David Lynn Golemon continues his foray into Simon R. Green's Ghost Finder territory with In the Still of the Night. The Supernaturals team gets called in when the US President seems to be attacked by magic in the Oval Office. The past has reached out and grabbed him and left a message. The Supernaturals team is released from prison to find out what is the cause. As is usual with Golemon, conspiracies, hidden forces and cabals abound. In this case the source is related to President Hadley's father's actions during World War II and after that lead to a disaster in California on Halloween 1963. Plenty of spooky, creepy action accompanied by betrayals and supernatural events. It was a decent story, but just did not live up to my expectations.

I requested In The Still of the Night on the basis of the synopsis and the cover. The author’s name didn’t register with me until later. I immediately had a serious twinge of regret because I had never successfully finished one of this author’s books before. I had that thought my initial problems with Golemon’s writing were just stylistic differences. That that was why I couldn’t get into his Event Group thrillers. As it turned out, that was not the case. It was more that I just can’t stand to read a lot of this man’s writing. But I sucked it up, got the first book in this series, and dragged myself, kicking and screaming, through it. And then I sighed and started on this one.

In the Still of the Night was an awkward read. For a writer that is as well-known as he seems to be, his writing is positively painful to read sometimes. It’s filled with unnecessary details (not world building, either. Just flat-out unnecessary details.) And, though much more minor this time, there are still inconsistencies. However, most of these problems were in the first fourth of the book. And, somehow, the middle of the book was almost completely different!

The middle of In the Still of the Night is the best portion of the book. Golemon's writing miraculously loses its awkwardness and the story becomes easy (easier, at least) to read, and rather engrossing. I found myself rooting for the characters, wanting to know how things ended, and anticipating the ending. There was tension, intrigue, and all sorts of fun stuff. The writing was so different in fact, that I wondered what in the world had happened. But I just decided to count my blessings, in the end, and finish the story.

But, alas, the almost goodness of the middle portion slowly degraded as I neared the end. While it never again achieved quite the same roughness of the first fourth, I found that I was unable to continue to enjoy the book. Goleman has, to me, an inability to write scenes which immerse the reader in the experience.

I will say that I was happy that In the Still of the Night seemed less like a mash-up of better known novels, and more of a unique take on a vaguely familiar tale. However, I have learned my lesson and will never again willingly pick up another one of the author’s novels. While his writing style is, undeniably, accessible, it has the overall charm of a talented high schooler’s attempts at a novel. By this I mean: It’s obvious the talent for story telling exists, but the chasm between the talent for telling stories and the ability to write engagingly is rather large.

Overall, In the Still of the Night was much, much better than The Supernaturals, and I know that many people have reviewed it positively. I’m just not one of them.

Great read! Looking forward to reading more by this author! Highly recommend!

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