The Hour Before Dark

The Hour Before Dark is Douglas Clegg's best novel to date. It begins with Gordie Raglan's brutal murder in a small island town in New England. His sons, Nemo and Bruno, come to the house to comfort their sister, Brooke, who is considered a suspect.The killing stirs up painful memories for Nemo. His mind keeps flashing back to the day his mother left the family. Then there is the "Brain Fart", which left a week-long hole in the memories of all three children. Nemo blames this on the Dark Game (taught to them by their father in the smokehouse where he was murdered) that went a little too far. The gap continues to bug Nemo, along with his sister's increasingly bizarre behavior.Bruno isn't faring too well, either. He hates his father for the way he punished them. Nemo tries to gloss over those incidents, blaming his mother's desertion for his father's violent temper. As he cooperates with the police and pacifies his sister, he finds himself both drawn to and repelled by the smokehouse. He doesn't believe the town's theory that a serial killer had struck his father down. Something far more sinister and evil had killed Gordie, and it was still in the house, tormenting them with nightmares about a woman who held a striking resemblence to their mother. Brooke's deteriorating mental state forces the brothers to carry her to the smokehouse to play the Dark Game one last time, to banish the demon that is preying on them.What they received was a horrifying replay of the past, which they barely escaped from. Clegg did an excellent job with the climax. That scene was one of the most harrowing, breath-holding scenes I've read in my life. Highly recommended.

I've been reading Douglas Clegg since his impressive debut with Goat Dance, and though I loved his work immediately, it has been amazing to watch him continue to develop as a writer over the years. I think most authors would be proud to have any one of Goat Dance, The Children's Hour, The Halloween Man, You Come When I Call You or The Hour Before Dark on their resume, so to think these all came from the imagination of one man is quite impressive. In terms of horror, there is only one author who has delivered quality horror as frequently, and one could argue that as good as Stephen King is, he doesn't approach the consistency Clegg does. With as many books as he's written, it's not difficult to pick a worst King novel - but I'd be hard pressed to pick a worst Clegg novel. He's that good.In the wake of the 'death of horror' in publishing, Clegg never wavered. He continued to write what he wanted, which fortunately for us has been a series of chilling novels, each unique and yet often returning to similar themes.The Hour Before Dark is another accomplished work that any fan of horror is sure to enjoy, and I think it also offers some of the most interesting familial relationships Clegg has created to date.There's only one thing I look forward to more than Clegg's next novel, and that is a collection of his short fiction. Fortunately, The Machinery of Night is coming soon from Cemetery Dance publications. Watch for it, and be amazed at what a talent Clegg really is.

If Stephen King is the "Master of Horror," then Douglas Clegg (author of THE NIGHTMARE HOUSE, INFINITY, BREEDER, and YOU COME WHEN I CALL YOU) is definitely the "Prince of the Macabre!" In Mr. Clegg's newest book, THE HOUR BEFORE DARK, he takes us to Burnley Island, which is just off the coast of Massachusetts and is the home of Gordie Raglan, the owner of the Hawthorn property. When Gordie is brutally murdered by a psychopathic killer and his body later discovered in the property's smokehouse by his daughter, Brooke, the local police are soon stumped as to who could have committed such a heinous crime. The oldest son of the Raglan clan, Nemo, returns home to be with Brooke, and his younger brother, Bruno, hoping that the three of them will be able to figure out who killed their father. It isn't long, however, before something very dangerous in the Hawthorn house causes long forgotten memeories to rise to the surface in the minds of the three siblings. To save their sanity and their lives, Nemo, and his sister and brother will have to delve into the past to find the answers to their father's secrets and to the Dark Game that they used to play as children. THE HOUR BEFORE DARK is a powerful testament to the writing skill of Douglas Clegg. This is an author who knows how to grab the reader by the jugular in the first few pages and not let go till he's gotten the very last drop of blood out of us. He writes characters that are fully formed with the same fears and desires and psychological problems as our closest friends. Well, maybe not the same fears and maybe a lot more in the way of mental disorders. All three of the Raglan children have trouble loving and trusting and being close to another human being; but, then again, don't we all? Mr. Clegg also has a unique talent in being able to show the innocence of childhood with flashbacks and how quickly it can be taken away without a second's notice. And, yes, the atmosphere of the Hawthorn house has been created to perfection with its strange eeriness, beckoning shadows, and unexplainable voices that come from out of nowhere. One can easily imagine death lurking around every corner, anxious to claim its next victim. As for the Raglans, the author has structured a family with very special secrets...secrets that can kill like a sharp knife through an eye socket. This makes THE HOUR BEFORE DARK the ideal Halloween gift for those of you yearning to experience the true essence of fear!

Douglas Clegg has established himself as one of the strongest and most original voice of modern horror fiction. His books aren't about how much blood can be shed on each page, or how many characters can be killed in the story. His stories are about real people faced with greater-than-life situations, situations that often tangle with the paranormal. The Hour Before Dark is undoubtedly one of Clegg's best. The book quietly written (it isn't about shock value) and brilliantly executed. He slowly but constantly builds up the suspense until, in the end, you realize that it has reached sky-high levels.The story concentrates on Nemo, a man who returns to his family house (situated on an island) where his father has been murdered. There, he finds his sister Brooke, a strange and sligthly disturbed young woman, and his brother Bruno, a no-nonsense kind of guy. As they are brought together to face their past (and also the present), their family house becomes alive with energy. And the only way for them to face this evil will be to play what they call 'the dark game', a game their father thought them, a game that must be played in the hours before dark, a game that can be dangerous and deadly. The very game that made all of this begin in the first place.This novel has many great and creepy moments that you will not soon forget. It is a tour-de-force of horror suspense that will leave your breathless. The pacing is amazing, as the suspense builds constantly, never stopping, until the very end (and even in its final pages, the suspense rises again). And the ending itself is simply perfect. The Hour Before Dark will be this year's best horror novel. Read it before everyone else does!