Book Review: Nightshade

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Nightshade     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
John Saul
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Horror   Supernatural
Ballantine, Jun 2000, $25.95, 335 pp.

In Granite Falls, New Hampshire, Bill and Joan Hapgood share a wonderful life. Bill treats Joan’s son Matt as if he were the biological father. His friends regard Joan as a member of their small clannish group. The popular Matt starts on the high school football team and has a highly regarded girl friend. The only problem in their lives is her hateful mother, Emily Moore, a foul mouthed and nasty person especially towards her daughter and grandson.

Joan blames Alzheimer’s disease for her mother’s detestable behavior. When Emily burns down her own house, Joan brings her to live with her and her family because she promised never to place her mother in a nursing home. Emily disrupts the Hapgood family until Bill can no longer cope with her and moves out. Bill returns to take Matt on a hunting party. Disaster strikes and Bill is killed with Matt being the prime suspect. Emily vanishes and people think Matt is involved in more foul play. Mother and son work as a team trying to uncover the identity of the real killer, with their prime suspect having been dead for sixteen years.

Master horror writer John Saul ranks with the genre’s elite because he has the uncanny ability to persuade his readers that the events can happen to them. NIGHTSHADE is a fantastic ghost story that starts with a happy, upbeat, and innocent environment but quickly evolves into despair, pending doom, and growing dread. Inside this frightening atmosphere are real people whose plight gains much reader empathy as Mr. Saul touches his fans with another triumphant tale.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner