Night Relics

I found Night Relics at a used book sale. The evocative title and the glowing moon on the cover greatly piqued my interest. Somehow, I just knew this would be a good story. And I was correct. Being from the Southwest, it was an extra delight to find the story is set in Southern California. People don't usually associate the desert with ghosts, but there you have it. James Blaylock is an excellent writer. He weaves a tale by bringing the setting and characters to life. The story is about Peter, whose ex-wife and young son have mysteriously disappeared. The wife was leaving for Hawaii, and the police suggest she has run away in a custody dispute. The mystery is further compounded by the recurring appearance of a woman and a boy in the windy canyons of Trabuco Oaks, where Peter and his new girlfriend Susan like to hike. Susan has a young son of her own. Susan has a fateful encounter with Pomeroy, a used-car salesman with illusions of his own grandeur. He becomes obsessed with Susan. Pomeroy has shady business dealings with Susan's next-door neighbor Klein. Klein wants Pomeroy out of the way; Pomeroy wants Susan. But everyone is touched by the strange apparitions, and things get out of control. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a well-written mystery with a touch of the supernatural.

This is unlike most of the stuff that Blaylock has written already so if you're expecting the same old stories, get ready for something a bit different. He tackles ghost stories this time out and while the themes are nearly the same as always, basically normal everyday people trying to cope with the extraordinary (or just plain weird) and as usual set in California. But it gets waaayy different from there, for the first time things are really frightening, this is the darkest book he might have ever written. And his characters feel more real for once, mostly gone are the likable but quirky folks who populate his other books, here everyone is just like you and me, they have their flaws and benefits just the same as anyone else. And I don't think he's ever written a character as odious as Pomeroy, he's quite the convincing psychopath. As for the ghost part, well that's not all that clear but then it's a ghost story it's not supposed to make perfect sense. What counts here is the atmosphere and the pages are dripping with wind and dark and the nighttime and all the horrors that it brings. Not really scary but certainly gets you into the novel and helps you live in the character's world. In essence this is the most "mature" book he's ever done, tackling more serious subjects of relationships (both starting and ending them), abnormal psyches, sexuality, all the good stuff that's in the world the rest of us live in. In short this is the book that we may not have all been waiting for, but knew he was capable of doing all the same and I for one am not complaining.