Los Angeles, 1930s: Billy Pratt has changed his name and found fame and fortune as Boris Karloff, while novelist Raymond Chandler has published short stories in Black Mask and other magazines and is about to publish “The Big Sleep.” They are friends, having attended the same posh English school, and they are both also friends with Joh Devlin, a district attorney and private eye; the latter is investigating the mysterious Home family and their attached medical clinic. When Billy and Ray are summoned to a pier where a body without a head has been taken out of a submerged car - Joh’s submerged car - and, impossibly, a young woman is found alive in the trunk, they feel honor-bound to investigate on their friend’s behalf, regardless of the dangers involved…. This is a stand-alone novel by Mr. Newman, who is perhaps best known for his wonderful Anno Dracula series; he also knows a whole lot about Hollywood history, and this book is proof of that. There were times while reading this when I felt that he was kind of showing off his film knowledge, but for the most part, I just enjoyed the hard-boiled atmosphere, the very strange world that is LA between the wars and the host of supporting characters, from Marx Brothers knock-offs to Chandler’s cat. This book is a lot of fun, though the squeamish might be warned that it’s very violent; recommended! ( )

https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2023/05/2023057-something-more-than-night-kim.htm... ( )

* * * POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW * * *

I had to give up on this novel after 200 pages. While I'm familiar with 1930's pop culture, I'm not obsessed with it, as apparently the author is. Could have been a half-decent novel with the concept of Boris Karloff and Raymond Chandler solving a supernatural case, but Newman isn't up to the task. There was one interlude, which was supposed to resemble a BLACK MASK short story, but it felt like filler to me; and the part where Chandler and Karloff visit an asylum then get stuck inside struck me as absurd. Never mind that why didn't their wives and families wonder why they were missing for a week? And the mad movie mogul finances those Frankenstein-like experiments but the law turns a blind eye . . . really?

The book did remind me of the 1990's movie GODS AND MONSTERS, about the last days of Frankenstein director James Whale. I was reading Whale's Wikipedia page and it mentioned the "Karloff cult", which Newman is certainly a member of.

On the plus side, SOMETHING MORE THAN NIGHT got me thinking of Chandler's THE BIG SLEEP and Robert B. Parker's POODLE SPRINGS (Chandler's last book that the Spenser author finished). Think I'll reread those two mystery novels.

I read this book as an electronic advance reading copy provided by Edelweiss, and I have submitted my comments to the publisher via that web site.

An uneven plot makes this book "more mess than mystery," as the narrator describes one of the numerous horror films included in the story. Recommended for readers who enjoy the chaos and shock value of horror rather than the logic and social commentary of mystery (it should be obvious which genre I prefer). ( )