Nightshade

by Derek Marlowe

Book by Marlowe, Derek

Genres: Horror, Fiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Derek William Mario Marlowe was an English playwright, novelist, screenwriter and painter. His father was Frederick William Marlowe (an electrician) and his mother Helene Alexandroupolos. He had early education at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School in Holland Park.

In 1959 Marlowe went to Queen Mary College of the University of London to study English literature. Marlowe calls his time spent there the unhappiest years of his life.He never finished his degree course – Alex Hamilton claims he was expelled for "satire and kindred villainies". Marlowe wrote and edited an article for the college magazine, a parody of J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye which reflected what Marlowe called "the boredom of college seminars." However, the college had a particularly fine theatre (the former People's Palace in Mile End Road) and Marlowe became part of a core theatre group there. In 1960 the college group formed a semi-professional theatre company, the 60 Theatre Group, and took their production of Tennessee Williams' play Summer and Smoke to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with Marlowe in the leading role opposite Audrey "Dickie" Gaskell.

At college, Marlowe was a contemporary of the poet Lee Harwood, and after leaving he shared a flat with fellow writers Tom Stoppard and Piers Paul Read.

He married Susan Rose "Suki" Phipps, in 1968; together they had a son, Ben, to add to Suki's two sons and two daughters from a previous marriage. He divorced in 1985 and in 1989 he moved to Los Angeles, where he wrote a number of scripts for television, including the award-winning Two Mrs. Grenvilles, Abduction of Innocence and an episode of Murder, She Wrote.

While working there, he contracted leukaemia, and died of a brain haemorrhage after a liver transplant. He was cremated in California, but his ashes were brought back to England by his sister, Alda. At the time of his death he was planning to return to England and complete a tenth novel, Black and White.

Summarised from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's my copy of the 1977 Signet mass-market paperback (211 pages).

Judged purely as a horror novel, Nightshade is undoubtedly a failure. But as an examination of a young couple's deteriorating marriage and loss of identity, it's a mild success. It's more of a literary-type novel, with subtle shadings of mystery and horror. While most genre writers would choose to highlight the mystery and horror elements, Marlowe decides to tell the whole story here: every aspect of their vacation is detailed, whether it relates to the creepy goings-on or not.

A married English couple, whose strange, "best friend"-like relationship involves no touching or intimacy of any kind, are vacationing in Haiti. After meeting a local houngan (voodoo priest), some weird, seemingly inexplicable things begin happening. Disembodied voices, subtle-yet-obvious personality shifts, and a suddenly crumbling marriage where the two find that they can no longer relate to each other. Is all this the result of some sinister voodoo, or is there a more rational explanation?

But that's just a small part of the story, as most of the novel deals with their day-to-day life during their vacation: meeting other tourists, wandering about, etc. Which is fine, but considering it was marketed as a "crackling psychological chiller," I went in with certain expectations. Had this been packaged as a literary novel with undertones of horror, I might have ended up enjoying this a bit more.

As it is, this is an extremely well-written, atmospheric slow-burner, with good characterization and just enough mystery and eeriness to keep me intrigued. And I agree with Nate D's comparison to Aickman as far as the ambiguous nature of the supernatural occurrences. Too bad there weren't more of them.

Still, I'd be interested in re-reading this in the future, with a different mindset going in.

3.0 Stars

[Nate D · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ambiguous kind of Haitian ghost story, balancing the mounting psychosexual and xenophobic uneases of a pair of vacationing Brits as marriage and holiday unravel. Written in 1976 by long-buried British popular(?) suspense(?) novelist Derek Marlowe, this glides over its tawdriness on a chilly British restraint (I'm vaguely reminded of the reserve in Robert Aickman's ghost stories), and an odd system of direct reader appeal to convince and smooth over. Plotwise, bits of disconcerting poetry and snatches of unforgotten letters frame a progression of increasing involvement and dissolving boundaries of identity. Removed from the ordinariness of British life to uncertain country, certain contradictions cannot hold. Even, presumably, without the rising dread of possible voodoo manipulations that lends the more overt sense of action, if only peripherally and somewhat inconclusively. Now, if only the uneasy typo-setting errors in the first pages had been maintained (or at all intentional), because that would have really interesting.

[Ejl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing this review from the perspective of a couple of years, I can't exactly recall how this ended. But that's all for the good, as it is a great example of ambiguity serving to cause the reader to question their assumptions. In any case, I do remember compelling, yet damaged characters and flat but expertly disseminated prose.

[Brucifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this short novel more than I actually did, perhaps because I was expecting a straightforward horror novel and wound up with more of a relationship drama with currents of the supernatural running through it. The novel is certainly smart and engrossing enough, and the unconsummated marriage of its two protagonists who are much better at being friends than lovers is well-drawn and believable. Even better, the book did an admirable job of NOT being the racist/xenophobic novel about Haitian voodoo that it could have been. But ultimately Marlowe tried too hard to weave two approaches together and ended up not quite satisfying on either level. I have to admit it had a great ending line, though, and I am curious to check out more Marlowe (this was his only "horror" novel) thanks to the overall good writing here.

[Wendell T. Wumplepuss · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author is talented, don't get me wrong. There's a shade of humor in his descriptions and a good insight into the characters. I just found this novel deeply unsatisfying. The people didn't interest me, the plot was slow, and its conclusion was muddled.

[Luchito Luconi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Encontré este libro en una librería de usados, y me llamo mucho la atención su título, en español Vodú, a través del ritual mágico, un estremecedor encuentro con el pasado y la muerte. Su sinopsis también llamo mi atención.
La historia comienza con Edward y Amy un matrimonio que en sus cuatro años de casados no han tenido ningún contacto físico.
Debo decir que los personajes están mal presentados y mal desarrollados. Parecen planos que actúan solo por actuar.
Ellos están en un viaje por centro América y las islas hasta llegar a Haití, acá es cuando comienzan los "extraños sucesos" y los pongo entre comillas porque estuve esperando que pasara algo en toda la novela y cuando pasa algo interesante termina el libro. Creo que el autor tenía todo para hacer un buen libro ya que Amy tiene un pasado bastante extraño con su hermana fallecida Blanche la cual había viajado a Haití antes de morir y estaba obsecionada con el vudu y los ritos.
En otra parte entra la participación de dos personajes extraños que el matrimonio se encuentran en el hotel. Realmente creí que iba a ser una novela interesante, abarca muy poco en los que es la Magia Vudú eso me pareció un poco interesante.
El final es desastroso y me costo entender lo que el autor quiso escribir. Este es el primer libro de mi mataron de Halloween, lamentablemente tuve un mal comienzo.