Night Prayers

by Frank Coffey

Marina, a mysterious and beautiful woman-child, arrives at Bryan Cove on a stormy night and lures Alex and Sarah Milholland into the dark center of a three hundred-year-old nightmare

Genres: Horror

249 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Frank Coffey is the author of the critically praised humor books The Complete Idoit's Guide for Dumies (sic), The All Time Baseball Teams Book, and The Wit and Wisdom of George Steinbrenner, as well as grownup books like 60 Minutes: 25 Years of Television's Finest Hour. He is the author of four novels, has written for television and movies, and been a book, newspaper and magazine editor. A New York City native, Frank lives in chilly Venice, California and is currently editor/publisher of the sports parody website eTrueSports.com.

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 3 out of 5]

(1986 Jove mass-market, 249 pages)

A 13 year-old (or so) girl washes up on the shore of Maine in the wreck of an old, almost ancient-looking ship. Nothing at all is known about this odd girl. She barely speaks, seems somehow wise beyond her years, and spends her nights walking naked along the rocky shoreline. Once she's adopted by a local couple, the lives of everyone in the small, idyllic fishing village soon become a nightmare, as mysterious drownings and disappearances begin occurring every night. And strange, seductive dreams begin to invade their sleep as well.

I knew nothing of this book when I came across it at a used bookstore recently, only that the name Frank Coffey was one I recognized as the editor of Modern Masters of Horror, an 80s paperback anthology that I remember enjoying in my youth but could not get into during a more recent re-read. Still, that cover beckoned to me, which is appropriate considering the siren-like nature of the young girl. It turned out to be a decent read, but after the intriguing initial setup, there's nothing really to separate it from the glut of similar Charles L. Grant-ish "quiet horror" novels of the 80s.

The prose is just sort of there -- serviceable, but very no-frills and unengaging. Many of the characters' internal dialogues had the exact same thought patterns: from a professional writer, to an uneducated lobster fisherman, to an 8 year-old boy. Unless everyone in Maine says to themselves, constantly, "What about if (this happens)?," or "What about if (that happens)?," instead of just saying "what if." Either way, everyone felt the same to me when reading their inner thoughts, with no real distinction to speak of.

There were a handful of pretty chilling moments that were very well done, and Coffey is quite adept at setting the atmospheric tone with descriptions of shadows, rustling leaves, fog, moonlight, etc., but overall I would only recommend this to hardcore fans of the Charles L. Grant school of horror who have already read everything by Grant. Which, if that's so, then I don't believe you (he's written something like a hundred books). Everyone else may be better off just skipping this one.

Though that cover is awesome.

2.5 Stars

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, first things first: Frank Coffey is not one of Dean Koontz' pseudonyms, despite some speculation to the contrary. And anyone who's actually spent time tracking down Coffey's work will notice a marked difference in writing styles right off the bat. (Brian Coffey, on the other hand, WAS a Koontz pseudonym. Different animal altogether.) So if you're looking for Dean R., this ain't the place to poke your nose.

Coffey enjoyed a small amount of success in the eighties before fading into obscurity as the horror-novel craze went back to its normal level. Kind of sad, because Coffey wrote some pretty fun stuff, including this little tidbit about a girl who washes up on the coast of Maine in a very, very old ship and causes some very nasty things to happen to certain town residents. If you're a person who doesn't want to know the whodunit till the end, this isn't for you; it would take a fairly thick reader not to figure out how the prologue relates to the rest of the book by page three or so. Coffey's emphasis here is on the WHYdunit, and while it's not a particularly original why, there's also a WHO'SitgonnabedunTO aspect that makes the whole thing work. That should satisfy the mystery folks, the supernatural elements are all there for the horror folks, and everyone's happy. The characters are drawn well enough to keep the reader's interest, the pages turn quickly, and while no one's going to confuse Frank Coffey's books with M. R. James, they're certainly some good reading.