Dracula series #2)—It is 1918 and Graf von Dracula is commander-in-chief of the armies of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The War of the Great Powers in Europe is also a war between the living and the undead… Buy The Bloody Red Baron from Amazon (affiliate link)
Anno Dracula: Dracula Cha Cha Cha (Anno Dracula series #3)—Rome. 1959. Journalist Kate Reed finds herself caught up in the mystery of the Crimson Executioner bloodily dispatching vampire elders in the city. She discovers that she’s not the only one on his trail... Buy Dracula Cha Cha Cha from Amazon (affiliate link)
Anno Dracula: Johnny Alucard (Anno Dracula series #4)—A young vampire boy leaves Transylvania for America. In the States, he attaches himself to Andy Warhol, inventing a new drug which confers vampire powers on its users... Buy Johnny Alucard from Amazon (affiliate link)
Anno Dracula: One Thousand Monsters (Anno Dracula series #5)—In 1899, Geneviève Dieudonné travels to Japan with a group of vampires exiled from Great Britain by Prince Dracula. They settle in Yōkai Town, revealed to be more a prison than a refuge. Geneviève and her undead comrades will be forced to face new enemies and the horrors hidden within the Temple of One Thousand Monsters… Buy One Thousand Monsters from Amazon (affiliate link)
Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju (Anno Dracula series #6)—After a century overshadowed by the malign presence of Dracula, the world is connected as never before by technology, and conquests have been made in cyberspace that mark out new nations of the living and the undead. But the party is crashed by less enlightened souls… Buy Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju from Amazon (affilate link)
Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories (Anno Dracula series anthology)—A brand new collection of chilling stories by master of horror Kim Newman, in which Jack the Ripper still stalks the streets, Frankenstein’s monster rises from the Arctic ice, and the terrifying legacy of Dr Jeyll and Mr Hyde haunts fog-shrouded London. Buy Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories from Amazon (affiliate link)