The Longest Night

by J.N. Williamson

Before the night is over they are destined to die again...and again...and again... More than half a century ago, the women died, victims of a crazed and hideous killer. But even in death they found no rest, for night after night they die again. And now the horror grows, as death reaches out to claim new victims and fresh blood...

Genres: Horror

367 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Gerald Neal Williamson (April 17, 1932 - December 8, 2005) wrote and edited horror stories under the name J. N. Williamson. He also wrote under the name Julian Shock.

Born in Indianapolis, IN he graduated from Shortridge High School. He studied journalism at Butler University. He published his first novel in 1979 and went on to publish more than 40 novels and 150 short stories. In 2003 he received a lifetime achievement award from the Horror Writers of America. He edited the critically acclaimed How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction (1987) which covered the themes of such writing and cited the writings of such writers as Robert Bloch, Lee Prosser, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, William F. Nolan, and Stephen King. Many important writers in the genre contributed to the book. Williamson edited the popular anthology series, Masques. Some of his novels include The Ritual (1979), Playmates (1982), Noonspell (1991), The Haunt (1999), among others.

He was also a well known Sherlockian and received his investiture (The Illustrious Client) in the Baker Street Irregulars in 1950.

Source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Supratim · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story starts in 1934 in the northside suburb of a Midwestern city. There is a “house of pleasure” called One-Stop. A crazed gangster opens fire on the women, other patrons and finally ends up dead in the scuffle that ensues. One of the victims was a young girl – Polly, who was forced into prostitution. Of course you guessed it correctly. The spirits of those who died that night still live in the house.

Now we move forward to the eighties, where we are introduced to our protagonist – Thom Milford, an out-of-work advertisement executive. Upon receiving a job offer from his old college friend, Lester Padgget, Thom takes his pregnant wife, Donna, and eight year old and ends up in…no points for guessing..One-Stop.

Let the haunting begin….

The ghost of the crazed killer has evil intentions for Donna and Thom starts to develop feelings for Polly. As expected, the family would do some stupid things. This is the common plot in all horror novels, but a pregnant women residing in One-Stop even after knowing that it is haunted is a bit too much for me to digest.
The blurb and the endorsement by, Robert Bloch, the author of Psycho had made me read this book. I had high expectations from this book – I was not expecting something profound, I only wanted to read a scary pulp fiction-ish novel. But, I did not find the book that engrossing.

However, I have to say the way Thom got rid of the spirits from the house was very different from other haunted house novels. In most TV serials and horror novels, the protagonists usually bring in priests or experts; destroy some object which binds the spirit to the house; in one show an expert had called up the spirits of the victims of a malevolent spirit to destroy the latter.

Overall, an average read for me.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sex starved spectre and promiscuous poltergeists stuck in a perpetual loop haunt the grounds of 1930's bordello turned 1980's suburban home. Think The Siren and the Spectre by Jonathan Janz and The House that Jack Built by Graham Masterton only not as polished.

There's some interesting acts of violence and near miss spectral infidelity which keep the book on theme with 80's B, C, or in this case, D-grade horror. However, the unnecessary padding ruins a well conceived concept.

This is the second horror novel I've read by J.N. Williamson and would recommend The Tulpa, a more creative and visually scary book.

My rating: 2.5 stars. Despite the cool cover (which represents one of the characters very well), the book largely fails due to door-stopper syndrome; the need to pad out the pages in order to make the book feel more weighty and deep than what it really is. Would be perfect as a condensed novella imo.

[N.N. Heaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a spectacular ghost story this book is.



You take a ‘typical’ American family who is down on their luck and then they find opportunity in another city in a house with a ‘history’. The ghosts who haunt the home are 99% victims and just want to find the light and 1 is evil and doing evil even in death. The moral of the story is how the bad in the family empowers the evil to more power. In the end, the truth sets everyone free.



Scary, well written, gripping, touching and absorbing. A 5-star ghost story by one of the greatest supernatural authors of all time. My all time fave horror writer who lives on after his passing in his fantastic books.



My Rating: 5 stars



This review first appeared: https://princessofthelight.wordpress....

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice little ghosts-&-a-haunted-house tale. In this case it's a haunted house of prostitution (a cute little word play), though there isn't any content that would be considered graphic. It has the kind of rushed feeling that many of the horror novels of the '70s and '80s shared when publishers were rushing to put as much bulk product on the shelves as swiftly as they could to capitalize on the Stephen King phenomenon, but the writing transcends many of those. The characters do some of the dumb and unbelievable stuff that horror characters have to do, such as the man takes his wife (who's in labor) and son (who's just been burned badly by a ghost) to the hospital, then decides to go home alone to the haunted house to wait for the hospital to call and let him know how they're doing. Huh... Anyway, aside from some of the silly tropes of the time, it was a fun and diverting read.

[Kevin Lucia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm torn what to give this - because there's no 3 and half stars - so I'll go with four, just because there were some pretty decent stretches. I have to read some of his short stories, because I wonder if those were his strength, because some novels, his logic and even word choice wears thin after awhile...

[Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. This started out good and then sank in to terminally boring for the next 320 pages. The characters are such WASP-y douchebags that I couldn't wait to see them die. Spoilers: they don't. This is a textbook example of how 99% of ghost/haunted house stories suck. I would give it zero stars except for the '80's-rific cover.

[Werefox by moonlight: Half man, half beast, but all horror · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably the strongest novel by Williamson I've read, although the usual flaws in his books (excessive length, a tendency to get bogged down in rambling metaphysical speculation, overwrought prose full of corny figures of speech, a tendency to overexplain things, etc.) are still present. The story itself is pretty standard for these sorts of 80s haunted house novels, although the backstory for the haunting (a massacre in a depression-era bordello) is at least relatively interesting. As far as horror set-pieces go, a nightmare sequence making use of weird spider imagery is probably the most effective moment in the book. Unfortunately, the middle part of the book is pretty blatant padding, with very little of consequence occurring, and the ending perhaps explains things too much, although not as badly as the same author's Dead To The World. Overall, pretty typical of 80s haunted house novels; you could definitely find better ones, but there are definitely worse ones out there.

[Jean Wetmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm usually not one for stories involving ghosts (though are a few exceptions). I picked up the book thinking it would be horror, which it was. The twist was the supernatural elements. I'm not going to say much more on plot because I don't want to give too much away. The story was intriguing and the characters compelling and felt for the most part like real approachable people. If I have one gripe it's that the solution when it came seemed a little too easily found.

[Nik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this seemed like The Longest Week!! It Fuckin' Dragged!

I'm still not sure of this author's writing style as it changed so much throughout the book and the story was so bloody tedious and drawn out that I put this down at least four times before I was able to finish it. It's Lucky to receive even the two stars that I gave it.

This was the first book of his that I've read, it will also be the last. very Poor.

[Rick Powell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good one. Not your typical ghost story, and it goes the route more towards intellectual haunting where the supernatural meets psychological.
The third act kicks in pretty well, but the final battle, as you might say, with the primary antagonist seems a little rushed. Still a good read for Williamson fans.

[Dez Nemec · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 156 pages.

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh scary. Please stop. I can assure you it's entertaining enough to amuse you. Even if you don't scare easy.