Black House

Inhoud

Twenty years ago, a boy named Jack Sawyer traveled to a parallel universe called the Territories to save his mother and her Territories Twinner from an agonizing death that would have brought cataclysm to the other world. Now Jack is a retired Los Angeles homicide detective living in the nearly nonexistent hamlet of Tamarack, Wisconsin. He has no recollections of his adventures in the Territories, and was compelled to leave the police force when an odd, happenstance event threatened to awaken those memories. When a series of gruesome murders occur in western Wisconsin that are reminiscent of those committed several decades ago by a madman named Albert Fish, the killer is dubbed the Fisherman, and Jack's buddy, the local chief of police, begs Jack to help the inexperienced force find him. But are these new killings merely the work of a disturbed individual, or has a mysterious and malignant force been unleached in this quiet town? What causes Jack's inexplicable waking dreams - if that is what they are - of robbin's eggs and red feathers? It's almost as if someone is trying to tell him something. As this cryptic message becomes increasingly impossible to ignore, Jack is drawn back to the Territories and to his own hidden past, where he may find the soul-strength to enter a terrifying house at the end of a deserted tract of forest, there to encounter the obscene and ferocious evils sheltered within it.

Bespreking

Never though King could reach this level of boredom

You must be really ignorant to declare that Stephen King, or Peter Straub for that matter, do not know how to write some good prose. Sure, they know how to fill pages and pages... and that is exactly what they are happy to do in The Black House.

So, if you read a 624 page book you might assume to have seen a complete story-line unfold before your eyes, not? A story-line with plots, subplots and interesting developments, of course?

Guess again!

Because sadly enough that's exactly what's missing here... To put it rather rude: at least 300 pages can be skipped without killing the suspense. I do not say that it is not an interesting read, but it surely could hurry up a bit.

As a consequence the summary of the story doesn't take that long. A mysterious serial killer is on the loose. Children are the victims and that makes it even worse. The local police force is doing its best, but seems to be chasing its tail. But luckily Jack Sawyer, a retired police investigator, is in town. Although he doesn't want to get involved, some evil supernatural entities are dragging him into this mess. And his old adventures (described in The Talisman) are starting to get more important each day.

The writing style is like you can expect from two experienced writers. But there are some remarkable flaws in this book. Flaws that can only be tolerated in a debut of an inexperienced author. You want some examples? How would you describe a person in distress? By showing that he is wearing his shoes on the wrong foot? Well, you might not believe it, but this seems to be no issue for King or Straub. Talking about unbelievable, listen to this: Wendell Green, a local journalist who constantly talks to himself saying that he really is the best reporter ever to walk on this earth, hides in a closet at a sanctuary to eavesdrop onto a private conversation and tape it with his pocket tape recorder. Really?

I finished this book and am really glad that I managed it. The last 200 pages irritated me major league. All that bad stuff about the Dark Tower gives me a headache. Don't understand me wrong: I truly adore the Dark Tower series, but the artificial addition of Dark Tower stuff does not help this boring story at all. At the contrary: it ruins the already less than average story-line and makes it even extra mind numbing.

Sorry, Jack Sawyer, you didn't convince me in The Talisman and in Black House you just sunk a bit lower. Skip this sequel and reread one of the older masterpieces of King: The Dark Tower, Misery, It or The Stand. Or a good old Straub: Ghost Story or If You Could See Me Now.