Something More Than Night by Kim Newman
(Titan Books, 2021)
Reviewed by Estelle Roberts
Set in a gloriously insane late 1930’s Los Angeles, this latest addition to the Newmanverse is an extremely entertaining horror/noir piece of fiction. No vampires here, and only a very oblique reference to Drearcliff Grange, his Malory Towers for unusually gifted young women. There are monsters, though, fictional, human and real.
The two main protagonists are hard drinking writer of detective fiction, Raymond Chandler and William Pratt, better known as Boris Karloff. Drawn together because of, among other reasons, their British connections, the pair begin investigating strange occurrences in the city. Chandler actually has a private detective’s licence. They are eventually hired by Joh Devlin, an investigator for the DA’s office, to work on a case that appears to go to the sleazy heart of Hollywood.
Newman has great fun unleashing a fine dramatis personae of the weird, the insane, the tragic, and the extremely violent. The events largely centre on a film studio, which is the plaything of Junior Home, the son of a multi-millionaire, and known for producing rip offs of the main studios’ infinitely superior work. Investigations soon reveal that the studio is the public face of much more unpleasant goings-on, many linked to a private medical centre also owned by Home. When it is discovered that his wish is to turn himself into a superhuman by, effectively, syphoning off people’s powers and mutations, the fun really starts. Newman mines his incredibly extensive film knowledge to great effect. Freaks is superb source material for the people who “volunteer” to donate their powers and mutations for money. The Marx Brothers are reworked as mobsters for hire, the Sparx Brothers, much less funny, but orders of magnitude more violent. The necessary femme fatale character is provided by Laurel Ives, late of Drearcliff Manor, ranking highly on family trauma, intelligence, and good looks (somewhat spoiled by the red eye she acquired by straining to use her powers). She is known by several names and is yet another British character who has found their way to the West Coast.
The most fascinating character by far, however, is Karloff himself. Newman mixes fact and fiction to create an alternately strong and tragic personality. Karloff changed his name to avoid family embarrassment, so this was obviously something that concerned him. He was somewhat abused by the studio system, kept under threat of replacement by other actors, in particular Legosi. He was also in constant pain from injuries sustained during filming, doing, as he did, his own stunts. In contrast to Chandler, he is the archetypal “English Gentleman”, well-mannered and well educated. He also has a strong moral compass, forgoing powers that he has acquired, which leave him physically extremely strong and without pain, to avoid someone else coming to harm. Chandler makes an excellent first-person narrator, witty, wry, but less hard-boiled than he wants to be. His characters, particularly Marlowe, are wish fulfilment written large. He muses more than once that Marlowe would be much better at solving this case than him. There is a humanity and tenderness in his character that he can’t quite escape. While he has great respect and affection for Karloff/Pratt, he also finds him frustrating and very difficult to fathom at times. As in many fictional relationships, it is the differences that are interesting, rather than the similarities.
This romp through a very well detailed fifties LA, in the company of fascinating characters is great fun, particularly if you enjoy Newman’s trademark humour and intelligence. As in many of his other novels, he mixes real and fictional characters to very entertaining effect. You have the sense that, by having cinematic greats in the story, he is actually in his element. He has produced an excellent novel, which in the case of one of the characters proves the old adage, be careful what you wish for, you may just get it.
Review from BSFA Review 17 - Download your copy here.