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The End of the Night
A journey into a world of fear and violence carried to their logical extreme—murder.
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
115 people are currently reading
767 people want to read
About the author
John D. MacDonald
585 books1,400 followersJohn D. MacDonald was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, and educated at the Universities of Pennsylvania, Syracuse and Harvard, where he took an MBA in 1939. During WW2, he rose to the rank of Colonel, and while serving in the Army and in the Far East, sent a short story to his wife for sale, successfully. He served in the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations. After the war, he decided to try writing for a year, to see if he could make a living. Over 500 short stories and 70 novels resulted, including 21 Travis McGee novels.
Following complications of an earlier heart bypass operation, MacDonald slipped into a coma on December 10 and died at age 70, on December 28, 1986, in St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was survived by his wife Dorothy (1911-1989) and a son, Maynard.
In the years since his death MacDonald has been praised by authors as diverse as Stephen King, Spider Robinson, Jimmy Buffett, Kingsley Amis and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. Thirty-three years after his passing the Travis McGee novels are still in print.
Following complications of an earlier heart bypass operation, MacDonald slipped into a coma on December 10 and died at age 70, on December 28, 1986, in St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was survived by his wife Dorothy (1911-1989) and a son, Maynard.
In the years since his death MacDonald has been praised by authors as diverse as Stephen King, Spider Robinson, Jimmy Buffett, Kingsley Amis and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. Thirty-three years after his passing the Travis McGee novels are still in print.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
April 28, 2023
02/2018
An extraordinary novel, detailed, crossing time and perspective (bad guys and good guys) to tell of a single but elaborate crime spree.
An extraordinary novel, detailed, crossing time and perspective (bad guys and good guys) to tell of a single but elaborate crime spree.
January 10, 2023
End of the Night
End of the Night is MacDonald at his crime thriller best, detailing with chilling certainty the adventures of a foursome bent on a cross-country crime spree with no remorse or conscience. In doing so, he reminds the reader of the Starkweather and Fugate killing spree of 1958, of the great mass of beats and hippies tuning and dropping out, and of a generation bent on self-destruction leading up to the Manson cult.
MacDonald brilliantly begins backwards with the execution date for Stassen, Golden, Hernandez, and Koslov. From there, he rewinds just a tiny bit to the trial, mocking the defense lawyer, but admitting he never had a chance. Then, we learn about their last exploits through the surviving victims. Only then does MacDonald reveal to the reader what it’s all about.
Stassen is the college dropout from a solid family. He hooked up with a crazy movie star and her latest husband, signing on as their chauffeur to Acapulco and then unwittingly becoming the tool she used to humiliate her spouse. Once back in Texas, with no particular place to go, he joins a trio who were killing time in a diner, drinking tequila with them and popping Dexedrine and whatever else they carried. Golden and Kosovo were from the San Francisco beat era. They were tuned out and whatever was left was just for kicks.
Rootless, without connection, without a goal, a plan, or anything other than the absolute freedom to do whatever they wanted on whatever whim, the foursome were at their worst together, egging each other on with no one to hold back their impulses. It is a rough indictment of the excesses of beatnik/ hippie/ juvenile delinquency world. Rather than lecture, MacDonald presents it coldly, clinically, for fair evaluation.
End of the Night is MacDonald at his crime thriller best, detailing with chilling certainty the adventures of a foursome bent on a cross-country crime spree with no remorse or conscience. In doing so, he reminds the reader of the Starkweather and Fugate killing spree of 1958, of the great mass of beats and hippies tuning and dropping out, and of a generation bent on self-destruction leading up to the Manson cult.
MacDonald brilliantly begins backwards with the execution date for Stassen, Golden, Hernandez, and Koslov. From there, he rewinds just a tiny bit to the trial, mocking the defense lawyer, but admitting he never had a chance. Then, we learn about their last exploits through the surviving victims. Only then does MacDonald reveal to the reader what it’s all about.
Stassen is the college dropout from a solid family. He hooked up with a crazy movie star and her latest husband, signing on as their chauffeur to Acapulco and then unwittingly becoming the tool she used to humiliate her spouse. Once back in Texas, with no particular place to go, he joins a trio who were killing time in a diner, drinking tequila with them and popping Dexedrine and whatever else they carried. Golden and Kosovo were from the San Francisco beat era. They were tuned out and whatever was left was just for kicks.
Rootless, without connection, without a goal, a plan, or anything other than the absolute freedom to do whatever they wanted on whatever whim, the foursome were at their worst together, egging each other on with no one to hold back their impulses. It is a rough indictment of the excesses of beatnik/ hippie/ juvenile delinquency world. Rather than lecture, MacDonald presents it coldly, clinically, for fair evaluation.
May 12, 2011
Having recently read Weep for Me (1951), which John D. MacDonald identified as the worst of his early novels, I felt obligated to follow up by reading The End of the Night (1960), which was his favorite of the early books. The End of the Night chronicles the so-called Wolf Pack, three young men and a young woman who go on a cross-country crime spree. Given that JDM thought so highly of The End of the Night, I was expecting a great read. I did not stop to consider that there is a compelling reason for suspecting that JDM may not have been the best judge of his own work. To wit: Many readers, myself among them, find that JDM’s novels are aging poorly because of his habit of interjecting sociological lectures into his narratives, and these are precisely the sections of his books that JDM liked the best. Therefore, I should not have been surprised to find that The End of the Night is dominated by a pair of pretentious first-person narrators, both of whom are more interested in understanding the world than telling a story. Of course, this is not to say that noir fiction cannot be a vehicle for understanding the world—in fact, this is what distinguishes much of the best noir. But when JDM indulges his love of pontification, he fails to recognize that a well-told story can be not just a sufficient but a superior way of deepening readers’ understanding of the world.
October 8, 2018
Un libro imperdibile per chi ha apprezzato A sangue freddo di Capote o le atmosfere inquietanti del film dei fratelli Cohen: Non è un paese per vecchi.
Un libro che ti lascia addosso un scia qualcosa, non è malessere, nno è dolore e non è paura ma è quella sensazione 'impalpabile' di inquietudine che non riesci a decodificare ma che sai che c'è e lentamente, inesorabilmente si insinua dentro te.
Un libro che ti lascia addosso un scia qualcosa, non è malessere, nno è dolore e non è paura ma è quella sensazione 'impalpabile' di inquietudine che non riesci a decodificare ma che sai che c'è e lentamente, inesorabilmente si insinua dentro te.
August 31, 2025
6-stars. The finest JDM I’ve read thus far. What a writer…. This one is especially intricate and rich.
August 21, 2014
After I read that Stephen King deemed this a book worth re-reading, and Dean Koontz raved about the author, I put it on my list where it has languished for 3 years. When I finally got around to it, I was completely captivated. This is one of the scariest books I have ever read, and the first book since Salem's Lot (some 30 years ago) that actually gave me nightmares. It's not scary in a vampire/horror story way (although who can really be scared of vampires anymore since we have Twilight and True Blood which provide us with vampire romance and porn). It's scary in a No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy way, which is to say, there is nothing more frightening in the world than a close-up picture of real evil.
A young foursome go across the country on a killing spree and are inevitably caught and punished. While it may seem at first glance that this story is as old as the Bible, the author brings something unique to this work which got under my skin so much that I felt like I was there with them, as both victim and perpetrator. And even though I finished the book, the characters are dancing around in my head. It's not one of those books you wish had kept on going, but still, I do miss the book now that it's over.
A young foursome go across the country on a killing spree and are inevitably caught and punished. While it may seem at first glance that this story is as old as the Bible, the author brings something unique to this work which got under my skin so much that I felt like I was there with them, as both victim and perpetrator. And even though I finished the book, the characters are dancing around in my head. It's not one of those books you wish had kept on going, but still, I do miss the book now that it's over.
June 15, 2025
17 dec 14, wednesday evening
#9 from macdonald for me...give or take..."powerful, fast-paced...a smasheroo." saturday review. heh! who can pass up a smasheroo? i certainly can't...count me in!
has this quote on the title page...an execution is a very serious thing, and around here we do our level best to have it go smooth and quick, and we try to do it with some dignity too. --warden durkin g. shires
story begins: [with a letter...to ed from willy] dear ed, well, we had the big day here, and we sent the four of them off to their reward with what satchel-butt shires, our loveable warden called "splendid efficiency." honest to god, if you'd still been here, you would have split a gut watching shires sweat blood around here as burning day got closer and closer.
okee dokee then, as the good doctor said...onward and upward.
update, 18 dec 14, thursday noon
wanted to note some similarities to my previous macdonald read, Flash of Green...a victim of the wolf pack...helen wister...shares some of the same characteristics/actions as natalie sinnat in flash of green. helen is newly-engaged and though natalie was never engaged in flash, they both engage in premarital sex with a young man of their choice...and then they move aware from that behavior, helen after becoming engaged...by mutual agreement...and natalie and jigger...due in part because natalie knew that what she had with jigger would not last...her time w/jigger was to-do w/pity...or simple basic need. thought it curious...makes me wonder where macdonald stood on the matter, if he had a stance. too, both helen and natalie have twin brothers.
a note on the narration, the telling
story begins with the letter to ed from willy. short, maybe 4-5 pages, and then there is a shift and the narration is provided through deems owen, defense lawyer...this shift in chapter two...much of it, the telling, having been recorded by leah slayter, on deems owen's staff.
later the same day
okay...so macdonald here uses a variety of narrative techniques. chapter 3 was the death house diary...or, a portion of kirby palmer stassen's diary. he is asking himself why and how and narrates what happened before he met the other three in a beer joint in del rio. chapter four begins...this one is another of riker deems owen's memorandums...i s'pose a kind of diary, lawyer's diary...but macdonald switches it up, the telling, hey?
later still
that is chapter 4...riker's memorandum...followed by 5, helen's story...straight-forward narrative not credited to any of the characters, 3rd person...and six is another death house diary 1st person eye-narrator through kirby's eyes. looking ahead...the patterns seems to repeat...will note any changes.
time place scene setting
*a prison, as yet unnamed
* the wister family home
* monroe, the friendly city
* saturday, july 25th
* the club...where helen/others play tennis
* route 813...somewhere on the east coast, new england, close to maryland...where arnold and helen take a drive
* arnold's olds
* a frat house/ kirby...unnamed university
* kirby's impala...new york city...a frat friend's apartment
* a bar/restaurant, nyc...here, macdonald does not name the place and i think the telling suffers...almost forgot it, this 'place' cause of that
* a big two-year-old chrysler imperial...of john pinelli/kathy keats
* various restaurants, cabs, hotels
* kirby's diary is "last february" and continuing
* 2nd floor of a frat house on woodland avenue
* the new york apartment of kirby's frat friend...gabe shevlan...somewhere near 77th and 2nd
* 18 burgess lane, huntstown (kirby sends a suitcase there)
* woman's prison a hundred miles away...where nan koslov is kept
* garage on 44th, nyc...kirby parks his impala there
* the absinthe on west 48th, nyc
* west of montgomery, alabama...kirby, john/kathy...on way to mexico
* laredo...they cross into mexico here
* a barn on route 813...the road nearby...the ditch
* deggsburg...ruth is from daggsburg
* the continental hilton, mexico city
* the francis, acapulco...sanborn's
* the house of man named hillary charis (mexico city)
* sidewalk cafe, airport, acapulco, mexico
* bassette, nebraska...nanette's family settled here from poland via west germany
* san francisco...los angeles...nanette's past
* 3rd floor monroe national bank building...fbi sets up office there
* falls church...herbert's wife, kids there
* meeker county...the scene of the action, helen/arnold
* glasgow, kentucky...plumbing contractor's vehicle stolen here
* tupelo, mississippi...wolf pack passed through here, too
* grill room of the hotel riggs
* 430 miles north northeast of monroe in western pennsylvania seven mile lake
* lakeshore cottages (wolf pack stays a night)
* chubby's grill on route 90
* bracketville, 30 miles away
* the paradise cabins
* lupkin...texas i think...eldorado, arkansas
* a private club in arkansas
* shadyside motor hotel...last place the wolf pack stayed before they were brought down
* laughlintown, pennsylvania...near the jersey border...wolf pack arrested here at a stop close to the pike or right on it
* pennsyllvania turnpike, station #22 at morgantown
characters
* shires, warden
* ed, to whom the letter is addressed...that opens the story...the reader gets the sense worked at the prison where the executions took place...that he knows the names that
* willy writes the letter to ed
*the wolf pack:
1. nanette koslov
2. kirby palmer stassen, whose family has money hires deems owen the lawyer
3. robert "shack" hernandez
4. sander golden
* from the letter: creepy staples, bongo, christy & brewer, doc, old mitch, marano & sid, cops, politicians, official witnesses, the father (a priest), mabel...will's wife...and finally willy
* riker deems owen...attorney hired by the stassens to defend kirby...acts as defense for other three, as well
* miriam, owen's wife
* walter stassen & his wife, ernestine, parents of kirby stassen
* salesman in uvalde
* helen wister, 23, newly-engaged, to be married, has a job in city hall
* jane wister, helen's mother
* dr. paul wister, father of helen
* dallas kemp...to marry helen, & he is an architect, 26 years old, has his own architect's office...established there three years
* he has an elder sister in denver, married, two children
* he has one draftsman and one secretary
* his parents are in venice, florida
* evans...just a name...helen can see the evans house
* arnold crown, owns and operates a gas station, has his eye on another, is infatuated w/helen, follows...is described as a classic stalker
* a guy w/a station over on division...station for possible sale to arnold
* francine & joe...w/whome helen/dallas play doubles tennis
* gabe shevlan, frat friend who graduated a year earlier, in new york...works for cbs...kirby is permitted to stay at his apartment.
* pete mchue, a senior, frat brother and roommate of kirby
* toccata chavez...apparently a composer?
* claire booth lane and her daughter...someone famous?
* a dumpy little girl in a red sweater
* hemingway...and his nada word...from the story
* doris day...she is on the radio as kirby listens
* mugsy spinoza...imaginary man sentenced to die in kirby's diary
* one of the guards (death row...and here macdonald does not provide a name in kirby's diary...seems to be a failing...surely a name would have been known...but only a description)
* 11 of 20 cells (death row...although that word isn't used...don't believe
* imaginary martian (kirby's diary)
* aztecs virigins (same)
* john pinelli...portrayed as a washed up director in kirby's diary
* kathy keats...john's actress wife
* betsy kipp...kirby's friend gabe and her are an item
* cab drivers
* a man with a spanish guitar
* stud browning, a producer...kirby's diary
* doxie weese, gabe and betsy set up kirby w/this woman who cries often
* the burmans...john and kathy are staying in their apartment
* the wrong man at the agency...kirby said qqc...sent packing
* a friend...drove john's car east...presumably from california
* a boy who brought the ice...to john/kathy's motel room
* hayes...huston...big hollywood names
* the sabine women...isn't there a painting...the rape of?
* proctor jonnson, psychiatrist...supplies one possible explanation for the wolf pack
* george tibault, professor of sociology, monroe college...supplies another one
* horace becher...killed...perhaps the salesman in texas? yes...worked for the blue bonnet tile company out of houston
* sillier wives of clients (dallas)
* a girl he had known in school...dallas...he returns for conjugal visits...heh!
* marg...a client of dallas
* willie layton...possibly marg's husband...also a client
* the judlands...as in "the judland house"
* smitty...guy who works...probably mechanic, attendant...at arnold's service station
* customer...another customer...at gas station
* desk sergeant
* a drunk
* lieutenant lew razoner
* captain barney tauss, head of homocide
* technicians...a man in coveralls stood...a little man, doctor
* sheriff gustaf "gus" kurby
* the ambulance people
* a young couple, witnesses, howard craft and ruth meckland, engaged
* newsman...reporters...al/billy
* wroe news announcer radio
* tab hunter...as in...looked like...tab hunter is an actor, no?
* dietrich...a woman actress from ago?
* brown & barren gente...in mexico
* desk clerk...mexico
* a small boy...a kind of bellhop, mexico
* 2 girls from the university of texas/kirby, mexico
* hillary charis & wife...in montevideo...so kirby,john, kathy stay at their house in mexico city
* servants...armando and his wife...he is gardener...rosalinda/cook, and nadina, the girl maid
* pretty girls...kirby watches from a sidewalk cafe mexico city
* august sonninger & frank race...arrive w/john & kathy at airport
* "wilson"...name in script that kirby reads
* don ameche...a mexican policeman is described as looking like
* police...mexican police...another big mexican in a white linen jacket
* someone is described as looking like richard nixon
* from wade, joan and sonny...inscribed on .45 colt
* a family from sonora, texas...kirby hitches a ride...man, woman, two small children
* huckleberry finn...a little french strumpet w/a face like (nan)
* polish peasants
* nanette, one of several children...3 arrive from europe...3 more later
* nanette leaves home w/a migrant farm laborer
* a bohemian group in frisco (nan)...later, a painter in l.a.
* an f.b.i. team, 4 agents...3 more agents
* special agent in charge, f.b.i. herbert "bert" dunnigan
* agent graybo...agent stark
* 3 boys danville, virginia...find a dead blonde....thirty neurotic semi-psychotic (nuts who call police)
* amelia earhardt...woman aviator who disappeared
* idle boobs...who look, visit crime scenes...hysterical types...mystics and visionaries (nuts)
* walter james lokey iii, 3-year-old boy died when barn where witnesses were...collapsed 'cause of all the (nuts) inside...too many, weight, etc
* colonel blimp....? dunno
* ard stallings...head of surgery, monroe general hospital
* bess, his wife...2 children...truck driver who falls asleep
* joe randi and wife clara...operate lakesore cottages on 7 mile lake
* the shoelockers...will be arriving at cottages
* schiller's...store near 7 mile lake/cottages
* brubeck, milligan, jamal, debussy, wagner, liszt, chopin, bach, alessandro scarletti, antonio vivaldi, mozart
* 2 customers at the bar
* bartender...anold man in a stake truck...
* marianne crozier, paul beattie, fats carey, gussy ellison, kip mcallen (kirby's childhood past)
* william tell...the marching chinese...the rangers (texas)
* a pump jockey in seguin...a woman from crystal city, texas...another truck driver
*a couple was making love in the back seat
* blonde in a red satin housecoat
* mr and mrs ivan sanderson, mr theodore sturgeon, mr kenneth tynan...alias used by kirby to register motel
* mort sahl
* reverend....governor
* perceptive spectators...communications people (trial)
* john quain, prosecutor in case
* darrow (famous attorney)
* loeb-leopold case
* rolly springs...a deputy under gus
* mason ives...a newsman...friendly with gus...a kind of foil
* peterson...tv person/man...known to gus
* ralph weaver...his wife, pearl, instrumental in bringing the wolf pack down
* a half-wit woman...a neighbor boy (pearl)
* mr & mrs j.d. smith, mr. w.j. thompson, mr h johnson, the last aliases kirby signs them in under...at the shadyside motor hotel
* michael bruce hallowell/ carl lartch...huh? didn't get this...two names to describe one man, a reader...and he comes across the body of helen...and is instrumental in the fall of the wolf pack...near laughlintown, pennsylvania
* various cops...at the end...one tackles golden...one puts a gun in shack's face...two handcuff kirby as he receives an order of burgers...several handcuff nan as she exits the restroom
* mr. barlow...kirby uses this name to helen when she asks how it happened..."you wanna buy me another drink before we go upstairs, mr. barlow?" pretending to be a young girl raped by an uncle and a runaway...hmmmm. often...macdonald's stories have at least one strange element...this is one...the double name above is another.
the list is about 99% complete...mencken isn't listed...a frisco reporter...one poet w/red handlebar mustachios...the samaritan, the good one...louie in dago someone nan and golden knew...lots!
a quote
our novelists seem to write of physical love as though they were under some obligation either to acquaint a herd of martians with the fleshy facts, or to compose a handbook for the inexperienced.
update, finished...19 dec 14, friday 11:38 a.m. e.s.t.
i'm tempted to mark this as a favorite...like the last macdonald story i read it's that good...Flash of Green, the last one i read. i could look at the numbers..."ratings/reviews"...try to get an idea how many read macdonald...to what end? he writes some really good stories. this one continued that narrative swap back and forth...death house diary of kirby...the owen memorandum...and the memorandum are introduced by an unknown 3rd person narrator. that is one thing to like about this...the method he used to tell the story...the story itself is another liking. curious, that nashville and what happened there never is told...the wolf pack..kirby, really...does not want to tell that and it is not told...though the...presumably murder/s there happened in between the first and the last. anyway...good read...i like the use of barlow at the end...and another review here suggests (to me) that perhaps stephen king found the name here in this story...and used it in the lot. maybe si maybe no. you can't put anything past that jackass...he was off his rocker most of the time until he got help
#9 from macdonald for me...give or take..."powerful, fast-paced...a smasheroo." saturday review. heh! who can pass up a smasheroo? i certainly can't...count me in!
has this quote on the title page...an execution is a very serious thing, and around here we do our level best to have it go smooth and quick, and we try to do it with some dignity too. --warden durkin g. shires
story begins: [with a letter...to ed from willy] dear ed, well, we had the big day here, and we sent the four of them off to their reward with what satchel-butt shires, our loveable warden called "splendid efficiency." honest to god, if you'd still been here, you would have split a gut watching shires sweat blood around here as burning day got closer and closer.
okee dokee then, as the good doctor said...onward and upward.
update, 18 dec 14, thursday noon
wanted to note some similarities to my previous macdonald read, Flash of Green...a victim of the wolf pack...helen wister...shares some of the same characteristics/actions as natalie sinnat in flash of green. helen is newly-engaged and though natalie was never engaged in flash, they both engage in premarital sex with a young man of their choice...and then they move aware from that behavior, helen after becoming engaged...by mutual agreement...and natalie and jigger...due in part because natalie knew that what she had with jigger would not last...her time w/jigger was to-do w/pity...or simple basic need. thought it curious...makes me wonder where macdonald stood on the matter, if he had a stance. too, both helen and natalie have twin brothers.
a note on the narration, the telling
story begins with the letter to ed from willy. short, maybe 4-5 pages, and then there is a shift and the narration is provided through deems owen, defense lawyer...this shift in chapter two...much of it, the telling, having been recorded by leah slayter, on deems owen's staff.
later the same day
okay...so macdonald here uses a variety of narrative techniques. chapter 3 was the death house diary...or, a portion of kirby palmer stassen's diary. he is asking himself why and how and narrates what happened before he met the other three in a beer joint in del rio. chapter four begins...this one is another of riker deems owen's memorandums...i s'pose a kind of diary, lawyer's diary...but macdonald switches it up, the telling, hey?
later still
that is chapter 4...riker's memorandum...followed by 5, helen's story...straight-forward narrative not credited to any of the characters, 3rd person...and six is another death house diary 1st person eye-narrator through kirby's eyes. looking ahead...the patterns seems to repeat...will note any changes.
time place scene setting
*a prison, as yet unnamed
* the wister family home
* monroe, the friendly city
* saturday, july 25th
* the club...where helen/others play tennis
* route 813...somewhere on the east coast, new england, close to maryland...where arnold and helen take a drive
* arnold's olds
* a frat house/ kirby...unnamed university
* kirby's impala...new york city...a frat friend's apartment
* a bar/restaurant, nyc...here, macdonald does not name the place and i think the telling suffers...almost forgot it, this 'place' cause of that
* a big two-year-old chrysler imperial...of john pinelli/kathy keats
* various restaurants, cabs, hotels
* kirby's diary is "last february" and continuing
* 2nd floor of a frat house on woodland avenue
* the new york apartment of kirby's frat friend...gabe shevlan...somewhere near 77th and 2nd
* 18 burgess lane, huntstown (kirby sends a suitcase there)
* woman's prison a hundred miles away...where nan koslov is kept
* garage on 44th, nyc...kirby parks his impala there
* the absinthe on west 48th, nyc
* west of montgomery, alabama...kirby, john/kathy...on way to mexico
* laredo...they cross into mexico here
* a barn on route 813...the road nearby...the ditch
* deggsburg...ruth is from daggsburg
* the continental hilton, mexico city
* the francis, acapulco...sanborn's
* the house of man named hillary charis (mexico city)
* sidewalk cafe, airport, acapulco, mexico
* bassette, nebraska...nanette's family settled here from poland via west germany
* san francisco...los angeles...nanette's past
* 3rd floor monroe national bank building...fbi sets up office there
* falls church...herbert's wife, kids there
* meeker county...the scene of the action, helen/arnold
* glasgow, kentucky...plumbing contractor's vehicle stolen here
* tupelo, mississippi...wolf pack passed through here, too
* grill room of the hotel riggs
* 430 miles north northeast of monroe in western pennsylvania seven mile lake
* lakeshore cottages (wolf pack stays a night)
* chubby's grill on route 90
* bracketville, 30 miles away
* the paradise cabins
* lupkin...texas i think...eldorado, arkansas
* a private club in arkansas
* shadyside motor hotel...last place the wolf pack stayed before they were brought down
* laughlintown, pennsylvania...near the jersey border...wolf pack arrested here at a stop close to the pike or right on it
* pennsyllvania turnpike, station #22 at morgantown
characters
* shires, warden
* ed, to whom the letter is addressed...that opens the story...the reader gets the sense worked at the prison where the executions took place...that he knows the names that
* willy writes the letter to ed
*the wolf pack:
1. nanette koslov
2. kirby palmer stassen, whose family has money hires deems owen the lawyer
3. robert "shack" hernandez
4. sander golden
* from the letter: creepy staples, bongo, christy & brewer, doc, old mitch, marano & sid, cops, politicians, official witnesses, the father (a priest), mabel...will's wife...and finally willy
* riker deems owen...attorney hired by the stassens to defend kirby...acts as defense for other three, as well
* miriam, owen's wife
* walter stassen & his wife, ernestine, parents of kirby stassen
* salesman in uvalde
* helen wister, 23, newly-engaged, to be married, has a job in city hall
* jane wister, helen's mother
* dr. paul wister, father of helen
* dallas kemp...to marry helen, & he is an architect, 26 years old, has his own architect's office...established there three years
* he has an elder sister in denver, married, two children
* he has one draftsman and one secretary
* his parents are in venice, florida
* evans...just a name...helen can see the evans house
* arnold crown, owns and operates a gas station, has his eye on another, is infatuated w/helen, follows...is described as a classic stalker
* a guy w/a station over on division...station for possible sale to arnold
* francine & joe...w/whome helen/dallas play doubles tennis
* gabe shevlan, frat friend who graduated a year earlier, in new york...works for cbs...kirby is permitted to stay at his apartment.
* pete mchue, a senior, frat brother and roommate of kirby
* toccata chavez...apparently a composer?
* claire booth lane and her daughter...someone famous?
* a dumpy little girl in a red sweater
* hemingway...and his nada word...from the story
* doris day...she is on the radio as kirby listens
* mugsy spinoza...imaginary man sentenced to die in kirby's diary
* one of the guards (death row...and here macdonald does not provide a name in kirby's diary...seems to be a failing...surely a name would have been known...but only a description)
* 11 of 20 cells (death row...although that word isn't used...don't believe
* imaginary martian (kirby's diary)
* aztecs virigins (same)
* john pinelli...portrayed as a washed up director in kirby's diary
* kathy keats...john's actress wife
* betsy kipp...kirby's friend gabe and her are an item
* cab drivers
* a man with a spanish guitar
* stud browning, a producer...kirby's diary
* doxie weese, gabe and betsy set up kirby w/this woman who cries often
* the burmans...john and kathy are staying in their apartment
* the wrong man at the agency...kirby said qqc...sent packing
* a friend...drove john's car east...presumably from california
* a boy who brought the ice...to john/kathy's motel room
* hayes...huston...big hollywood names
* the sabine women...isn't there a painting...the rape of?
* proctor jonnson, psychiatrist...supplies one possible explanation for the wolf pack
* george tibault, professor of sociology, monroe college...supplies another one
* horace becher...killed...perhaps the salesman in texas? yes...worked for the blue bonnet tile company out of houston
* sillier wives of clients (dallas)
* a girl he had known in school...dallas...he returns for conjugal visits...heh!
* marg...a client of dallas
* willie layton...possibly marg's husband...also a client
* the judlands...as in "the judland house"
* smitty...guy who works...probably mechanic, attendant...at arnold's service station
* customer...another customer...at gas station
* desk sergeant
* a drunk
* lieutenant lew razoner
* captain barney tauss, head of homocide
* technicians...a man in coveralls stood...a little man, doctor
* sheriff gustaf "gus" kurby
* the ambulance people
* a young couple, witnesses, howard craft and ruth meckland, engaged
* newsman...reporters...al/billy
* wroe news announcer radio
* tab hunter...as in...looked like...tab hunter is an actor, no?
* dietrich...a woman actress from ago?
* brown & barren gente...in mexico
* desk clerk...mexico
* a small boy...a kind of bellhop, mexico
* 2 girls from the university of texas/kirby, mexico
* hillary charis & wife...in montevideo...so kirby,john, kathy stay at their house in mexico city
* servants...armando and his wife...he is gardener...rosalinda/cook, and nadina, the girl maid
* pretty girls...kirby watches from a sidewalk cafe mexico city
* august sonninger & frank race...arrive w/john & kathy at airport
* "wilson"...name in script that kirby reads
* don ameche...a mexican policeman is described as looking like
* police...mexican police...another big mexican in a white linen jacket
* someone is described as looking like richard nixon
* from wade, joan and sonny...inscribed on .45 colt
* a family from sonora, texas...kirby hitches a ride...man, woman, two small children
* huckleberry finn...a little french strumpet w/a face like (nan)
* polish peasants
* nanette, one of several children...3 arrive from europe...3 more later
* nanette leaves home w/a migrant farm laborer
* a bohemian group in frisco (nan)...later, a painter in l.a.
* an f.b.i. team, 4 agents...3 more agents
* special agent in charge, f.b.i. herbert "bert" dunnigan
* agent graybo...agent stark
* 3 boys danville, virginia...find a dead blonde....thirty neurotic semi-psychotic (nuts who call police)
* amelia earhardt...woman aviator who disappeared
* idle boobs...who look, visit crime scenes...hysterical types...mystics and visionaries (nuts)
* walter james lokey iii, 3-year-old boy died when barn where witnesses were...collapsed 'cause of all the (nuts) inside...too many, weight, etc
* colonel blimp....? dunno
* ard stallings...head of surgery, monroe general hospital
* bess, his wife...2 children...truck driver who falls asleep
* joe randi and wife clara...operate lakesore cottages on 7 mile lake
* the shoelockers...will be arriving at cottages
* schiller's...store near 7 mile lake/cottages
* brubeck, milligan, jamal, debussy, wagner, liszt, chopin, bach, alessandro scarletti, antonio vivaldi, mozart
* 2 customers at the bar
* bartender...anold man in a stake truck...
* marianne crozier, paul beattie, fats carey, gussy ellison, kip mcallen (kirby's childhood past)
* william tell...the marching chinese...the rangers (texas)
* a pump jockey in seguin...a woman from crystal city, texas...another truck driver
*a couple was making love in the back seat
* blonde in a red satin housecoat
* mr and mrs ivan sanderson, mr theodore sturgeon, mr kenneth tynan...alias used by kirby to register motel
* mort sahl
* reverend....governor
* perceptive spectators...communications people (trial)
* john quain, prosecutor in case
* darrow (famous attorney)
* loeb-leopold case
* rolly springs...a deputy under gus
* mason ives...a newsman...friendly with gus...a kind of foil
* peterson...tv person/man...known to gus
* ralph weaver...his wife, pearl, instrumental in bringing the wolf pack down
* a half-wit woman...a neighbor boy (pearl)
* mr & mrs j.d. smith, mr. w.j. thompson, mr h johnson, the last aliases kirby signs them in under...at the shadyside motor hotel
* michael bruce hallowell/ carl lartch...huh? didn't get this...two names to describe one man, a reader...and he comes across the body of helen...and is instrumental in the fall of the wolf pack...near laughlintown, pennsylvania
* various cops...at the end...one tackles golden...one puts a gun in shack's face...two handcuff kirby as he receives an order of burgers...several handcuff nan as she exits the restroom
* mr. barlow...kirby uses this name to helen when she asks how it happened..."you wanna buy me another drink before we go upstairs, mr. barlow?" pretending to be a young girl raped by an uncle and a runaway...hmmmm. often...macdonald's stories have at least one strange element...this is one...the double name above is another.
the list is about 99% complete...mencken isn't listed...a frisco reporter...one poet w/red handlebar mustachios...the samaritan, the good one...louie in dago someone nan and golden knew...lots!
a quote
our novelists seem to write of physical love as though they were under some obligation either to acquaint a herd of martians with the fleshy facts, or to compose a handbook for the inexperienced.
update, finished...19 dec 14, friday 11:38 a.m. e.s.t.
i'm tempted to mark this as a favorite...like the last macdonald story i read it's that good...Flash of Green, the last one i read. i could look at the numbers..."ratings/reviews"...try to get an idea how many read macdonald...to what end? he writes some really good stories. this one continued that narrative swap back and forth...death house diary of kirby...the owen memorandum...and the memorandum are introduced by an unknown 3rd person narrator. that is one thing to like about this...the method he used to tell the story...the story itself is another liking. curious, that nashville and what happened there never is told...the wolf pack..kirby, really...does not want to tell that and it is not told...though the...presumably murder/s there happened in between the first and the last. anyway...good read...i like the use of barlow at the end...and another review here suggests (to me) that perhaps stephen king found the name here in this story...and used it in the lot. maybe si maybe no. you can't put anything past that jackass...he was off his rocker most of the time until he got help
February 11, 2017
I have yet to find a bad John D. MacDonald novel. Even one that started out slowly is a treasure trove of fun. The experience of reading MacDonald brings back memories of reading a book under the covers with a flashlight late at night. The voice of your significant other saying please turn off the lights and go to sleep. And the tone of your own voice as you say, "Just let me finish this chapter." The realization that you started the book intending to read just a few pages before going to bed only to find out that it is 2 A. M. and you have read more than half the book.
This one is no exception. The style is like a true crime piece of non-fiction. A kind of In Cold Blood, Helter Skelter or Fatal Vision meets Robert Bloch's Psycho with a side order of the hipster bull$#!+ made famous by Jack Kerouac's On the Road. A member of the Wolf Pack compared his crimes to a Sociologist conducting experiments for later class discussions.
This one is no exception. The style is like a true crime piece of non-fiction. A kind of In Cold Blood, Helter Skelter or Fatal Vision meets Robert Bloch's Psycho with a side order of the hipster bull$#!+ made famous by Jack Kerouac's On the Road. A member of the Wolf Pack compared his crimes to a Sociologist conducting experiments for later class discussions.
February 15, 2018
Reminds me a little of An Orchid for Miss Blandish by James Hadley Chase.
March 12, 2026
The End of the Night by John D. MacDonald (192 pgs., I read my 1st edition A Fawcott Gold Medal paper-back book published in 1960, $0.60) is a re-read for me. This novel is Great! One of the top crime-fiction novels of all time, and, IMHO MacDonald's best (and I'm not really a MacDonald fan, I never got into Travis McGee). It's about the murderous romp across the southern states by the demented Wolf Pack. But there's so much more than that including the who, why and how written in the best prose of MacDonalds canon including maybe the best fractured-time-line of any book. The End of the Night is an American crime fiction classic and I highly, highly recommend it! A solid 5.0 outta 5.0...!
November 14, 2018
I mistakenly thought that this was one of the books on David Foster Wallace's teaching syllabus that circulated the 'nets a while back. So I put The End of the Night in the "intend to read" mental space, along with a few other books which were worthy of DFW's consideration for a semester-long course on writing. As fate would have it, i came across this book at the "take a book, but please leave a book" shelf at work. i stuffed it into my bag after reading random sentences.(i didn't please leave a book because i'm a moral degenerate.)
furthering this coincidence is the fact that this book in a lot of ways keeps pace with the last book i put down: Vladimir Nabakov's Lolita. Both are tales of restless insanity, and the cringe-worthy crime sprees that dot the landscape of otherwise squeaky clean America. Both novels lack any real setting, instead taking place in hotel rooms, parking lots and patches of discreet wooded areas. both stories are received by the reader as post-hoc jailhouse confessions from the central character.
The End of the Night also has a bleak absurdity that rivals Nabakov's. I especially enjoyed a scene where townspeople congregrate at the site of a murder and, like souvenirs, collect bits of grass and stray rocks which they gleefully imagine having been picked up by the murderer himself! they all climb into the loft of an old barn, where a local man witnessed the stabbing, and eventually it collapses, killing a small child and injuring dozens. then the same people show up to collect the splinters of the barn. ha! the dumb fascination and involvement of the masses is returned to throughout the story.
people have criticized McDonald's tendency to pontificate about justice, the human condition, morality, etc. but i think his ruminations manage to remain an essential aspect of Kirby's character, and not necessarily an indulgence of the author. The kid is sitting on death row, trying to finish a diary that will live on after him, I think it's natural to assume he'll get a little philosophical about the meaning of life. and it looks pretty tame compared to Humbert Humbert's bi-lingual orchestrations.
i can understand DF Wallace's fascination with The End of the Night. Its easy satire and strange violence are echoed in postmod books of the 80's such as White Noise and Less Than Zero.
furthering this coincidence is the fact that this book in a lot of ways keeps pace with the last book i put down: Vladimir Nabakov's Lolita. Both are tales of restless insanity, and the cringe-worthy crime sprees that dot the landscape of otherwise squeaky clean America. Both novels lack any real setting, instead taking place in hotel rooms, parking lots and patches of discreet wooded areas. both stories are received by the reader as post-hoc jailhouse confessions from the central character.
The End of the Night also has a bleak absurdity that rivals Nabakov's. I especially enjoyed a scene where townspeople congregrate at the site of a murder and, like souvenirs, collect bits of grass and stray rocks which they gleefully imagine having been picked up by the murderer himself! they all climb into the loft of an old barn, where a local man witnessed the stabbing, and eventually it collapses, killing a small child and injuring dozens. then the same people show up to collect the splinters of the barn. ha! the dumb fascination and involvement of the masses is returned to throughout the story.
people have criticized McDonald's tendency to pontificate about justice, the human condition, morality, etc. but i think his ruminations manage to remain an essential aspect of Kirby's character, and not necessarily an indulgence of the author. The kid is sitting on death row, trying to finish a diary that will live on after him, I think it's natural to assume he'll get a little philosophical about the meaning of life. and it looks pretty tame compared to Humbert Humbert's bi-lingual orchestrations.
i can understand DF Wallace's fascination with The End of the Night. Its easy satire and strange violence are echoed in postmod books of the 80's such as White Noise and Less Than Zero.
May 29, 2013
THE END OF THE NIGHT
Ever since reading most of the Travis McGee mysteries, when I was a young man, I have thought John D. McDonald was an often over-looked treasure of an American writer. This early novel of his only strengthens that outlook.
This is a great read. It is so much better than it starts out. It begins with just two of the people who pay most dearly. The girl with her life and her man with his dream. We bump into the killers as all their victims seem to. Random, like this killing spree. It ends with the capture of these most ordinary of people who have become serial killers. The dumb brute of a man who lives in every town. The pretentious ‘beatnik-philosopher’ and the selfish sex hungry, adrenaline hungry girl, and the seemingly decent but bored rich kid. It ends with the almost unbearable pain of the man with a dream, whose simple desire to fulfill this dream of his has been shattered. Here is a short quote from this interesting and involving book:
“And there is this, too. We all--every one of us--walk very close to the shadows, to strange dark places, every day of our lives. No man stands in a perfectly safe place. So it is dangerously smug to say, I am immune. No one can tell when some slight chance, some random thing, may turn him slightly, just enough so that he will find that he is no longer in a safe place, and he had begun to walk into the shadows, toward unknown things that are always there, waiting to eat him.” -John D. MacDonald
Ever since reading most of the Travis McGee mysteries, when I was a young man, I have thought John D. McDonald was an often over-looked treasure of an American writer. This early novel of his only strengthens that outlook.
This is a great read. It is so much better than it starts out. It begins with just two of the people who pay most dearly. The girl with her life and her man with his dream. We bump into the killers as all their victims seem to. Random, like this killing spree. It ends with the capture of these most ordinary of people who have become serial killers. The dumb brute of a man who lives in every town. The pretentious ‘beatnik-philosopher’ and the selfish sex hungry, adrenaline hungry girl, and the seemingly decent but bored rich kid. It ends with the almost unbearable pain of the man with a dream, whose simple desire to fulfill this dream of his has been shattered. Here is a short quote from this interesting and involving book:
“And there is this, too. We all--every one of us--walk very close to the shadows, to strange dark places, every day of our lives. No man stands in a perfectly safe place. So it is dangerously smug to say, I am immune. No one can tell when some slight chance, some random thing, may turn him slightly, just enough so that he will find that he is no longer in a safe place, and he had begun to walk into the shadows, toward unknown things that are always there, waiting to eat him.” -John D. MacDonald
October 13, 2011
NOTE: The details about this book (listed above) are not accurate as of 10/12/11. This ISBN (0-449-13195-5) has 219 pages, is a Fawcett Gold Medal book, by Ballantine Books, published in 1966. Its first date of publication is 1960.
Now that that's out of the way :D
Whoa! The End of the Night by John D. MacDonald grabbed me from the first page and didn't let go until the last. What makes that so amazing? We know how the story ends from page one. Plus, this book was published in 1960 yet it felt totally relevant. I'm in awe. And talk about prolific...MacDonald wrote over 500 short stories and 78 books in 40 years! Man, how inspirational is that?
What MacDonald did so skillfully with this book was dig deeper than any crime thriller I've read to date. He brought up issues and questions and dilemmas I think about all the time. How many have not questioned the seeming randomness of tragic events? Asked why those events happened? Or asked how someone became a "monster" capable of such acts of pure "evil"? I daresay very few because humans by nature want everything to make sense. For there to be an easily explained motive.
I can't wait to read this book again. My full review is on my blog.
Now that that's out of the way :D
Whoa! The End of the Night by John D. MacDonald grabbed me from the first page and didn't let go until the last. What makes that so amazing? We know how the story ends from page one. Plus, this book was published in 1960 yet it felt totally relevant. I'm in awe. And talk about prolific...MacDonald wrote over 500 short stories and 78 books in 40 years! Man, how inspirational is that?
What MacDonald did so skillfully with this book was dig deeper than any crime thriller I've read to date. He brought up issues and questions and dilemmas I think about all the time. How many have not questioned the seeming randomness of tragic events? Asked why those events happened? Or asked how someone became a "monster" capable of such acts of pure "evil"? I daresay very few because humans by nature want everything to make sense. For there to be an easily explained motive.
I can't wait to read this book again. My full review is on my blog.
July 23, 2015
The author made some interesting choices in writing this book. He opens with a death house guard's letter describing the spree killers' executions....so no mystery there. There are a couple of chapters that present the notes of the killers' defense attorney (these are introduced with snarky comments about his ego and possible relationship with his assistant). There are documentary-like chapters of law enforcement efforts and peripheral witness interaction with the killers. Only one of the four people who committed these motiveless murders gives testimony (in the form of a introspective diary). Many key characters reveal nothing about their motives and participation. Of course we cannot understand what happened.....it was senseless. I also think it was a brilliant choice for John D. MacDonald. I know this is fiction, but I wonder if Truman Capote was influenced by this book.
June 29, 2016
Murder mystery? Not exactly a mystery as the execution of the Wolf pack members by electric chair is described in the first chapter. But, it is an astonishing description of the senseless and inevitable chain of events that leads to murder by four disparate characters. It is a book without heroes.
McDonald's writing is superb -- reminiscent of Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby, where power, status, and opportunity clash.
John MacDonald, best known for his Travis McGee, should be recognized among the finest American novelists of the 20th century.
McDonald's writing is superb -- reminiscent of Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby, where power, status, and opportunity clash.
John MacDonald, best known for his Travis McGee, should be recognized among the finest American novelists of the 20th century.
October 27, 2021
This book is a strange anomaly; the whole is less than the sum of its parts. There were passages in the novel that really struck a cord. There were times when my emotions were being played like an instrument. Yet I never felt connected to the material or absorbed by the story. The way it was constructed just left me disinterested and anxious to get to the end.
June 23, 2018
Excellent character development along with well developed and maintained suspense. A bit of looking into the past, and John MacDonald’s philosophizing is fun. Worth rereading
March 24, 2020
Second reading, the first being, Oh, maybe 1965? while I was supposed to be studying for finals. Was I surprised!?! This is not a light reading book, not a Travis McGee brain candy. Rereading because Sienna said John D. considered this his best (and I consider him the best writer in a crowded genre), I find a solid, deep, nuanced novel. Beyond the carefully expressed understanding of the minds involved, the most interesting part for me was the way the storyteller chose the order of the telling, and what parts were told in depth and which (like the trial) were left out completely. What a master.
I still think The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything is his best book, but again, the really interesting part is, What a broad-gauged storyteller was MacDonald.
I still think The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything is his best book, but again, the really interesting part is, What a broad-gauged storyteller was MacDonald.
July 23, 2018
Vor zwanzig Jahren mochte ich John D. MacDonald, aber beim Wiederlesen habe ich mich über dieses Buch (und die Leseprobe von "The Last One Left") geärgert, vor allem, weil Frauen hier auf die blödestmögliche Weise nur Dekomaterial sind. Aber auch alle anderen Figuren bestanden aus aufeinandergestapelten Klischees. Gekauft, weil es technisch interessant anfing (Verbrechen von der Hinrichtung an rückwärts erzählt anhand von Briefen und Dokumenten), aber die vielversprechende Konstruktion zerfällt bald (Autor steckt dann eben doch überall mit drin, Täter tut ihm den Gefallen, im Gefängnis noch schnell alles auf feine literarische Art aufzuschreiben etc.)
Want to read
April 9, 2022Edición argentina publicada como parte de la colección El séptimo círculo.
July 29, 2021
Excellent read starting with the executions of the protagonists and delving into a character study of the collapse of the youths involved and the law enforcement efforts to track them down. Interesting take, and here I quote the author, ‘Communication with the young is unattainable because they have no inner direction, no code of behavior based on an ingrained ethical structure. They adjust to their own codes over and over depending on the accepted behavior patterns of each group within which they find themselves’. A Generational aspect? Or a precursor to a forever widening societal rift? Great book by one of the best.
October 6, 2013
“The end of the night” is a completely messed up novel—though in the best of ways. It’s a noir novel written by a renowned detective mystery writer who sought to present us with his psycho-sociological analysis of the American society at the end of the Beat generation and the beginning of the Hippie generation. John D. Macdonald, the author of this beautiful novel, is one of those long forgotten novelist. Not only for being branded ‘a mystery pop writer’, but as well for publishing primarily in the ‘paperback’ format for most of his career.
John D., as his fans prefer calling, was a prolific writer. He launched his career in science fiction, but is best known as a prominent detective mystery writer. His Travis McGee series is his best remembered work. However, in this novel—which he claimed his best ever—he had given leeway to his literary talent over the necessary plot crafting. He sacrificed the suspenseful ending (mandatory for every detective mystery) for the sake of character establishment and elated dramatization. He gave his social treatise priority and never regretted it.
This 1960 novel is prophetic of sorts and expositive as well. It captures the spirit of the upcoming decade, its romanticism, vanity and, of course, brutality. John D. excellently paints some of the liveliest characters ever written in fiction. As well, his message and warning is clear: clean-shaven, upright America has sores under its sleeves and worms under its skin.
The novel tells of a notorious “Wolf Pack”: three men and a beautiful girl on a cross-country terror spree, a coast-to-coast rampage of theft, destruction, and murder; a good pretense for a detective mystery alright. Sorrowfully, there isn’t any. That’s why this novel was never met by John D.’s fans warmly. Perhaps, this was the novel’s weakest point: it was targeted at the completely wrong audience—John D.’s detective mystery readers. Clearly, the novel was better suited for readers of a completely different genre, more somber word carnivores…readers of Truman Capote or Harper Lee.
However, any reader of any genre is sure to enjoy reading this book. Reading is the joyous part indeed. I haven’t enjoyed more versatile prose for four years since Lolita by V. Nabokov.
John D., as his fans prefer calling, was a prolific writer. He launched his career in science fiction, but is best known as a prominent detective mystery writer. His Travis McGee series is his best remembered work. However, in this novel—which he claimed his best ever—he had given leeway to his literary talent over the necessary plot crafting. He sacrificed the suspenseful ending (mandatory for every detective mystery) for the sake of character establishment and elated dramatization. He gave his social treatise priority and never regretted it.
This 1960 novel is prophetic of sorts and expositive as well. It captures the spirit of the upcoming decade, its romanticism, vanity and, of course, brutality. John D. excellently paints some of the liveliest characters ever written in fiction. As well, his message and warning is clear: clean-shaven, upright America has sores under its sleeves and worms under its skin.
The novel tells of a notorious “Wolf Pack”: three men and a beautiful girl on a cross-country terror spree, a coast-to-coast rampage of theft, destruction, and murder; a good pretense for a detective mystery alright. Sorrowfully, there isn’t any. That’s why this novel was never met by John D.’s fans warmly. Perhaps, this was the novel’s weakest point: it was targeted at the completely wrong audience—John D.’s detective mystery readers. Clearly, the novel was better suited for readers of a completely different genre, more somber word carnivores…readers of Truman Capote or Harper Lee.
However, any reader of any genre is sure to enjoy reading this book. Reading is the joyous part indeed. I haven’t enjoyed more versatile prose for four years since Lolita by V. Nabokov.
September 26, 2021
This is JDM's "serious" novel and one he considered a favorite of his. It's a study of a crime spree told from various points of view. At times it's as fast paced and riveting as the best of his stories, and then other times it's a bit of a slog. There is a long section of an almost Kerouac-type road trip detailed by one of the outlaws. This section is nearly a novel in itself and depicts the venomous relationship between a beautiful but aging actress, her has-been director husband and their chauffer, the college dropout Kirby Stassen. Kirby will eventually become a member of "The Wolfpack" and go on a cross country crime spree with 3 other sociopaths. The book is told out of sequence, which may or may not hamper suspense. We ultimately know what happens in the first section of the novel. It's how we all get there that matters. To me, the most interesting thing about the book is the presentation of the disillusionment and decay of "our youth" in MacDonald's time. This was published in 1960 and you'll hear the same handwringing by sociologists and psychologists today, minus the technology aspect. There is a large cast of characters here and backstories for many of them, no matter how small their role in the story is. In spite of MacDonald's opinion on his own novel, it isn't a favorite of mine. I'd started it many times over the years, only to put it aside because the odd pace of the book. It does conclude well and, unlike most of his standalones, isn't forced into a neat resolution. I'd recommend it to crime fiction fans for its historical perspective. And there are some terrific social observations appropriately tinged with cynicism for the curmudgeons among us.
May 21, 2025
ENGLISH
There's a certain consensus that The End of the Night (1960) is among the best novels left by John McDonald. In Spain, the celebrated expert Javier Coma, while he didn't include it with a specific entry in his famous "Dictionary of the Crime Novel," did later include it in another list of the "50 Essential Novels of American Crime" (Black, Plaza and Janés). In fact, in another publication he mentioned it as a "small masterpiece," which, from one point of view and in light of how Coma always considered McDonald's work as a whole, suggests that he considered this novel "John McDonald's masterpiece" (not a masterpiece at all). I'm halfway with Javier Coma; I think it's a good novel, excellent at times, and that it reads very smoothly... But it's not even a small masterpiece, even though it's clear that the writer has poured no small literary ambitions into it. Narration with several voices, as well as even a final surprise. Regarding the first point, nothing new. The author had already resorted to it before, although here the multi-perspective narrative employed in April Evil (1956), or the use of time jumps (third-person narrator) in Death Trap (1957), go further and this recourse to the multi-narrator is interspersed with time jumps and/or fragmented narrative to end up configuring an ambitious puzzle. On the one hand, there is the third-person narration of the events that occurred surrounding the kidnapping and death of a girl by a gang of thugs, made up of three guys and a somewhat crazy girl, as they made their way along the highways of the American Midwest, sowing chaos and leaving a few corpses along the way. Then there is the memorandum written by the inept lawyer in charge of defending said four defendants, as well as the executioner's statement that he is to execute them. And finally, that of one of those four convicts (Kirby Stassen), who, having been sentenced to the electric chair, recounts retrospectively in the correctional facility, in letters to the lawyer, how he came to join the gang. This is the (formal) ambition that many have probably seen in the novel. The other, more fundamental, is MacDonald's deployment of certain moral concepts, not without a certain philosophical depth. In this way, his recurring immersion in the terrain of violence (especially as applied to women in the sexual aspect) is intertwined with concepts that refer both to chance and truth, as well as the sharp edges surrounding justice. McDonald himself must have been aware of this, a kind of "now or never" attitude, perhaps influenced by currents of French existentialism (I don't know if it was Truman and his almost contemporary "In Cold Blood," with which he has points of contact), in a context of a change of decade and with some twenty novels already behind him of increasing commercial and literary prestige, before embarking on his best-selling novel cycle with Travis McGuee. For me, there's a hint of artifice; that would be the only minor quibble I'd find. Otherwise, and as always with the writer, the novel is very well written and interesting. If that artifice that sometimes appears in MacDonald's prose grated on me a little less, it would be a great novel. It would be... a masterpiece.
SPANISH
Existe cierto consenso sobre que El fin de la noche (1960) está entre las mejores novelas legadas por John McDonald. En España el célebre experto Javier Coma si bien no la incluía con entrada propia específica en su famoso "Diccionario de novela negra", sí que la incluyó posteriormente en otro listado de las "50 imprescindibles de la novela negra americana" (Black, Plaza y Janés)...De hecho, en otra publicación hacía mención a ella, como una "pequeña obra maestra", con lo que, desde un punto de vista y a tenor de como consideró siempre Coma la obra de MacDonaldiana en su conjunto, se infiere que consideraba esta novela como "la obra maestra de John McDonald" (que no una obra maestra). Yo estoy con Javier Coma a medias, creo que es una buena novela, a ratos excelente, y que se lee de forma muy fluida... Pero ni siquiera una pequeña obra maestra, por más que se note que el escritor haya volcado no pocas ambiciones literarias. Narración con varias voces, así como incluso una sorpresa final. Sobre lo primero, nada nuevo. El autor ya había recurrido a ello con anterioridad, por más que aquí la narrativa multiperspectivesca empleada en April evil (1956), o el uso de saltos temporales (narrador en tercera persona) de Death trap (1957), llegue más lejos y ese recurso al multi-narrador se entremezcle con saltos temporales y/ o narrativa fragmentada para acabar configurando una ambicioso puzzle. Por un lado está la narración en tercera persona de los hechos que acontecieron en torno al secuestro y muerte de una chica a cargo de una banda de malandrines, integrada por 3 tipos y una chica algo alocada, en su devenir por carreteras carreteras del Mid-West americano sembrando el caos y dejando algún cadáver por el camino. Luego la del memorando que escribe el inepto abogado encargado de defender a dichos 4 acusados, así como la del verdugo de que ha de ejecutarlos. Y finalmente la de uno de esos 4 convictos (Kirby Stassen) quien una vez ya condenado a la silla eléctrica, narra retrospectivamente en el correccional mediante cartas a dicho abogado cómo llegó a unirse a la banda. Esa es la ambición (formal) que probablemente muchos han visto en la novela. La otra, más de fondo, es el despliegue de MacDonald de algunos conceptos de tipo moral, no exentos de cierto calado filosófico. De esta forma su recurrente inmersión en el terreno de la violencia (especialmente el aplicado hacia la mujer en el aspecto sexual) se entrelaza con conceptos que remiten tanto al azar y la verdad, como los afilados márgenes circundantes de la justicia. El propio McDonald debió ser consciente de ello, una especie de “ahora o nunca”, puede que influenciado por corrientes de existencialismo francés (no se si con Truman y su casi coetánea “A sangre fría” con la que tiene puntos de contacto), en un contexto de cambio de década y con una veintena de novelas ya a sus espaldas de progresivo prestigio tanto comercial como literario, antes de emprender su multi-ventas ciclo de novelas con Travis McGuee. Para mí hay algo de artificio, ese sería el pequeño pero que le pongo. Por lo demás, y como siempre en el escritor, la novela muy bien escrita e interesante. Solo que ese artificio que asoma a veces en la prosa de MacDonald, me chirriara un poquito menos, sería una gran novela. Sería…una obra maestra.
There's a certain consensus that The End of the Night (1960) is among the best novels left by John McDonald. In Spain, the celebrated expert Javier Coma, while he didn't include it with a specific entry in his famous "Dictionary of the Crime Novel," did later include it in another list of the "50 Essential Novels of American Crime" (Black, Plaza and Janés). In fact, in another publication he mentioned it as a "small masterpiece," which, from one point of view and in light of how Coma always considered McDonald's work as a whole, suggests that he considered this novel "John McDonald's masterpiece" (not a masterpiece at all). I'm halfway with Javier Coma; I think it's a good novel, excellent at times, and that it reads very smoothly... But it's not even a small masterpiece, even though it's clear that the writer has poured no small literary ambitions into it. Narration with several voices, as well as even a final surprise. Regarding the first point, nothing new. The author had already resorted to it before, although here the multi-perspective narrative employed in April Evil (1956), or the use of time jumps (third-person narrator) in Death Trap (1957), go further and this recourse to the multi-narrator is interspersed with time jumps and/or fragmented narrative to end up configuring an ambitious puzzle. On the one hand, there is the third-person narration of the events that occurred surrounding the kidnapping and death of a girl by a gang of thugs, made up of three guys and a somewhat crazy girl, as they made their way along the highways of the American Midwest, sowing chaos and leaving a few corpses along the way. Then there is the memorandum written by the inept lawyer in charge of defending said four defendants, as well as the executioner's statement that he is to execute them. And finally, that of one of those four convicts (Kirby Stassen), who, having been sentenced to the electric chair, recounts retrospectively in the correctional facility, in letters to the lawyer, how he came to join the gang. This is the (formal) ambition that many have probably seen in the novel. The other, more fundamental, is MacDonald's deployment of certain moral concepts, not without a certain philosophical depth. In this way, his recurring immersion in the terrain of violence (especially as applied to women in the sexual aspect) is intertwined with concepts that refer both to chance and truth, as well as the sharp edges surrounding justice. McDonald himself must have been aware of this, a kind of "now or never" attitude, perhaps influenced by currents of French existentialism (I don't know if it was Truman and his almost contemporary "In Cold Blood," with which he has points of contact), in a context of a change of decade and with some twenty novels already behind him of increasing commercial and literary prestige, before embarking on his best-selling novel cycle with Travis McGuee. For me, there's a hint of artifice; that would be the only minor quibble I'd find. Otherwise, and as always with the writer, the novel is very well written and interesting. If that artifice that sometimes appears in MacDonald's prose grated on me a little less, it would be a great novel. It would be... a masterpiece.
SPANISH
Existe cierto consenso sobre que El fin de la noche (1960) está entre las mejores novelas legadas por John McDonald. En España el célebre experto Javier Coma si bien no la incluía con entrada propia específica en su famoso "Diccionario de novela negra", sí que la incluyó posteriormente en otro listado de las "50 imprescindibles de la novela negra americana" (Black, Plaza y Janés)...De hecho, en otra publicación hacía mención a ella, como una "pequeña obra maestra", con lo que, desde un punto de vista y a tenor de como consideró siempre Coma la obra de MacDonaldiana en su conjunto, se infiere que consideraba esta novela como "la obra maestra de John McDonald" (que no una obra maestra). Yo estoy con Javier Coma a medias, creo que es una buena novela, a ratos excelente, y que se lee de forma muy fluida... Pero ni siquiera una pequeña obra maestra, por más que se note que el escritor haya volcado no pocas ambiciones literarias. Narración con varias voces, así como incluso una sorpresa final. Sobre lo primero, nada nuevo. El autor ya había recurrido a ello con anterioridad, por más que aquí la narrativa multiperspectivesca empleada en April evil (1956), o el uso de saltos temporales (narrador en tercera persona) de Death trap (1957), llegue más lejos y ese recurso al multi-narrador se entremezcle con saltos temporales y/ o narrativa fragmentada para acabar configurando una ambicioso puzzle. Por un lado está la narración en tercera persona de los hechos que acontecieron en torno al secuestro y muerte de una chica a cargo de una banda de malandrines, integrada por 3 tipos y una chica algo alocada, en su devenir por carreteras carreteras del Mid-West americano sembrando el caos y dejando algún cadáver por el camino. Luego la del memorando que escribe el inepto abogado encargado de defender a dichos 4 acusados, así como la del verdugo de que ha de ejecutarlos. Y finalmente la de uno de esos 4 convictos (Kirby Stassen) quien una vez ya condenado a la silla eléctrica, narra retrospectivamente en el correccional mediante cartas a dicho abogado cómo llegó a unirse a la banda. Esa es la ambición (formal) que probablemente muchos han visto en la novela. La otra, más de fondo, es el despliegue de MacDonald de algunos conceptos de tipo moral, no exentos de cierto calado filosófico. De esta forma su recurrente inmersión en el terreno de la violencia (especialmente el aplicado hacia la mujer en el aspecto sexual) se entrelaza con conceptos que remiten tanto al azar y la verdad, como los afilados márgenes circundantes de la justicia. El propio McDonald debió ser consciente de ello, una especie de “ahora o nunca”, puede que influenciado por corrientes de existencialismo francés (no se si con Truman y su casi coetánea “A sangre fría” con la que tiene puntos de contacto), en un contexto de cambio de década y con una veintena de novelas ya a sus espaldas de progresivo prestigio tanto comercial como literario, antes de emprender su multi-ventas ciclo de novelas con Travis McGuee. Para mí hay algo de artificio, ese sería el pequeño pero que le pongo. Por lo demás, y como siempre en el escritor, la novela muy bien escrita e interesante. Solo que ese artificio que asoma a veces en la prosa de MacDonald, me chirriara un poquito menos, sería una gran novela. Sería…una obra maestra.
July 7, 2018
A product and exposition of the 60s hippie/nihilist culture, this novel has not aged well. Four feckless and disaffected losers embark on a cross-country robbery and murder spree. With the ending given to the reader at the beginning, suspense is completely absent. To the extent there is any substance to the book, it comes from the first person musings of one of the characters (obviously, for purposes of literacy, the only one who has any significant education) as he awaits his execution. It's difficult; no, it's impossible to believe in these characters' descent into multiple random atrocities, although there is a shred of credibility in the pre-spree adventures of the narrator. Perhaps Mr. MacDonald's goal was to shed light on the moral weakness of youth at the time, but from the vantage point of 50-some years later the exercise seems shallow and somewhat pointless.
March 8, 2019
Dean Koontz wrote the introduction to the edition I read and Stephen King once said: "John D. MacDonald has written a novel called The End of the Night which I would argue is one of the greatest American novels of the twentieth century. It ranks with Death of a Salesman, it ranks with An American Tragedy."
Enough said.
Enough said.
July 1, 2020
There's a good story here, although it's somewhat hampered by the way it's told.
While JDM has been successful at playing around with structure in his other stand-alone novels (All These Condemned, The Damned, Murder in the Wind iirc), this one falls short, and is not helped by the tone of the narrator.
While JDM has been successful at playing around with structure in his other stand-alone novels (All These Condemned, The Damned, Murder in the Wind iirc), this one falls short, and is not helped by the tone of the narrator.
June 5, 2018
I've never read MacDonald before and chose this one because it's been so highly praised by Stephen King. Way ahead of its time in many ways, especially the use of multiple POV narrators. The crime is pieced together little by little and becomes more devastating the more we learn about it.
January 5, 2013
Very well-written, well-organized thriller. Compelling characters and just the right amount of introspection. Reminded me a bit of In Cold Blood.
June 12, 2017
A dark novel. Brilliant prose.
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