I enjoyed so many things about this book. I'm a big fan of old movies, very old movies, so I enjoyed the references to the actors, directors, producers, and films of the 1930's. Of course, the plot is ludicrous but the humor and the history make it all fun. Well, yeah, there's violence and gore. That's the point of most horror. If the writer makes it clever, that's extra points in my book.


If the reader is not a buff of black and white movies, he or she might not be familiar with lots of the characters. pursue some oldies this Halloween, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy (Karloff's Mummy) and scare yourself back to the Thirties. Okay, they're not that scary, but you'll know what's going on in the book. It will be good for you, as your mother (or mummy) might say.


The afterword is interesting, too. It gives some history of the writer, Raymond Chandler, the actor Boris Karloff, and old Hollywood. Monsters, movies, and lots of electricity zapped through people. What more could you ask for?

Not what I expected but then I should have read the synopsis better, I am long time fan of Kim Newman be that the anno Dracula books of the vampire Genevieve series for black library and this book although not what I wanted gave me something else instead, something lacking in books lately, pure joy

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Titan Books for an advanced copy of this new historical horror novel.

Kim Newman, creator of the Anno Dracula series, along with many other books and articles about movies, monsters and music, mixes the real world with the myth of movies in the book Something More Than Night. Raymond Chandler, full time drunk, aspiring mystery author, joins with his old school chum, Frankenstein's Monster actor Boris Karloff to investigate a weird tale of life, life beyond death and studio politics in 1930's Hollywood.

Combining real characters and fictional ones is something that Mr. Newman is quite good at, either a alcoholic mystery author, a do-gooding gumshoe, or a Hollywood producer returned from the grave. The story is well written and interesting, though there is a lot of time jumping, and like the best of the noir detective novels, there is no pat ending, and sometimes people do get away with murder. There is a lot going on, many movie allusions and some odd scenes. Anything to do with the zany imitative group of comedy brothers who work as studio hitmen, just seem weird more than Weird. But these are little things in a much larger story.

I enjoyed quite a lot in this book. I found the way that he wrote Chandler and Karloff, having Chandler talk constantly like his private detective character Philip Marlow, and the stories about Karloff interesting. I did not know the pains that Mr. Karloff had to deal with from portraying the Monster, which explains some of his acting and roles near the end of his life. I don't know where another book could go in this series, but I would love to see more. I highly recommend this book and the previously mentioned Anno Dracula, well actually all of Mr. Newman's writing in fact. One of the most interesting horror writers, and one of the most knowledgeable on film. Definitely a treat.

Enjoyed this horror/mystery/Karloff /Chandler mashup. Really good stuff if you like Phillip Marlowe stuff and are interested in horror movies and monster stars of the early thirties(lots of inside stuff). Fast paced and fun—highly recommended