Something More Than Night

by Kim Newman

Dulwich College, England 1904. A young Raymond Chandler meets an enthusiastic cricketer named Billy Pratt (later Boris Karloff). Sharing a sense of being outsiders at school, the two young men become friends and Chandler encourages Pratt to help him uncover the mystery of the housemaster's strange wife and various disappearing objects. What the boys uncover will haunt them their whole lives...

Hollywood, USA, 1944. When a young actress names Eliza Dane, also Chandler's mistress, turns up dead, in an apparent suicide having jumped from the Hollywood sign, Chandler realises he cannot escape his past. He seeks out his old friend and together they confront the terrible creature who entered their lives all those years ago.

Told with Newman's trademark wit and intricate knowledge of the period, Something More Than Night is a gripping and horrific tale and an engrossing dive into the thrilling era of wartime Hollywood.

Genres: Horror, Mystery, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Noir, Crime

346 pages, Paperback

First published November 2, 2021

About the author

Note: This author also writes under the pseudonym of Jack Yeovil.
An expert on horror and sci-fi cinema (his books of film criticism include Nightmare Movies and Millennium Movies), Kim Newman's novels draw promiscuously on the tropes of horror, sci-fi and fantasy. He is complexly and irreverently referential; the Dracula sequence--Anno Dracula, The Bloody Red Baron and Dracula,Cha Cha Cha--not only portrays an alternate world in which the Count conquers Victorian Britain for a while, is the mastermind behind Germany's air aces in World War One and survives into a jetset 1950s of paparazzi and La Dolce Vita, but does so with endless throwaway references that range from Kipling to James Bond, from Edgar Allen Poe to Patricia Highsmith.
In horror novels such as Bad Dreams and Jago, reality turns out to be endlessly subverted by the powerfully malign. His pseudonymous novels, as Jack Yeovil, play elegant games with genre cliche--perhaps the best of these is the sword-and-sorcery novel Drachenfels which takes the prescribed formulae of the games company to whose bible it was written and make them over entirely into a Kim Newman novel.
Life's Lottery, his most mainstream novel, consists of multiple choice fragments which enable readers to choose the hero's fate and take him into horror, crime and sf storylines or into mundane reality.

Reviews

[Paromjit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first read of the author Kim Newman, and this genre defying historical novel certainly made an impression. Newman throws in everything in this spoof blend of horror and mystery that pays homage to the 1930s Hollywood movies, the era of black and white films, hard boiled detectives, of monsters, and incorporating real and fictional characters. Prepare yourself for a bonkers plot, it is witty, fun, comic, and entertaining, featuring the alcoholic writer Raymond Chandler who takes on Philip Marlowe's persona, and his friend from schooldays, Billy Pratt aka Boris Karloff. The pair are called by the cops to the scene of a car pulled from the sea, with a headless corpse, and in the trunk is the impossible, a wet and alive woman of many names, including Leila Bostwick, Laurel Ives, and 'Witcheye'. In this non-linear narrative, of monsters recognisably human and the not so human, Chandler and Boris investigate, in a story with fantastical elements, littered with references and allusions that will be appreciated by fans of movies from this historical period. It took me some time to get into the style of the narrative, but once I did, I loved it, and its the perfect read for this time of the year. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

[Theo Logos · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fascinating premise colliding with flawed execution makes for big disappointment. Raymond Chandler and Boris Karloff teaming up on a supernatural mystery? Philip Marlowe and Frankenstein references galore? Noir and classic film? How do you mess up a great idea like that?

Start with hopelessly convoluted writing that confuses without engaging. Add on too early reveal of supernatural elements that are accepted too readily by all involved, straining suspension of disbelief. Follow that up with major information dumps in the form of characters unrealistically sharing long speeches containing details that they have no believable reason to share, killing whatever shreds of suspended disbelief might remain.

It all adds up to a DNF at about half way through. There were some elements that teased me along, giving hope that this would develop into at least a three star/I liked it read, but at the book’s mid point I gave up in disgust.

[Stephen Robert Collins · Rating 1 out of 5]

All can say is the print stinks it's a small 👻 ghost whispering on the page like echo scream 😱 help l wish l could be read. WE'LL YOU CANNOT

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book opens, in a sort of Prologue, in a 1931 theater (The Styx) that features second-run films. Tonight's feature, "Frankenstein" starring "?" Here we meet a drunken Raymond Chandler, sipping on a bag of "peanuts" (prohibition) ruminating over his so far messy life. When the film begins to roll, he soon realizes he's watching his old school chum Billy Pratt a/k/a Boris Karloff. Small world!

Jump forward 7 or 8 years, and Chandler ("R.T.") gets an early morning call from Karloff, asking him to meet him at the Malibu Pier. It turns out a mutual friend (and part of the crime busting trio), Joh Devlin, a former city investigator and now private eye, seems to have blown him head off while driving his car off the pier. Even curiouser, once the car is pulled from the waters, an exotic woman with one red eye, very much alive, tumbles out of the trunk. Both Chandler and Karloff know who she is.

The above are probably the most normal events in the book. What follows is entirely wild mash-up of Horror and Noir that will defeat your expectations on the nearly every page. I also suspect that the book, despite its Hollywood setting, is something of a contemporary satire, aimed in part all things fascist, and in particular in the character of one bloated shrimp of a loud movie mogul.

The book is so layered with movie references and side jokes, it can be dizzying. Every gesture, every scene seems to have roots in popular culture. For every reference you get, you sense that you're probably missing many more. The whole thing is ridiculous as hell, but it's also great fun. It's as if Joe Lansdale and Thomas Pynchon got together for some Real Fun. Killer Clowns (the Sparx brothers), Frankenstein monster(s), cloned Nazi types named Bim, evil machines, evil clinic, killer hillbillies, thrilling escapes, a murder-bungalow in LA, it's a couple of hundred pages of genuine WTF. But you get the sense, no matter how outrageous, Newman is in total control. He's not just randomly throwing Famous Monsters of Movieland noodles against the wall. These is purpose, and a satisfying end with these two friends facing the Night together. With a drink.

[José Rafael · Rating 1 out of 5]

If more mysteries were written like this, I'd read less mysteries.

[Greg at 2 Book Lovers Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book really piqued my interest. Newman made two actual people characters in his fictional story: Billy Pratt, aka Boris Karloff, and famed novelist Raymond Chandler. Yes, sir, I am in like Flynn.

The story got off to a great start. Newman brought these two characters to life within his pages, he created a traditional noir type setting and style. Having these two well-known characters as his protagonists added an instant connection to the story. Newman built the connection through connections to things that I already knew, and by giving me more facts about the people, time, and place. I was having a great time.

Then something happened. It really is very strange; life and the story took strange twists at the same time. My life got temporarily complicated and I just didn’t have the time to read that I normally would have. I lost my connection to the story and really had a hard time finding the time/desire to read. I started just reading the words.

Now, I will fully accept part of the fault in what went wrong between Something More Than Night and myself, at the same time, when reading a story, it has a responsibility. The story is supposed to take me away when life gets complicated. The story has a job to do. When I’m not reading the story, I should be thinking about the story; I should have wanted to know what Raymond and Billy were up to. Something More Than Night did not do its job to the best of its ability.

I find this unfortunate; I was looking forward to my first adventure with Kim Newman. Would I read another Kim Newman book again? I really don’t know. Yes, I should have been more present, but Newman didn’t make his book unputdownable for me.

*I received a copy of the book from the publisher (via NetGalley).

[Vivienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘The streets were dark with something more than night.’ Raymond Chandler, Introduction to Trouble is My Business (1950)

My thanks to Titan Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Something More Than Night’ by Kim Newman in exchange for an honest review.

I found this a glorious genre spanning novel featuring two former British schoolboys now living in the USA pursuing their respective careers and on occasion becoming involved in mysteries in which crime and horror intertwine.

As a long time fan of crime fiction, including works by classic writers such as Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, and horror in film and literature both the premise and execution of this novel was a delight. Definitely my kind of book.

Kim Newman is well known for his encyclopaedic knowledge of film, genre fiction and popular culture. In this novel he has embraced the tropes of hard-boiled detective fiction alongside those of pulp horror.

In Hollywood during the late 1930s Raymond ‘R.T.’ Chandler writes detective stories for pulp magazines. His long time friend, William ‘Billy’ Pratt, known to the world as Boris Karloff, plays monsters in the movies. Together, they undertake investigations into unusual goings-on in a town run by monsters both human and inhuman.

In the middle of the night Raymond receives a phone call from Billy with news that he had been asked by the police to identify the body of a man whose car had crashed off Malibu Pier; a death that closely resembles one in Marlow’s recently published ‘The Big Sleep’. Billy quips: ‘Could this be the work of one of your demented fans, R.T.?’ … so begins this fast paced crime/horror noir. I won’t say more about the plot in order to avoid spoilers.

The novel is narrated by Chandler in a rambling style that is almost stream-of-consciousness. It is quite a complex plot as R.T. is prone to asides and jumping about in time.

In his informative Afterword Newman details the real life connections between his imaginary comrades and provides details of the many books that he consulted to write this novel. He also writes:
“If I listed all the films and TV shows that have fed into this book, we’d be here for several months.”
So yes - there’s a lot of cultural references interwoven throughout the novel.

I felt that ‘Something More Than Night’ was terrific - a tour de force that honours both the hard-boiled detective fiction and the pulp horror of the period. The relationship between R.T. and Billy was a joy and I expect that this is a novel that I will be revisiting.

Although this is a standalone, Newman cites a few links to his other published works. Of course, there always exists the possibility that Newman will decide to write more adventures for R.T. and Billy. I certainly hope so as I feel that it’s rich territory for exploration.

Highly recommended.

[Bethnoir · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The writing was delightful, the characters appealing and deep and the story compelling.

[Amy Walker - Trans-Scribe Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kim Newman books are strange creatures. They're filled with plots that have more twists and turns in them than you'd find in a ball of string, characters that come to life in unexpected ways, and nods to other books and films that will have you smiling at the references. Having previously read and enjoyed his exploration of the Sherlock Holmes mythos in Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles I was interested to see what he'd do with a book that not only celebrated the film and fiction of Hollywood in the 1940's, but featured two real life icons of that era.

Something More Than Night follows Raymond Chandler, who's only just just began his career as a writer and is waiting for his first book, The Big Sleep, to be published. He gets a call one night from his long time friend Billy Pratt, more famously known as Boris Karloff, who needs him to come to help identify a body. Chandler's been called in because the body resembles a victim from one of his magazine stories, and the police want to get his opinion on it.

Arriving at the scene, Chandler and Karloff watch as a car is pulled from the sea, the car of a friend of theirs. A body sits in the drivers seat, his head blown off with a shotgun. Stranger still, the police also find a woman in the trunk, a woman who is still alive after hours in the water. The woman is also known to Chandler and Karloff, as she was there years ago when their lives went through a strange ordeal; one that showed them the existence of monsters and strange abilities.

From here the story takes on a somewhat disjointed and complex narrative as we jump around in time, exploring the history these characters have together, the journey they went on, and what ultimately led to one of them dead in the sea with another locked in the trunk of their car. We get the story narrated by Chandler, who is able to give us his perspective on much of the events, as well as being able to relay to us the things he learnt where he wasn't present for things. As such, the book takes a much more personal approach to the story. This isn't just a series of events we're watching unfold, instead we see how the strange happenings alter how Chandler look at the world, how they push him to breaking point, and how much it effects him in a much more intimate way.

But perhaps the best thing about the book being written from Chandler's perspective is the fact that he talks like one of this characters, describing things like he himself is some kind of hard boiled detective. There are times when this seems to happen just naturally, giving the impression that perhaps there was a lot of Chandler's mannerisms and way of speech in his books; but other times he'll make a point of saying something like 'Marlowe would say..' before saying something very cliched and tongue-in-cheek. It's actually quite wonderfully done, as the times where it supposed to be natural feel natural, whilst the fact that Newman is hanging a lantern on those more ridiculous moments means that he's got the leeway to get away with it.

Due to the nature of the first person perspective we don't get to spend as much time with Boris Karloff as we do Chandler, and as a result of this I felt that I didn't know him as well by the end of the book. That being said, I really enjoyed how Newman did this. He came across as a man deeply guarded, somewhat shy, and a little embarrassed by his fame and recognition. He was quiet and thoughtful for much of the time he's in the book, and acts as a good foil to the more hotheaded Chandler.

I have to be honest, for a good portion of the start of the book I was a little unsure where things were going to be heading, due in part to the shifting narrative style that Newman employs. There's a big sense of mystery to things, and I wasn't quite sure why I was having certain events revealed, and what parts would become relevant later on. I really had to pay attention to everything that was happening. However, there came a point where I realised that despite this slow building start I'd become deeply hooked.

By the time the strangeness really starts and you realise that this isn't just a historical novel, but it's a story set in a world where the fantastical exists it's too late; you're already engrossed in things. By starting things more grounded, and slowly introducing weirder and odder elements Newman had ensured that I, like the characters, was completely thrown when my idea of what kind of world this was set in was thrown out the window. It was very well done; and lead to me staying up late reading.

Something More Than Night is a book that I'd be hard pressed to describe. It doesn't really feel like anything else I've read, but is also so unmistakably a Kim Newman novel. It has his sense of style, strangeness, and love of fiction that makes his work feel so unique. I think this is the kind of book that fans of 1940's detective stories and Hollywood movies will love for how much it clearly revels in that era, whilst those who might only have a passing familiarity with this part of pop culture will be drawn in by the central mystery plot and the great character work. Whatever your reason might be for picking the book up, it's sure to be an interesting ride.

[Rob]

I'm not sure what to say about this book. I should have loved it, but I didn't. I had trouble really getting into it. The second half was more compelling, and featured a couple of very good set pieces. But overall, it left me feeling kind of "meh."

I'm not going to rate the book because I'm not sure how much of my discontent is due to the book not being what I wanted it to be, versus problems with the writing itself.

[Tom Edgoose · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great and gory noir romp. I could easily digest another 7 of these before needing to catch my breath.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Titan Books for an advanced copy of this new historical horror novel.

Kim Newman, creator of the Anno Dracula series, along with many other books and articles about movies, monsters and music, mixes the real world with the myth of movies in the book Something More Than Night. Raymond Chandler, full time drunk, aspiring mystery author, joins with his old school chum, Frankenstein's Monster actor Boris Karloff to investigate a weird tale of life, life beyond death and studio politics in 1930's Hollywood.

Combining real characters and fictional ones is something that Mr. Newman is quite good at, either a alcoholic mystery author, a do-gooding gumshoe, or a Hollywood producer returned from the grave. The story is well written and interesting, though there is a lot of time jumping, and like the best of the noir detective novels, there is no pat ending, and sometimes people do get away with murder. There is a lot going on, many movie allusions and some odd scenes. Anything to do with the zany imitative group of comedy brothers who work as studio hitmen, just seem weird more than Weird. But these are little things in a much larger story.

I enjoyed quite a lot in this book. I found the way that he wrote Chandler and Karloff, having Chandler talk constantly like his private detective character Philip Marlow, and the stories about Karloff interesting. I did not know the pains that Mr. Karloff had to deal with from portraying the Monster, which explains some of his acting and roles near the end of his life. I don't know where another book could go in this series, but I would love to see more. I highly recommend this book and the previously mentioned Anno Dracula, well actually all of Mr. Newman's writing in fact. One of the most interesting horror writers, and one of the most knowledgeable on film. Definitely a treat.

[Amanda M. Lyons · Rating 2 out of 5]

Something More Than Night is a novel that blends noir, classic film era drama, writers, and monsters both real and imagined in order to give us a what if tale about Raymond Chandler and Boris Karloff tackling a case together and uncovering a heinous plot by a fake studio head who seeks to end mortality as we know it for a chosen few. It has all the makings of something that could be a genuinely interesting film with the right actors and ideally would've been a fun read as well. Unfortunately, I don't think it was a good fit for me and, after stopping and starting it a few times over the last few weeks, I'm going to have to accept defeat at 40℅.

I think it could be a nice read for fans of those classic noir novels and films, particularly for those who like a slow burn that takes its time setting the scene and laying out the nuances of characters through dialogue and inference. For me, it felt dry, the treatment of female characters was distinctly wooden, and I genuinely couldn't get the feel of any of the characters the way I wanted to as a fan of classic monster movies, noir, and historical fiction.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally got around to reading this somewhat recent work by Kim Newman. And I'm kind of still digesting it and deciding how I feel about it. I'm a big fan of both Newman's Anno Dracula and of his Diogenes Club work, but I haven't read any of his stand-alones. This has everything I should like. Raymond Chandler (we're not worthy) and Billy Pratt met at Dulwich College in 1904 they became friends and also became connected by the mysterious Ariadne. Now it's 1939 and both live in L.A. Chandler is as successful as one can be writing detective stories for the pulps and is waiting for his first novel, The Big Sleep, to come out. Pratt is now known as Boris Karloff, famed for creating the Monster, the Mummy and other such parts. Together they're pulled in to a mystery with both supernatural and mad science elements.

Again, there's everything here that I should like. And mostly I do. But it's not a book without some significant problems. The events in the book are decidedly non-linear. Overall Newman does fine with that, but it can be difficult to pull off...and sometimes things get muddy. The tale is told in the first person, as hard-boiled detective novels are wont to be, but Newman, while a fine writer, can't quite pull of Chandler's voice (who can?). The ending was, for me, unsatisfying and the entire Ariadne thing, which kept being hinted at, added up to exactly nothing. At times it felt a bit like Newman wrote a different novel, decided he didn't like it, and fixed it with this one. Which, given the evolution of The Big Sleep makes some sense.

Overall, I did like this. But it was just vaguely disappointing in a number of ways. If you're a Newman fan, read it. If you're not...don't start here.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

People who know magic isn’t real look straight at a ghost and see a flapping bed sheet. They deal with an irrefutable demonstration of how things really are the way an oyster deals with a speck of grit. The truth gets coated in a hard, shiny shell that can be worn proudly. A pearl is a lie you can roll between your teeth. [loc. 488]

A writer of mysteries is summoned to a crime scene: a man is dead, apparently by suicide, in a car that's been driven off a pier. Raymond Chandler (for it is he) can't help noticing parallels to his novel The Big Sleep (in which one unresolved plot thread is 'who killed the chauffeur?'): he's also distressed to discover that the victim here is his old friend Joh Devlin, with whom he and his friend Billy Pratt had previously investigated the mysterious doings of a movie mogul, Ward Home Jr., who'd run screaming and aflame from his mansion. It is Billy (better known by his Hollywood name, Boris Karloff) who summoned 'R. T.' to the scene of this new crime, and Billy who is still suffering the aftermath of the Home House case. R.T. and Billy are old friends, and had their first encounter with the supernatural while at school together. Now they are confronted with a friend's apparent suicide, and by the appearance of a woman, soaked but alive, from the trunk of the sunken car.

This is an enjoyable and fast-paced crime novel with its heart in the pulp fiction of the period, and its brains very much on display. There are riffs on Frankenstein as well as on Chandler's work, and there are a plethora of cultural references, of which I probably noticed fewer than half. Newman's prose is suitably hard-boiled, his dialogue excellent, his hints of the supernatural enticing, and his invention -- for instance, the Sparx Brothers, who carry out a series of slapstick-inspired murders including techniques such as 'poisoned pie to the face' and (narrowly-escaped) 'death by falling safe' -- is both a delight and a marvel of balance. Comedy and supernatural horror (witchcraft, mad science, sacrifice, resurrection) blend marvellously in this novel, without it ever losing its focus on R.T. and Billy and their long friendship. I have bounced off Newman's fiction previously but this has convinced me to try it again.

[Chad Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an arc of this from NetGalley in exchange for a review. Said review follows:

Something More Than Night is the latest book by an author I really like, Kim Newman. Newman's Anno Dracula books are some of my favorite vampire books. I was very much looking forward to reading this novel.

Raymond Chandler, writer and creator of Philip Marlowe, and Billy Pratt, better known by his acting alias Boris Karloff, have known each other since they were young and are working together to solve the mystery of who murdered their friend Joh Devlin. What follows is a tale that jumps a bit in time, has bizarre movie monsters, a mistaken Howard Hughes crash, mysterious women with strange powers, and a heaping dose of noir tropes.

The story is engaging and the characters are interesting. The pacing is a little off -there's some drag in the middle-and the ending feels a little out of focus. But there is a lot to love in the book. Chandler and Devlin are the narrators, with Chandler being the more engaging narrator. There's a supernatural element to the book that has b-movie charm and isn't belabored.

I have a feeling that chapter 30 will be something that people either love or hate. I was not a fan. But it didn't stop me enjoying the book. This is a fun read.

[Milo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun, you can always count on Kim Newman to understand what makes genre fiction work and Something More Than Night is a must read for anyone who loved Anno Dracula, and if you haven't read Anno Dracula yet? Well, you need to read that too. The pace is fun; the book is a smooth read as they come and the sheer novelty of pairing up Raymond Chandler and Boris Karloff makes this for a tale for the ages.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

A buddy novel with a difference….
Raymond Chandler hangs out with Boris Karloff!

Back in 2012 the BBC asked whether so called ‘literary mashups’ were going to be the next big thing? I’m not too sure how many copies Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or his equally daft Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter sold but given he has not published a novel in some years perhaps the markets have since moved on. Kim Newman’s latest release Something More Than Night is a literary mash-up of a different breed, taking in both the golden age of Hollywood cinema (late 1930s) and a splash (or should that be a shot?) of hardboiled detective fiction. Just to be clear from the outset, you will enjoy this novel much more if you have some knowledge of Hollywood cinema from this era, particularly horror, and if the iconic line “It’s alive!” means nothing to you then you may well struggle with some of the jokes and references.

Although Newman is probably best known for the Anno Dracula series he has an impressive body of work and has borrowed characters from other authors on other occasions, including Professor Moriarty in The Hound of the D'Urbervilles. Also, If you were ever seeking a ringer for a film quiz pub team then Newman would be a perfect candidate, writing critiques on many genre classics and an astonishingly diverse range of films. My personal favourite, which I still have on my shelves, was Wild West Movies (1990) as I love westerns almost as much as horrors. Back in 2018 my daughter and I also enjoyed his play Magic Circle which had a few showings in a tiny London theatre and it was nice to see some of his stuff performed live, showcasing his quirky and off-beat versatility.

Considering his elelectic CV there is no better candidate to write a novel starring horror icon Boris Karloff and legendary detective fiction writer Raymond Chandler. Newman’s eye for detail is an absolute triumph and his recreation of late 1930s Hollywood literally jumps off the page in a story in which he imagines the two men are best friends. Chandler narrates the novel in the first person, in a non-linear style, with his insights and observations into Hollywood being very entertaining, with the style mirroring his own literary creations, in particular Philip Marlowe who he is about to unleash The Big Sleep on the world.

Something More Than Night revolves around a murder mystery in which old friends Raymond Chandler and Boris Karloff help a mutual friend work a case which threatens to expose Hollywood's dodgy secrets. As it is narrated by Chandler, it is written in a pulp fiction style with the two friends getting much more than they bargained for, running down clues, old contacts and finding dead bodies (one headless). This novel was definitely style over substance and I much preferred the overall mood, setting, characters and humour than the actual murder mystery which had some lulls and a quirky Frankenstein spin. In the story Boris goes by his real name William Pratt (Ray never calls him Boris) and notes that Billy’s finest acting performance was in the creation of his ‘Boris’ persona. I loved Boris/Billy and Ray’s descriptions of his old friend, his acting trials, high and lows, was an absolute delight and the pair made a highly effective, if unlikely, buddy act. There were also some great comic touches, I also loved the manner in which the police deferred to Karloff, why you might ask? Because he’s Boris Karloff!

Ray’s downbeat and depreciative version of himself, sober or drunk, was very much in the style of his own detective, mirroring his literary creation, being at the stage of his career where pulp magazines were his bread and butter. Ray was great company and I loved the way he never begrudged Boris/Billy’s success with all the telling anecdotes about Frankenstein and the sequels which followed. The many side references to other actors from this era also hit the spot and the numerous references to Bela Lugosi were really amusing but might be missed by readers who know nothing about the Karloff/Lugosi relationship. In some ways this was a novel for fans of cinema as it was quite literally top-loaded with observations and film trivia and references to Karloff’s many onscreen personas including the Mummy, the Man They Could Not Hang and other stars from the silent era such as Lon Chaney, who was a predecessor to Karloff.

This is a fact I was not aware of: both Chandler and Pratt lived in south London at roughly the same time and attended rival public schools. They also live in Hollywood about the same time, so there is a small chance the two men might have crossed paths and it is this fascinating ‘what if’ the novel is built around.

At its heart Something More Than Night has a real fun concept and is a very quirky homage to the 1930s Hollywood movies and the era of black and white cinema. If you are interested in this sort of thing this book is a treat, to others it might be more of a curiosity. Diehard Kim Newman fans will undoubtedly have a lot of fun with it and will find it impossible not to fall in love with Billy who really steals the show.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed so many things about this book. I'm a big fan of old movies, very old movies, so I enjoyed the references to the actors, directors, producers, and films of the 1930's. Of course, the plot is ludicrous but the humor and the history make it all fun. Well, yeah, there's violence and gore. That's the point of most horror. If the writer makes it clever, that's extra points in my book.


If the reader is not a buff of black and white movies, he or she might not be familiar with lots of the characters. pursue some oldies this Halloween, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy (Karloff's Mummy) and scare yourself back to the Thirties. Okay, they're not that scary, but you'll know what's going on in the book. It will be good for you, as your mother (or mummy) might say.


The afterword is interesting, too. It gives some history of the writer, Raymond Chandler, the actor Boris Karloff, and old Hollywood. Monsters, movies, and lots of electricity zapped through people. What more could you ask for?

[David Madara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler and actor Boris Karloff team up to help
the local police investigate the "suicide" of a movie producer. What can they come up
with?

A decent romp of a story! Kim Newman injects many movie references to movies you
know and movies that were never made. A brief misstep in the middle of the book takes
it down a peg for me, but it quickly rebounds and makes a good use of time.

I believe this is a stand-alone and will not become a series.

[Aaron McQuiston · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first time I have read anything by Kim Newman, but when the synopsis starts with Boris Karloff and Raymond Chandler teaming up to solve a crime, I could not have wanted to read a book more. The story starts with them being called to a dock where a car is being pulled out of the water. Chandler recognizes this as a part of his novel, The Big Sleep. It is also the car belonging to a long time friend. They are contemplating what happened when there is a knock on the truck of the car, from the inside. They open it to find a woman with many names. Lauren Ives, Steps, Stephen Swift, or Witcheye. This is one of those people who Raymond had ran into quite a bit in the past few years, and it’s a mystery how they both arrived to this point, and how she was able to stay alive in the trunk of a submerged car. Thus starts the unraveling of not only the mysteries of Hollywood but the horrors happening on movie sets and in the hills. This is what I found as the biggest surprise in this book. I expected Raymond Chandler, but I also got Boris Karloff. For as much as this is set up as a mystery, the horror elements are just as strong. Kim Newman finds a way to balance them more than what I expected, and the plot turns in some directions I never would have expected.

The language Newman uses is fun and filled with puns, wits, and sentences that take a second to figure out because they are so layered, deep into the lives of Chandler, Karloff, 30s era Hollywood, or the plot. The best comparison to the writing would be John Barth because every sentence is structured in ways that make you think about how clever it is and how it fits into the whole story. James Ellroy does this to an extent as well, but he is not as funny. There are times when I laughed at how smart the sentences and paragraphs are constructed, not only because they are funny but because it shows off some serious talent.

There are no reason why I should not love this book, but I struggled to get through it. There were some parts that seemed to last too long, dig too into the trenches of the story with the writing, and there are times when I felt like I was suffocating, that the story needed ease up and breathe a little, let us get a break. This just does not happen. Toward the end, there is a long chapter that is a story written by another character (which the rest of the book is first person, narrated by Chandler,) and this is the closest this book comes to relaxing. For as much as I wanted to love this book, I found myself just slogging through the pages and waiting for the end. It is a shame because the premise and the writing are both interesting and entertaining. I will most likely check out other Kim Newman books because I did like the ideas of Something More than Night much more than the execution.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Biblio Files (takingadayoff) · Rating 3 out of 5]

SOMETHING MORE THAN NIGHT, by Kim Newman


Film director James Whale said about the special effects in the film Frankenstein:

“It's not science, it's ritual.”

In Kim Newman's novel, Something More Than Night, the narrator comments several times:

“It's alieeeve.”

The narrator is Raymond Chandler. Chandler is just one of the historical personages and fictional characters who are part of this story about monsters in Hollywood in the 1930s.

Besides Raymond Chandler (real), Boris Karloff (real) and Philip Marlowe (fictional) also appear.

Chandler is tired of writing for the pulps and is waiting for The Big Sleep (real), his best novel so far, to be published in book form.

Raymond Chandler and Boris Karloff (who is between pictures at the moment) are caught up in real-life evil set in motion by the head of Pyramid Pictures (fictional).

Evil appears on both sides of the motion picture screen. The owner of Pyramid Pictures is attempting to duplicate in reality what the scientist Frankenstein has done in James Whale's (real) films—create eternal life.

In this story there is only a year 's difference in age between Chandler and Karloff, and they attended the same (real) public school in England.

During their investigation hardly anyone recognizes Chandler the writer, while Karloff—the Monster, the Mummy, the Man They Could Not Hang—is recognized immediately by almost everyone for his voice.

Chandler repeatedly describes them as two public school men who drink too much at night and wait for the monsters to come out.

Kim Newman specializes in mixing real and fictional characters in his stories and this leads to many breaks to find out if something that happens in his story is based on reality or is made up. Chandler and Karloff (who was born William Pratt) did attend school in London at the same time, but it's not clear that they were ever at the same school or if they knew each other. In the story, they were pals at school and this has created an unbreakable “old boys” bond between them.

As a fan of the Anno Dracula series and the Diogenes Club stories, I found Something More Than Night, a stand-alone novel, slow at times and I thought about bailing out more than once. For die hard Kim Newman fans only.

(Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital review copy.)

[Ken · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry. This is kind of a cool premise (Raymond Chandler & Boris Karloff team-up to solve murders in 1950's (?) Los Angeles), but I couldn't take the writer's style. I like my books succinct and not flowery but this author clearly loves to hear himself write. Some lines are clever. There's no doubt he's a good writer but just a tad too much in love with himself for my taste. But I tend to write these reviews for my own benefit then to influence future readers but let me say this. If you like the fast moving, to the point. noir style of Raymond Chandler, you may not care for this interpretation of the author as narrator.

[Bandit · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had so much promise. I loved the concept – a wild What If scenario from the bygone age of cinema, directly at the intersection of supernatural and noir, a mystery with otherworldly undertones. I can’t even quite decide what failed in the execution here and I’m perfectly willing to put this down as one of those reader/writer incompatibility things, and yet…
Ok, so more words. Plot related words.
Imagine if Chandler (one of mysteries’ greats) and Karloff (one of Frankenstein fame) were pals. Besties, even. It’s possible, the two were contemporaries and their paths had plenty of opportunities to intertwine. Imagine if they set off to solve a crime. Imagine if that crime had supernatural flavor to it. So far so good, right? Now, set that in a WWII era LA, the place where fantasies come to be cinematized, and behold…it ought to be spectacular. Or at least a spectacle.
Why did it fall so flat? No idea. It wasn’t the writing itself, probably more to do with the plotting. It began nicely, but then it’s like it tried to do too many things at once or tried to cram several different stories into one.
Something strangely disjointed about the narrative, it was either too busy, too tangential, or too convoluted. For me, the reading experience was kind of like a bunch of words that worked individually but didn’t make up the sentences quite right. Very odd.
Unlike Frankenstein’s monster, made up of many separate aspects into a cohesive sum total, this novel didn’t manage the same trick.
Something More Than Night ended up being distinctly something less than right.
Again, probably a very personal sort of disconnect, so take it as such.
Overall, pretty disappointing. And a much longer read that it ought to have been by page count alone. Thanks Netgalley.

This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/

[Jill Elizabeth]

I really wanted to like this one but I just kept losing my grip on the story... The premise is fascinating and I really liked the homage to classic detective stories of the golden age. The incorporation of Boris Karloff was brilliant. The setting and lingo were spot on.

But somehow the story felt very uneven to me... It would be clicking along brilliantly and then all of a sudden would seem to find itself meandering in a way that threw the pace off and knocked me out of the zone... I diligently went back and tried again, multiple times, but eventually it got to be too much. I made it about half way through, then had to call it...

This one just wasn't for me... I'm not a die-hard Kim Newman fan - I don't have a lot of experience with his writings, but what I have had I really enjoyed, yet somehow this one didn't seem to have the seem instant attention-grabbing sense of others like English Ghost Story or Drearcliff Grange.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.

[Randy Money · Rating 3 out of 5]

Newman is excellent at portraying a ludicrous premise as if it was plausible, determining a reasonable chain of motivation and event for that premise and showing his characters as human, fallible and despite that still trying to cope with overwhelming odds. In this novel he does that with Billy Pratt, better known as Boris Karloff, and Ray, better known as Raymond Chandler. Chandler is the narrator and Newman captures that voice extremely well.

If you don't mind the supernatural mixed with your 1940s Hollywood mystery, you'll enjoy this.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant headlong Hollywood horror thriller. I wish I could read it again for the first time. Really a gem!

[Rachel Bridgeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to confess, that I did not read the back of this book before picking it up, that it was a new Kim Newman book was honestly good enough for me.

So it was a total thrill when I got to page location 185 (of the Kindle version ) and shouted out 'My god it's Boris Karloff!' to the annoyance of my husband who was doing something far more important at the time. Ahem.

I am a huge fan of Karloff so this chance to 'see' him in action as himself , William Pratt, in the context of a hard boiled, noir-ish thriller was a pure joy.

It is no exaggeration to say that I 'read' it in black and white, the tone jumps effortlessly from page to your mind creating this incredible vista of 1930's Hollywood, and, given Kim's knowledge and expertise in this area, he is a fantastic guide down those mean streets.

The locked room mystery is mixed with Schrodinger-esque case of the woman in the trunk of a car who is both alive and dead.

And yet, when you think about it, it is not really that bizarre because if you can rationalise that Billy Pratt and Raymond Chandler, acting as his Philip Marlowe alter ego, then a woman who is both dead, and alive, is not that much of a stretch.

Utilising an astonishing array of skills from the historical fiction perspective, the Hollywood movie world of the time and the burgeoning notion of film stars, Kim manages to create not only an engaging and intriguing mystery, in pairing up Pratt and Chandler -or Karloff and Marlowe- he brings forth interesting thoughts to this reader's minds about the difference between creators, and their creations, and where they overlap like a Venn diagram.

For if Karloff is the creation of the much less sexily named Pratt, then surely some part of him must be the person he was before adopting that name. And the same for Chandler whose life is inextricably entwined with his famed detective.

There are element of the supernatrual strewn throughout the novel, and it does take you down some very dark alleyways, to the point where you feel like you want to say, 'Hang on a minute, Kim, can you just slow down a tad please?'

But A) he doesn't listen because, after all, you are in his world now and

B) you can always put down the book. It is difficult, yes, but entirely possible.

Another triumph, to my mind, I absolutely loved this vintage tinged mashup of genres and cannot recommend it highly enough.

[Genevieve Paquette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tentative 4. I listened to it at work. I think I would have enjoyed it more had I read a paper copy. Not that the narration was bad, it was fine, just that the plot was hard to follow when you're multitasking.

I really loved the concept, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped. The plot was somehow both aggressively outlandish and very slow. Maybe part of it is that I'm not a huge fan of bio-thrillers/body horror, which is what this ended up being. Kind of. It was clever, but I wasn't compelled. I think that was my main problem. It never really grabbed me.

And then in the back quarter there's an unrelated bunch of serial killings by a trio of evil Marx Bros. knock-offs. I may have zoned out and missed the lead up, or it really might have just been jammed in there near the end? It had the potentially to be delightfully absurd (attempted murder by way of a safe being dropped from a crane is just brilliant, but) it somehow felt flat. No pun intended.

What I did like was the fictionalized account of historical figures. I like Raymond Chandler, and I like Boris Karloff, and it was fun to imagine a past where they were good pals, solving heinous vaguely paranormal/sci-fi murders together. I think the author did a swell job of portraying them.
And the writing really was quite good. The parts written in Chandler's voice felt surprisingly authentic, and there were some genuinely funny lines.

I wanted to love it, but I ended up thinking it was just alright.

Also, the whole thing with the mystery woman from the pair's schoolboy past? It never went anywhere. We don't know any more about it by the end of the book than we do at the beginning. Maybe it was included as homage to the "who killed the butler?" conundrum in The Big Sleep. So frustrating.

[Robin Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a big fan of noir fiction, and a big fan of movies of all sorts. I've been planning to dip my toe into the Kim Newman's fiction for quite some time; his name has been looking at me from my TBR pile for ages, years probably since discovering the long-time and hugely respected contributor to my favourite movie magazine, Empire, was writing fiction. Reading the blurb for this novel tipped me over the edge; I've not long finished a collection of Raymond Chandler novellas, so this fast-paced concoction of history and fiction presented the ideal entry point into Newman's oeuvre.

The opening scenes made me nervous: Newman's fictionalised Chandler comes over as a smug boor and a cad at first, but the prose is so satisfyingly chewy, the premise of Chandler fighting crime with Boris Karloff so delightfully delicious, that I persevered past my initial distaste, and was richly rewarded for doing so. Newman's terrifically deep and detailed filmological knowledge, present throughout this yarn, as ubiquitous as black pepper on a pizza, elevates everything. And so often these piquant little hits of industry colour are fictional, but so utterly convincing are they that the whole production just pops with sense of time and place.

Think of a Sam Raimi version of 'LA confidential', or 'Get Shorty' directed by Cronenberg; this detective romp is huge amount of fun; clever, inventive, often downright bonkers, and surely no one else but Kim Newman could have written it. I'm now firmly a fan, and shall be seeking out more of the author's fictional work very soon.