To make things worse, Monteleone chose to write in the most bland narrative voice imaginable, without a hint of irony, humor, pathos, or energy. Overall, there wasn't a lot of original material here to make this stand out from it's contemporaries. That's like reading a novel from the 20s that has been 'updated' to have a cop check his email on his smart phone, but then still has him go to Western Union to respond by telegram. In one scene, we even have a cop working on his laptop in his apartment before getting up to check his answering machine, even going so far as to ramble on about how he hates talking to these new-fangled tape recorders. All this accomplished was to throw in a little 21st century technology into a clearly 80s setting. Throwing in a couple of pointless references to cell phones that didn't exist to that degree in 1984 doesn't make a book any more palatable. It was a lazy attempt and quite unnecessary. If there's an Italian chef, you bedda believe that he is gonna speak-a like-a the Mario and-a the Luigi!įunny enough, the publishers of the e-book tried to 'modernize' the story here and there. If there is a woman under thirty, you better be sure she is a stripper with an IQ of 60. Talk about your outdated urban cliches! If there is a black man in either of these novels, you better be sure they sport a gold tooth. I made the mistake of reading this book around the same time as reading 'Ghoul' by Michael Slade.

I just know that months from now I am going to get this book confused with countless other works.

In fact, a lot of this book seemed to be a collection of cliches collected from horror movies, cop shows, detective comics, and pulp fiction of every genre. The dialogue was rather inane and generic. And somehow, despite the amount of time spent on our main three characters, I never really felt I got to know them. I can say that despite the fact that it is quite well paced, there are moments that still seem to drag. It's a fantastic time capsule for the urban decay that was New York City in the 70s and 80s. It's got a little romance, a little gore, a little thrills. Monteleone, who is a two-time Stoker Award winner, prolific novelist, author of the brilliant short story collection 'Fearful Symmetries,' and editor of one of the best horror compilations 'Borderlands.' The novel itself has something in it for everyone. First of all, it was written by Thomas F. 'Night Train' is a kind of homage to Fritz Leiber's 'Our Lady of Darkness.' But while the latter book remains in my top ten favorite horror novels of all time, I fear that 'Night Train' will be largely forgettable.Ĭonsidered a classic among the paperback horror boom of the 70s through the 90s, this 1984 urban thriller has a lot going for it.

Night train thomas f monteleone