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Chain of Darkness
Johnson is a murderer. He has already brutally killed two people. Now the entire police force want him before he kills any more.
Ben Davidson is a TV reporter, young enthusiastic and capable of brilliance.
The only thing the two men have in common is news. One causes it; the other reports it.
But as the manhunt goes on, they unknowingly start to affect each other's lives...
Chain of Darkness brilliantly cuts from Johnson to Davidson, highlighting two forms of dishonesty an corruption, the legal and the illegal.
Ben Davidson is a TV reporter, young enthusiastic and capable of brilliance.
The only thing the two men have in common is news. One causes it; the other reports it.
But as the manhunt goes on, they unknowingly start to affect each other's lives...
Chain of Darkness brilliantly cuts from Johnson to Davidson, highlighting two forms of dishonesty an corruption, the legal and the illegal.
172 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
About the author
Kenneth Cook
51 books34 followersBorn 1929, died 1987. Kenneth Cook was a prolific Australian journalist, film director, screenwriter, TV personality and novelist. He is best known for his novel Wake in Fright, which became a modern classic and is still in print, and for his Killer Koala trilogy.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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April 19, 2020Serviceable thriller that had some joyously juicy old media milieu and what I think was quite a funny and spazzy final shoot out sequence that still held the stakes high. I think my heart was definitely racing for both protags. A fast and easy read.
June 26, 2021
The style
Negative: a clunky vocabulary - I really had to adjust to how journalists talk to each other in this book.
Also, the author seemed to underestimate the reader. Often, something is written, then repeated by someone else, so that it would get through to the reader. These are needless repetitions that take the rhythm out of the book.
Positive: but the book reads easily and has a clear dynamic. Written according to the rules of the old-fashioned thriller, but this book is from 1962 and the techniques used to create suspense still work.
The characters
They all seem to be equally rude and stupid. They are clearly caricatures, but the book is not written in a way that makes us laugh. As a result, the caricatures are completely out of place, and the behaviour of characters becomes incomprehensible.
The strange emotions of the criminal are hard to understand, as is the behaviour of the journalist at the end of the story. As a result, even the only character who was worthwhile collapses and the book ends in a fiasco.
Setting
The setting doesn't have much going for it, except that you learn the word 'outback' and are reminded of the bush.
What I did like, however, was that the book dates from 1962. This means that journalists are working with typewriters, there are dactylos on the editorial staff, films are developed in dark rooms, TV comes into living rooms via aerials. The world of journalism is also caricatured, but being confronted with those old techniques was fun - though the author, who wrote the book in 1962, did not do this on purpose, of course.
Themes
The criticism of commercial channels - too caricatured, but still.
The description and therefore, for those who want it, the questioning of journalists who will do anything for a sensational report
The fact that death penalty awaits criminals is often mentioned (the death penalty apparently still applied at the time in the area where the criminal was to be tried), and although no clear stance is taken, the author does raise some questions around it.
But also: homosexuality. Very often, the journalists speak to each other about a colleague. They can't stand him. One because the man has a moustache, the other because the man is a homosexual. His colleague asks, 'Why do you think that?' and he replies, 'I just know. He stinks.'
Conversations like this about the man allegedly being gay occur regularly. Talk about bad taste!
Conclusion
The book reads smoothly, there is suspense, although the whole setting consists of rude, brutal, tasteless people, and the author often repeats. Moreover, the content of the story is so exceptionally poor, the characters are so caricatured without being funny, that I do not recommend anyone to buy this book or even to borrow it from the library.
Negative: a clunky vocabulary - I really had to adjust to how journalists talk to each other in this book.
Also, the author seemed to underestimate the reader. Often, something is written, then repeated by someone else, so that it would get through to the reader. These are needless repetitions that take the rhythm out of the book.
Positive: but the book reads easily and has a clear dynamic. Written according to the rules of the old-fashioned thriller, but this book is from 1962 and the techniques used to create suspense still work.
The characters
They all seem to be equally rude and stupid. They are clearly caricatures, but the book is not written in a way that makes us laugh. As a result, the caricatures are completely out of place, and the behaviour of characters becomes incomprehensible.
The strange emotions of the criminal are hard to understand, as is the behaviour of the journalist at the end of the story. As a result, even the only character who was worthwhile collapses and the book ends in a fiasco.
Setting
The setting doesn't have much going for it, except that you learn the word 'outback' and are reminded of the bush.
What I did like, however, was that the book dates from 1962. This means that journalists are working with typewriters, there are dactylos on the editorial staff, films are developed in dark rooms, TV comes into living rooms via aerials. The world of journalism is also caricatured, but being confronted with those old techniques was fun - though the author, who wrote the book in 1962, did not do this on purpose, of course.
Themes
The criticism of commercial channels - too caricatured, but still.
The description and therefore, for those who want it, the questioning of journalists who will do anything for a sensational report
The fact that death penalty awaits criminals is often mentioned (the death penalty apparently still applied at the time in the area where the criminal was to be tried), and although no clear stance is taken, the author does raise some questions around it.
But also: homosexuality. Very often, the journalists speak to each other about a colleague. They can't stand him. One because the man has a moustache, the other because the man is a homosexual. His colleague asks, 'Why do you think that?' and he replies, 'I just know. He stinks.'
Conversations like this about the man allegedly being gay occur regularly. Talk about bad taste!
Conclusion
The book reads smoothly, there is suspense, although the whole setting consists of rude, brutal, tasteless people, and the author often repeats. Moreover, the content of the story is so exceptionally poor, the characters are so caricatured without being funny, that I do not recommend anyone to buy this book or even to borrow it from the library.
January 2, 2019
This very decrepit edition was falling apart in my hands as I read it, and it felt as though Cook was similarly lacking control of the narrative here.
While he attempted a novel two-perspective approach of both the criminal and the journalist-in-pursuit, the result was still little more than a formulaic crime thriller.
While he attempted a novel two-perspective approach of both the criminal and the journalist-in-pursuit, the result was still little more than a formulaic crime thriller.
August 8, 2019
pas ma tasse de thé ! (un reporter suit un tueur (genre paumé) J'ai abandonné à mi parcours
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews