When I was asked by Frank to launch his novel THE NIGHT GAME, I
didn't get that feeling of dread you sometimes get when someone asks you to
read something and you worry that you may not like it. I had no such
concerns on this occasion as I was familiar with Frank's poetry and other
extended works, and I had no doubts about the literary merits of the prose
being top class.
I was intrigued however, about it being a psychological crime
thriller, this supposedly being my area, so to speak.
Lots of words come to mind to describe THE NIGHT GAME - Dark,
dangerous, suspenseful and raw, to name but a few. The story certainly pulls
you from a potentially safe mindset, and can make you feel very uncomfortable,
asking lots of questions of the reader.
They say the sign of a great crime thriller is a sense of dread
on every page, and THE NIGHT GAME delivers this and then some. The dread of
what is going to happen next is paralleled within the tempo, rhythm, and
utterly gripping language, and you get the sense that you are on a road to
something very dark and dangerous indeed.
Another element of creating a successful crime thriller, or so
I'm told, is the wonderful use of masks. People are not always who or what they
seem. Sometimes they gain your trust only to slap you in the face with it,
unsettling you, the reader. In THE NIGHT GAME, there are plenty of masks, and
you are kept wondering until the very end if all the masks have been revealed,
or, if there is going to be yet another turn to this story, and you will not be
disappointed there.
This is high quality prose, but with an underlying darkness that
is both suspenseful and at times surprising. Be prepared to be taken on a
roller-coaster ride, one which isn't afraid to explore human depravity and
human fragility in a very different way. If you do read THE NIGHT GAME, you
certainly won't forget it.
Not for the fainthearted, but it will be in my books of 2015 for
sure!
New York. Late winter. The city is shrouded in fog. Mary lives alone in her childhood home, a rambling brownstone on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. After a series of menacing phone calls, and fearing that she is being stalked, Mary contacts Sheila, one of her oldest friends. Sheila agrees to move in until the situation is resolved. The police investigate and initially focus on respondents to a dating site she has recently joined. Mary suspects her ex-husband David, with whom she is still obsessed. Fast-paced and dark The Night Game offers up psychological intrigue and emotional depth. Nothing in this surreal story, which culminates in the re-enactment of an old murder, is as it seems.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Frank Golden is a poet, novelist and visual artist. His previous novel, The Two Women of Aganatz, was published by the Wolfhound Press, Dublin. His last book of poems was In Daily Accord (Salmon Poetry). He has received two bursaries in literature from the Arts Council of Ireland and a number of other awards. He lives in the Burren, County Clare, Ireland. www.frankgolden7.com
