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Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Kolchak: The Night Stalker Chronicles
For the first time ever, a monster collection of 26 new original Kolchak short fiction stories by noted authors from comics, horror fiction, and film! With the advent of the new Kolchak ABC TV show, Moonstone proudly announces new contemporary prose adventures of the original Kolchak, TV's first and foremost paranormal investigator! Plus all kinds of other cool stuff, like tales from Kolchak's untold past, monster huntings, noir thrillers, and even horror stories of more cerebral type!
320 pages, Paperback
First published November 9, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 8, 2025
Nice collection of short stories that have the feel of the TV show. Recommended
January 26, 2017
As I said in my review of The Night Stalker, I was kind of dreading reading this anthology (and the follow-up - Kolchak: The Night Stalker Casebook). Why? Well, if this was 1981 I probably couldn't imagine a book I more desired to read - new adventures of Carl Kolchak? All right! But I've grown up a bit since then and while I still love our rumpled reporter, the mere concept of this book sets off all kind of warning bells.
First of all - essentially, this is going to be fan fiction. And while there's nothing technically wrong with fan fiction (my late sister devoted her life to it, and the bettering of it, before the internet came along and made the actual publishing of fan fiction redundant) it tends to follow certain patterns and relies heavily on audience's acquired knowledge of the character - no one who didn't love Kolchak already would likely read this anthology - and so tends towards laziness and self-indulgence. Secondly, the concept of short fiction, while it seems like a perfect fit, doesn't really offer as much space as might be needed to to fully bring across the literary equivalent of a Kolchak episode - and let's be honest, if these stories should aspire to anything, it should be an attempt to be an episode of the TV show, which would make them both familiar fun and enjoyably predictable. But the TV show was always a careful balancing act between horror (creatures of myth and folklore, usually, transplanted into odd, resonant urban settings) and humor (the sitcom aspect of the reliable newsroom cast: Tony, Ron, Miss Emily, occasionally Monique; Carl's near vaudevillian interactions with witnesses, experts and this week's police chief - all roles filled by great character actors) and even if the authors realized that, the novella form is more the length to replicate that blend.
Thirdly, and more importantly - what's the voice of a Kolchak story? Jeff Rice's two novels certainly provide some guidance, and the voice overs of the TV show provide some more - first person, a terse journalist tone with just the slightest hint of a florid or lurid, if grim, turn of phrase for spice, quick, acerbic characters sketches, cranky at times, kind at others. Action might be hard to pull off ("He came at me..." is the only glimpse we get of Kolchak's written work, flashed on the typewriter as he pounds away in the iconic show opening) and, I'd say, the stories would have to be set in-period. I'd also class Kolchak as one of those characters (like John Steed of THE AVENGERS, or Joe Friday of DRAGNET, or Columbo of... well, you know) whom I don't really desire to have "opened up" in any intensive, internal, psychological sense. His great strength and attraction, his charisma if you will, comes from the fact that he is so purely who he is: a loud mouth, dedicated to the truth, curious but not particularly courageous, speaker of truth to power but still self-serving and hard-headed.
Some of these approaches are hit upon by some of the writers, in various forms, although none set the stories in-period. Thus, you get a Kolchak with a digital camera, some knowledge of the internet, and somehow still middle-aged in the late aughts (this only really becomes a sticking point in "It Came From Monkey Skull Creek", wherein Kolchak visits an old friend and recounts a strange experience from his youth at summer camp - technically, this should have happened in the late 1930s/early 1940s, but instead seems to be taking place in the mid-1950s or so). Ignore the contradictions - it's fan fiction after all, and out for fun, so your disbelief is already partially willingly suspended, just like your critical faculties (and that comment perhaps best sums up my somewhat conflicted feelings about the form, for good or ill). In the end it's going to be about neat ideas or neat monsters, not about the quality of the writing
So, all that taken together, what do you get? I'm not going to review each of the stories here as I usually would - giving away the plethora of monsters and menaces would be bad pool. The writing varies from solid pulp fan service to some weaker examples, although the quality varies wildly within that range. There's no out-and-out stinkers, although "Don't Even Blink" by Fred Van Lente, "Man Or Monster" by James Anthony Kuhoric, "Kali's Final Cut" by Adi Tantimedh, "The Shadow That Shapes The Light" by Ed Gorman & Richard Dean Starr and "The Shrug of Atlas" by Joe Gentile read more like outlines for stories, rushing through their scripted paces in clunky, flat prose, telling everything and showing little. There are occasional misprints and minor mistakes (In one story, Kolchak acknowledges his Polish ancestry yet refers to himself as a "Mick bastard" a page later).
There are a number of unwanted character explorations or attempts to needlessly grapple with questions best not asked - "why does Kolchak always run into monsters?" being the predominant one (essentially, engaging that question is exposing the bare wall of genre to the light of day and is a thankless task - although that doesn't stop some of the authors from painting clumsily on that wall) and there's quite a bit of Carl endlessly musing on all the monsters he's stalked, which also seems like an unfruitful detail (as much fun as it is to reference your favorite episode and invent new ones you don't have to write) because it undermines the real-world tone that makes the rather bizarre situation Carl finds himself in so believably scary. They really should just have him sarcastically say "I've seen some odd things" and move on. Character explorations and investigations not to my taste include "The Why of the Matter" by P.N. Elrod (Kolchak reassured that heaven is on his side by an eternal assassin), "The Last Temptation of Kolchak" by Steven Grant (that old chestnut where a character is offered everything he wants, kind of an extension of the offer Kolchak got in the tv episode "The Devil's Platform" - a shame about this, as I was a big fan of Grant's comic book series WHISPER), "The Pretty Dead Girl" by Brett Matthews (Kolchak falls for dying woman who sees proof of good in all the evil he fights) and "What Every Coin Has" by C.J. Henderson (actually the character examination in this - in which Kolchak is set against an exploitative TV producer and star of a show about paranormal phenomena - makes for a nice contrast, but the story itself is kind of silly). The aforementioned "It Came From Monkey Skull Creek" by David Ulanski is probably the most successful character examination, pulling a nice twist (in truth, effective because of the expectation created by the weaker writing in other stories presented here) in a tale of Kolchak's childhood (if one ignores some logical inconsistencies, like a campsite going undisturbed for 40-odd years in rural New Jersey, and a comic book surviving out in the wild for equally as long).
Occasionally, a story works at humanizing the monsters (Peter David's "What Monsters Do" is a reversal of roles, with a child vampire scared of a monster-killing creature called 'The Culshack", while "The Source" by Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith has Carl getting info on a serial killer from a secretive ghoul) - generally, I'd dislike this approach but both stories were okay reads.
There's lots and lots of lowered expectations/"just okay" stories, many of them too complicated for their own good (stories with ghosts always seem to be a problem, as making a ghost reasonably threatening is always hard - "Wet Dog of Galveston" by Jason Henderson, for example, doesn't even try and just tells a good-natured story that would never have been an episode, while one of the biggest names here, Max Allan Collins, turns in "Open House" about a haunted dwelling, notable for featuring a plot twist in which Kolchak finally "gets some").
The most successful stories, as I said, attempt to replicate a compacted version of an episode of the series (Kolchak investigates killing and discovers strange monster) although a number of attempts at this are so compacted as to feel like cheats. Of the successful James Bates' "The Ungrateful Dead" (undead punk-rockers), "Barrens" by Chuck Dixon (an action packed, siege-by-monster story), "Frost-Bitten" by Mark Leiren-Young (a Wendigo in Canada), Martin Powell's "The Abominable Ice Man" (a supernatural Sasquatch) and "The Mirror Cracked" by Lou Aguilar (a cursed TV star dwells in the mirrors of an old hotel) are all amiable tales that would have made perfectly okay episodes of the show.
The most enjoyable story here, for me, was "Shadows From The Screen" by Richard Valley - which would also have made a fine (if odd) episode - as an old Hollywood revival theater's tribute to a famous "extra" causes her unfulfilled spirit to take over the lead in movies she appeared in, simultaneously kicking the spirits of those main characters out into the real world to haunt Hollywood. This situation starts as charming (Ingrid Bergman sings some torch-songs at a piano bar, etc.) but becomes more problematic as the characters from famous films take the turn to darker noirs. While other stories feature the occasional mention or line about or by them, this story also showcases second bananas Tony Vincenzo, Miss Emily, Monique Marmelstein and Ron Updyke (who finally gets to shine as the swishy, fussy queen he was always meant to be but couldn't possibly be portrayed as on television in 1975), all written very well indeed and true to their characters. Valley even brings back aspiring reporter/real-estate agent Faye Kruger and Police Lieutenant Mateo from the tv episode "The Vampire" for cameos. "Shadows" also has the best line in the book - "When I heard the gunshots, though, I knew - knew beyond a shadow of a doubt - that somewhere in Los Angeles Bette Davis was on the prowl and packing heat".
Also a small moment to mention Mark Dawidziak's "Interview With A Vampire?" which (on the down-side) combines two aspects of the fan fiction approach of these stories: unneeded character exploration (Kolchak is reassured about the good he did by killing Janos Skorzeney, the vampire, so many years ago, even if no one believes him) and the media cross-over (said reassurance comes from one Barnabas Collins of TV's horror soap opera DARK SHADOWS). As I said, with a direction like that, this seemed unlikely to entertain me, but I found it well-written and I must say that Mr. Dawidziak did one of the absolute best jobs I have ever read of capturing a particular character's voice in dialogue - in this case, Willie Loomis (Renfield to Barnabas Collins' Dracula, if you will). I always loved the cringing, whining Loomis as portrayed by John Karlen (DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS, CAGNEY AND LACEY) and I enjoyed reading that dialogue so much that all I can say is my hat's off to you Mr. Dawidziak!
So, I'd say this - if you've never heard of or seen KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, you can probably skip this. If you're a casual fan, a library rental is probably worthwhile. If you're a Carl Kolchak fanboy... you probably own this already.
And I've still got another volume to wrestle with...
NITPICKERS NOTE: the back cover copy says "TV's first paranormal investigator is back"... well... Louis Jourdan's David Sorrell from FEAR NO EVIL (1969) and RITUAL OF EVIL (1970) and the aborted series BEDEVILED predates Carl, for one, and that's just off the top of my head.
First of all - essentially, this is going to be fan fiction. And while there's nothing technically wrong with fan fiction (my late sister devoted her life to it, and the bettering of it, before the internet came along and made the actual publishing of fan fiction redundant) it tends to follow certain patterns and relies heavily on audience's acquired knowledge of the character - no one who didn't love Kolchak already would likely read this anthology - and so tends towards laziness and self-indulgence. Secondly, the concept of short fiction, while it seems like a perfect fit, doesn't really offer as much space as might be needed to to fully bring across the literary equivalent of a Kolchak episode - and let's be honest, if these stories should aspire to anything, it should be an attempt to be an episode of the TV show, which would make them both familiar fun and enjoyably predictable. But the TV show was always a careful balancing act between horror (creatures of myth and folklore, usually, transplanted into odd, resonant urban settings) and humor (the sitcom aspect of the reliable newsroom cast: Tony, Ron, Miss Emily, occasionally Monique; Carl's near vaudevillian interactions with witnesses, experts and this week's police chief - all roles filled by great character actors) and even if the authors realized that, the novella form is more the length to replicate that blend.
Thirdly, and more importantly - what's the voice of a Kolchak story? Jeff Rice's two novels certainly provide some guidance, and the voice overs of the TV show provide some more - first person, a terse journalist tone with just the slightest hint of a florid or lurid, if grim, turn of phrase for spice, quick, acerbic characters sketches, cranky at times, kind at others. Action might be hard to pull off ("He came at me..." is the only glimpse we get of Kolchak's written work, flashed on the typewriter as he pounds away in the iconic show opening) and, I'd say, the stories would have to be set in-period. I'd also class Kolchak as one of those characters (like John Steed of THE AVENGERS, or Joe Friday of DRAGNET, or Columbo of... well, you know) whom I don't really desire to have "opened up" in any intensive, internal, psychological sense. His great strength and attraction, his charisma if you will, comes from the fact that he is so purely who he is: a loud mouth, dedicated to the truth, curious but not particularly courageous, speaker of truth to power but still self-serving and hard-headed.
Some of these approaches are hit upon by some of the writers, in various forms, although none set the stories in-period. Thus, you get a Kolchak with a digital camera, some knowledge of the internet, and somehow still middle-aged in the late aughts (this only really becomes a sticking point in "It Came From Monkey Skull Creek", wherein Kolchak visits an old friend and recounts a strange experience from his youth at summer camp - technically, this should have happened in the late 1930s/early 1940s, but instead seems to be taking place in the mid-1950s or so). Ignore the contradictions - it's fan fiction after all, and out for fun, so your disbelief is already partially willingly suspended, just like your critical faculties (and that comment perhaps best sums up my somewhat conflicted feelings about the form, for good or ill). In the end it's going to be about neat ideas or neat monsters, not about the quality of the writing
So, all that taken together, what do you get? I'm not going to review each of the stories here as I usually would - giving away the plethora of monsters and menaces would be bad pool. The writing varies from solid pulp fan service to some weaker examples, although the quality varies wildly within that range. There's no out-and-out stinkers, although "Don't Even Blink" by Fred Van Lente, "Man Or Monster" by James Anthony Kuhoric, "Kali's Final Cut" by Adi Tantimedh, "The Shadow That Shapes The Light" by Ed Gorman & Richard Dean Starr and "The Shrug of Atlas" by Joe Gentile read more like outlines for stories, rushing through their scripted paces in clunky, flat prose, telling everything and showing little. There are occasional misprints and minor mistakes (In one story, Kolchak acknowledges his Polish ancestry yet refers to himself as a "Mick bastard" a page later).
There are a number of unwanted character explorations or attempts to needlessly grapple with questions best not asked - "why does Kolchak always run into monsters?" being the predominant one (essentially, engaging that question is exposing the bare wall of genre to the light of day and is a thankless task - although that doesn't stop some of the authors from painting clumsily on that wall) and there's quite a bit of Carl endlessly musing on all the monsters he's stalked, which also seems like an unfruitful detail (as much fun as it is to reference your favorite episode and invent new ones you don't have to write) because it undermines the real-world tone that makes the rather bizarre situation Carl finds himself in so believably scary. They really should just have him sarcastically say "I've seen some odd things" and move on. Character explorations and investigations not to my taste include "The Why of the Matter" by P.N. Elrod (Kolchak reassured that heaven is on his side by an eternal assassin), "The Last Temptation of Kolchak" by Steven Grant (that old chestnut where a character is offered everything he wants, kind of an extension of the offer Kolchak got in the tv episode "The Devil's Platform" - a shame about this, as I was a big fan of Grant's comic book series WHISPER), "The Pretty Dead Girl" by Brett Matthews (Kolchak falls for dying woman who sees proof of good in all the evil he fights) and "What Every Coin Has" by C.J. Henderson (actually the character examination in this - in which Kolchak is set against an exploitative TV producer and star of a show about paranormal phenomena - makes for a nice contrast, but the story itself is kind of silly). The aforementioned "It Came From Monkey Skull Creek" by David Ulanski is probably the most successful character examination, pulling a nice twist (in truth, effective because of the expectation created by the weaker writing in other stories presented here) in a tale of Kolchak's childhood (if one ignores some logical inconsistencies, like a campsite going undisturbed for 40-odd years in rural New Jersey, and a comic book surviving out in the wild for equally as long).
Occasionally, a story works at humanizing the monsters (Peter David's "What Monsters Do" is a reversal of roles, with a child vampire scared of a monster-killing creature called 'The Culshack", while "The Source" by Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith has Carl getting info on a serial killer from a secretive ghoul) - generally, I'd dislike this approach but both stories were okay reads.
There's lots and lots of lowered expectations/"just okay" stories, many of them too complicated for their own good (stories with ghosts always seem to be a problem, as making a ghost reasonably threatening is always hard - "Wet Dog of Galveston" by Jason Henderson, for example, doesn't even try and just tells a good-natured story that would never have been an episode, while one of the biggest names here, Max Allan Collins, turns in "Open House" about a haunted dwelling, notable for featuring a plot twist in which Kolchak finally "gets some").
The most successful stories, as I said, attempt to replicate a compacted version of an episode of the series (Kolchak investigates killing and discovers strange monster) although a number of attempts at this are so compacted as to feel like cheats. Of the successful James Bates' "The Ungrateful Dead" (undead punk-rockers), "Barrens" by Chuck Dixon (an action packed, siege-by-monster story), "Frost-Bitten" by Mark Leiren-Young (a Wendigo in Canada), Martin Powell's "The Abominable Ice Man" (a supernatural Sasquatch) and "The Mirror Cracked" by Lou Aguilar (a cursed TV star dwells in the mirrors of an old hotel) are all amiable tales that would have made perfectly okay episodes of the show.
The most enjoyable story here, for me, was "Shadows From The Screen" by Richard Valley - which would also have made a fine (if odd) episode - as an old Hollywood revival theater's tribute to a famous "extra" causes her unfulfilled spirit to take over the lead in movies she appeared in, simultaneously kicking the spirits of those main characters out into the real world to haunt Hollywood. This situation starts as charming (Ingrid Bergman sings some torch-songs at a piano bar, etc.) but becomes more problematic as the characters from famous films take the turn to darker noirs. While other stories feature the occasional mention or line about or by them, this story also showcases second bananas Tony Vincenzo, Miss Emily, Monique Marmelstein and Ron Updyke (who finally gets to shine as the swishy, fussy queen he was always meant to be but couldn't possibly be portrayed as on television in 1975), all written very well indeed and true to their characters. Valley even brings back aspiring reporter/real-estate agent Faye Kruger and Police Lieutenant Mateo from the tv episode "The Vampire" for cameos. "Shadows" also has the best line in the book - "When I heard the gunshots, though, I knew - knew beyond a shadow of a doubt - that somewhere in Los Angeles Bette Davis was on the prowl and packing heat".
Also a small moment to mention Mark Dawidziak's "Interview With A Vampire?" which (on the down-side) combines two aspects of the fan fiction approach of these stories: unneeded character exploration (Kolchak is reassured about the good he did by killing Janos Skorzeney, the vampire, so many years ago, even if no one believes him) and the media cross-over (said reassurance comes from one Barnabas Collins of TV's horror soap opera DARK SHADOWS). As I said, with a direction like that, this seemed unlikely to entertain me, but I found it well-written and I must say that Mr. Dawidziak did one of the absolute best jobs I have ever read of capturing a particular character's voice in dialogue - in this case, Willie Loomis (Renfield to Barnabas Collins' Dracula, if you will). I always loved the cringing, whining Loomis as portrayed by John Karlen (DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS, CAGNEY AND LACEY) and I enjoyed reading that dialogue so much that all I can say is my hat's off to you Mr. Dawidziak!
So, I'd say this - if you've never heard of or seen KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, you can probably skip this. If you're a casual fan, a library rental is probably worthwhile. If you're a Carl Kolchak fanboy... you probably own this already.
And I've still got another volume to wrestle with...
NITPICKERS NOTE: the back cover copy says "TV's first paranormal investigator is back"... well... Louis Jourdan's David Sorrell from FEAR NO EVIL (1969) and RITUAL OF EVIL (1970) and the aborted series BEDEVILED predates Carl, for one, and that's just off the top of my head.
March 8, 2016
Kolchak is probably one of the most underrated fictional characters of all time. I have really liked the character ever since I saw the movies on late night tv when I was kid. This book doesn't disappoint.
It's obvious the writers each have their own love of the character, and in most stories the characterization is spot on. We get to see Kolchak facing all types of threats we never got to see on film. Along with vampires, werewolves and ghosts there are Wendigos, Witches, Lovecraft type monsters, and even human monsters show up from time to time.
If you are a fan of the Kolchak character I'm sure you'll enjoy this one. Just a really fun read.
It's obvious the writers each have their own love of the character, and in most stories the characterization is spot on. We get to see Kolchak facing all types of threats we never got to see on film. Along with vampires, werewolves and ghosts there are Wendigos, Witches, Lovecraft type monsters, and even human monsters show up from time to time.
If you are a fan of the Kolchak character I'm sure you'll enjoy this one. Just a really fun read.
May 28, 2011
OMG! This was a fantastic look back into my childhood. When I was a kid, I used to sneak into the front room and watch "Kolchak: The Night Stalker." -- My mother used to think this show would ruin my mind. Too late! But, it was nice to read the sarcastic lines coming from Kolchak's mouth once more, the torture he put his boss Vincenzo through, and of course THE MONSTERS! If you loved this show at all, or fondly remember the cheesy "monster shows" of the 1970's...this is the collection for you. So, wherever you may be...In the comfort of you home...Within the safety of your bed...Try to convince yourself: "It couldn't happen here." :o)
June 10, 2010
I really loved reading this book. With its 26 wonderful short stories, it's like having another season of the TV Kolchak: The Night Stalker (The original one with Darren McGavin) at your beck and call. If you've read my reviews before, you know that I avoid spoilers so...
The stories cover the gamut from Peter David's usual witty and clever prose to an extremely touching tale by Brent Matthews.
I will let you know that, in one story, Kolchak goes a trip to meet with another iconic TV character.
I bought this book when it first came out and put it on my "to-read" bookcase. I'm glad I finally dug it out and hope there will be a sequel.
The stories cover the gamut from Peter David's usual witty and clever prose to an extremely touching tale by Brent Matthews.
I will let you know that, in one story, Kolchak goes a trip to meet with another iconic TV character.
I bought this book when it first came out and put it on my "to-read" bookcase. I'm glad I finally dug it out and hope there will be a sequel.
April 20, 2007
Surprisingly good take on the Kolchak character and show. Just meta enough not to be cheesy. Just cheesy enough to be fun.
September 27, 2019
It's always good to enjoy some new Kolchak adventures. I find it interesting that most of these stories, if not all, are about the TV Kolchak and not the Kolchak of the books. I also find it interesting how many of these authors sent Kolchak on vacation, usually at Vincenzo's pleas. I like that most of the authors are comic book writers primarily. Not surprising, considering this is published by Moonstone, who also does Kolchak comics. They do their best to get Kolchak's voice right, although a few of them commit the sin of writing one of his stories in 3rd person. No one quite captures it, though. Jeff Rice and Darren McGavin absolutely commanded this character. They're an impossible act to follow.
The one thing I absolutely must mention is that whoever did the typesetting should be dragged out into the street and shot. I was willing to overlook it for The Kolchak Papers, as there wasn't a digital copy of the manuscript and someone probably had to set the type by copying from a paperback book. Not this time. All writers were alive at the time of publication, and they would have all had digital copies of their stories. There is no excuse for the typesetting to be so sloppy. It's flat-out unprofessional. I've seen better from teenagers posting fanfic online. Most of these stories are good, but holy hell, these mistakes just took me right out of even the best of them. The authors must have been embarrassed when they got their contributor copies, hoping that readers didn't think they made these horrible errors.
The one thing I absolutely must mention is that whoever did the typesetting should be dragged out into the street and shot. I was willing to overlook it for The Kolchak Papers, as there wasn't a digital copy of the manuscript and someone probably had to set the type by copying from a paperback book. Not this time. All writers were alive at the time of publication, and they would have all had digital copies of their stories. There is no excuse for the typesetting to be so sloppy. It's flat-out unprofessional. I've seen better from teenagers posting fanfic online. Most of these stories are good, but holy hell, these mistakes just took me right out of even the best of them. The authors must have been embarrassed when they got their contributor copies, hoping that readers didn't think they made these horrible errors.
February 16, 2024
This is not a paid review.
-
Carl Kolchak, reporter, Paranormal Investigator, sometimes ladies man. Kolchak was a man out of time. Literally figure who, while very much a creature of the eras of Nixon and Ford, seem right at home at any point in time in these latter decades. He'll complain and grumble, but Carl always lands on his feet.
Edited by Jo, Lori Gentile and Garrett Anderson, The Night Stalker chronicles provide 26 examples of just how timeless and tenacious our man Carl is. "The Truth Is Out There" and Kolchak will find it, just give him 24 hours, a 5th of Scotch, 3 Cigars and 2 Club Sandwiches. Don't forget to call that dancer he knows from back in Vegas, to come massage his shoulders. Whether anyone will listen to the disturbing truths that Carl puts to print is another story.
More often than not, the price for the truth for poor Kolchak is obscurity. He kicks over the rocks that hide the cosmic horrors that we all try to ignore. He pursues the eerie cold cases that the police seem to have "misplaced" all files on.
I sometimes wonder what Carl would do, neck deep in the seething pit of the 2020s. No stranger to corruption in the halls of power, and at the hands of law. How would Karl navigate our digital, AI content infected media sphere? Would he find ways to pock holes in the talking point armor of corporate media conglomerates? Would he hang is hat with the independent media gang, posting his byline of uncomfortable truths with colleagues like Ken Klippenstein and Sam Knight?
This anthology from Moonstone Books helps us get an idea. Whatever the decade, whatever the mystery...Whatever the monster, Kolchak would walk head on into the storm. Tape recorder in hand, notepad and camera at the ready. Take that last shot of whisky, smoke em if you got em, and hold onto your trousers. Carl has a story or two he'd like you read. What you do with these tales is up to you.
-
Carl Kolchak, reporter, Paranormal Investigator, sometimes ladies man. Kolchak was a man out of time. Literally figure who, while very much a creature of the eras of Nixon and Ford, seem right at home at any point in time in these latter decades. He'll complain and grumble, but Carl always lands on his feet.
Edited by Jo, Lori Gentile and Garrett Anderson, The Night Stalker chronicles provide 26 examples of just how timeless and tenacious our man Carl is. "The Truth Is Out There" and Kolchak will find it, just give him 24 hours, a 5th of Scotch, 3 Cigars and 2 Club Sandwiches. Don't forget to call that dancer he knows from back in Vegas, to come massage his shoulders. Whether anyone will listen to the disturbing truths that Carl puts to print is another story.
More often than not, the price for the truth for poor Kolchak is obscurity. He kicks over the rocks that hide the cosmic horrors that we all try to ignore. He pursues the eerie cold cases that the police seem to have "misplaced" all files on.
I sometimes wonder what Carl would do, neck deep in the seething pit of the 2020s. No stranger to corruption in the halls of power, and at the hands of law. How would Karl navigate our digital, AI content infected media sphere? Would he find ways to pock holes in the talking point armor of corporate media conglomerates? Would he hang is hat with the independent media gang, posting his byline of uncomfortable truths with colleagues like Ken Klippenstein and Sam Knight?
This anthology from Moonstone Books helps us get an idea. Whatever the decade, whatever the mystery...Whatever the monster, Kolchak would walk head on into the storm. Tape recorder in hand, notepad and camera at the ready. Take that last shot of whisky, smoke em if you got em, and hold onto your trousers. Carl has a story or two he'd like you read. What you do with these tales is up to you.
April 29, 2019
Another anthology series. For all of you who are either too young or aren't a nerd like myself, Kolchak was a book about a journalist who turned vampire hunter. Thankfully they turned it into a movie which was apparently popular enough that it got a TV series. I believe that it should have lasted more than one season but what do I know?
I didn't read the entire anthology book but in no way is it awful. I made it to the wendigo story before putting it down, I have a lot of things that I have to review and this is just going to sit on my self, taunting me to read just one more story before I go to bed. My verdict is that each one of these stories is a gem and that if you like horror and campy monsters this is for you.
I also recommend that you find the TV movies and the TV series of Kolchak the Night Stalker.
I would also buy this if it ever became an audio book.
I didn't read the entire anthology book but in no way is it awful. I made it to the wendigo story before putting it down, I have a lot of things that I have to review and this is just going to sit on my self, taunting me to read just one more story before I go to bed. My verdict is that each one of these stories is a gem and that if you like horror and campy monsters this is for you.
I also recommend that you find the TV movies and the TV series of Kolchak the Night Stalker.
I would also buy this if it ever became an audio book.
August 9, 2018
As with any anthology, it is hit and miss with the over two dozen pieces of fan fiction collected here. Among the hits, standouts include Mark Dawidziak's "Interview with a Vampire?" (Kolchak meets Dark Shadows' Barnabas Collins), C.J. Henderson's "What Every Coin Has" (Kolchak in the era tabloid/reality tv) and Stuart M. Kaminsky's "The Night Talker." Bottom line: if you are --like me-- a longtime fan of The Night Stalker and its hero, Carl Kolchak, you'll want to add this to your collection
August 2, 2017
Kolchak short stories
If you love our bumbling hero in TV movies or short lived TV series then this book will be a treat ... a group of great stories and your mind's eye will be putting Darren McGavin in all of them ... What a treasure ...
If you love our bumbling hero in TV movies or short lived TV series then this book will be a treat ... a group of great stories and your mind's eye will be putting Darren McGavin in all of them ... What a treasure ...
August 31, 2019
A fun read.
This is as delightful trip back to my childhood. I was a huge fan of the night stalker show and Darren Mcgavin. These stories capture the characters and feel of the TV show almost perfectly. Most every story is well written and entertaining.
This is as delightful trip back to my childhood. I was a huge fan of the night stalker show and Darren Mcgavin. These stories capture the characters and feel of the TV show almost perfectly. Most every story is well written and entertaining.
March 19, 2023
As a long time fan, I have always mourned the limited amount of Kolchak available. I found the books in my teens and VHS copies of the show in my twenties but then nothing. This is the perfect homage in that it extends the legacy without violating the spirit of the original.
June 11, 2023
A selection of new stories. Although Kolchak has been updated, the authors have kept him firmly in character.
He has his trademark hat and white suite and camera.
Some of the stories were not as strong as others. But there are some real gems in the connection.
He has his trademark hat and white suite and camera.
Some of the stories were not as strong as others. But there are some real gems in the connection.
June 21, 2017
Good book. Excellent story
April 10, 2025
Lots of fun, with a great main character, good action & humor.
March 23, 2017
I loved this show! I can't believe someone didn't do this sooner. Thank you!!
January 13, 2017
I loved this book! I was one of those who grew up watching Kolchak on TV, first during the original run, then in syndication. For years it was unavailable. I remember the utter delight when the first movie became available on VHS. (For the record, I still have it.)
I'll admit I didn't have the highest expectations for this book, but I was soon proved wrong in that every author shares my love for Kolchak, and it shows. Anthologies are tricky things, because usually they have one or more stories I really dislike, but in this one I liked them all and loved most of them. The authors capture the essence that is Carl Kolchak, as well as Vincenzo, Ron and Miss Emily.
My only complaints are those of editing. I read the Kindle edition, and there are some bizarre typos most likely due to spell check not understanding context. There were a few instances of having to puzzle out what the sentence should say instead of what showed in print.
I'll admit I didn't have the highest expectations for this book, but I was soon proved wrong in that every author shares my love for Kolchak, and it shows. Anthologies are tricky things, because usually they have one or more stories I really dislike, but in this one I liked them all and loved most of them. The authors capture the essence that is Carl Kolchak, as well as Vincenzo, Ron and Miss Emily.
My only complaints are those of editing. I read the Kindle edition, and there are some bizarre typos most likely due to spell check not understanding context. There were a few instances of having to puzzle out what the sentence should say instead of what showed in print.
October 13, 2016
The first ever collection of short stories featuring that intrepid original hunter and slayer of monsters, ghosts, demons and extraterrestial beings is a winner! In theses 26 original stories, Kolchak the reporter takes on Barnabas Collins, zombie rockers, Lovecraftian monsters, demons, a domin Jack-O-Lantern/scarecrow and many others. This treasury is priceless. It was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award.
January 11, 2008
I grew up with Kolchak. For a series that lasted one season and two movies, it made a lasting impression upon me. The book contains a collection of uneven stories. Some are just OK, while others really grab the spirit of Kolchak and bring him forward into the 21st century. If you were a fan of the series, I would recommend picking it up.
April 30, 2014
with 26 stories to choose from, hopefully you'll find some you like.
Some were absolutely dreadful, no more than a story idea, not at all fleshed out.
Others, particularly wet dog of Galveston and the one about the screen stars were true to the series and the characters and a lot of fun. If you are a fan, it is a must read
Some were absolutely dreadful, no more than a story idea, not at all fleshed out.
Others, particularly wet dog of Galveston and the one about the screen stars were true to the series and the characters and a lot of fun. If you are a fan, it is a must read
November 16, 2009
If you're a fan of the old Night Stalker series (circa 1970s--not the remake) then you'll enjoy this book. The stories are entertaining and reminiscent of the writing quality of the original show. Not intended to be great literature but a good read and on this scale, it succeeds.
July 21, 2009
a collection of stories with Carl Kolchak chasing monsters. Love this stuff.
March 29, 2013
A fantastic collection of Kolchak stories by various authors. There are some truly great stories here!
Want to read
April 27, 2019Synopsis: twenty six new Kolchak short stories, he's a paranormal investigator. By noted authors. From comics, horror fiction, and film!
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