Prelude to a Scream

Wonderfully written, Jim Nisbet's is halfway between a thriller and a horror story. As pages turn, layers of medical assault accumulate as a total loser of a hero goes through one disastrous step after the other. But this anti hero is also close enough to anyone that you still can relate, and numerous twists add to the entertainment. Only a certain fondness for elaborate vocabulary makes this book a difficult read at times. Other than that, a story you will remember.

Stanley Ahern, the anti-hero of Jim Nisbet's detective novel "Prelude to a Scream," is a hollow man who seems to value nothing but drinking, watching television and engaging in "drive-by fellatio" with prostitutes. His empty lifestyle reminded me of nothing so much as Albert Camus's "The Stranger." But Stanley won't just get hung for his character flaws. This is a Nisbet novel, after all, and in Nisbet's morally ambiguous world the bad and the stupid are rewarded out of all proportion to their offenses. Stanley's stubborness, his willful refusal to face the consequences of his actions will result in death after awful death and finally in his own horrific (and highly symbolic) loss of part after part of his own body.The detective's speech to Stanley after the first, tragic deaths caused by Stanley's foolishness occur is absolutely brilliant, a classic that I felt compelled to re-read after I had finished the book. And the ending...let's just say Nisbet saves his unkindest cuts for last.I heartily recommend this book to the strong of stomach and nerve, who like excellent, crisp dialogue and don't mind being subjected to some nasty shocks.