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Nightfall
Scarred emotionally and physically, Anita flees to the sanctuary of Lostman's Bayou but she soon learns that she cannot escape the terror known as the Dark Angel
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 15, 1987
4 people are currently reading
268 people want to read
About the author
John Farris
93 books158 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
American writer and screenwriter of both adaptations of his own books (e.g. 'The Fury'), of the works of others (such as Alfred Bester's 'The Demolished Man') and original scripts. In 1973 he wrote and directed the film 'Dear Dead Delilah'. He has had several plays produced off-Broadway, and also paints and writes poetry. At various times he has made his home in New York, Southern California and Puerto Rico; he currently resides near Atlanta, Georgia. Early in his career he also wrote under the name Steve Brackeen.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
American writer and screenwriter of both adaptations of his own books (e.g. 'The Fury'), of the works of others (such as Alfred Bester's 'The Demolished Man') and original scripts. In 1973 he wrote and directed the film 'Dear Dead Delilah'. He has had several plays produced off-Broadway, and also paints and writes poetry. At various times he has made his home in New York, Southern California and Puerto Rico; he currently resides near Atlanta, Georgia. Early in his career he also wrote under the name Steve Brackeen.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 23, 2014
Oh it has been such a long time since I first read this little cracker! Angel has escaped from an institution and is on a killing spree to find his ex wife Anita and deal out some justice! There is a great list of characters in this fast and furious tour de force from one of the great horror writers! I love the setting in the deep south..Lostmans Bayou...sounds like a place for losers...and you can feel the heat and the swamp from every page :) So lets meet and greet the locals..Wink Evergood, Baldric, Big Dog, preacher man Wolfdaddy and the Next-Thing-to-Heaven Church of the Right-Way Gospel. Will Angel be successful in his voyage of redemption or will the courageous ex Vietnam vet the dashing Captain Clay Tomlin, who strangely loses his eyesight at night, save the day and rescue the beautiful Anita from the jaws of the Angel....all will be revealed in this top notch horror thriller!!
February 13, 2017
I've heard oodles of praise for John Farris so was excited to try him, although maybe I should have started with another book in my collection. This one wasn't bad, but it held a lot of plot tropes I'm over and don't enjoy reading about much - psycho serial killers pursuing a victim that got away. Just not my bag.
The plot wasn't completely original, but the characterization of the main characters was well-done. I like how the heroine isn't traditionally naive or wide-eyed like they usually are in these kinds of stories. The kid was endearing rather than annoying. The small-town, swamp background was a setting I enjoy.
Pacing isn't bad and the writing style makes it a quick read, but overall the story is a little mediocre.
The plot wasn't completely original, but the characterization of the main characters was well-done. I like how the heroine isn't traditionally naive or wide-eyed like they usually are in these kinds of stories. The kid was endearing rather than annoying. The small-town, swamp background was a setting I enjoy.
Pacing isn't bad and the writing style makes it a quick read, but overall the story is a little mediocre.
May 1, 2020
This is my second John Farrris novel. My first one was The Axeman Cometh. It was a cool horror novel. Anyway, I came across this book in a used book store and attracted by the cover art and the blurb. As I have mentioned a million times before, I have a thing for horror novels set in remote secluded towns and villages. This one promised an adventure in the swamps. What more do I need!
I had mistakenly assumed this book to be a horror novel with elements of the supernatural. But, it turned out to be a psycho thriller. Can't say that it is a great piece of literature - it's obvious, isn't it! Frankly speaking, it is a typical 80s thriller which provides some thrills and chills. If you enjoy such thrillers, then you might want to give this one a try.
I had mistakenly assumed this book to be a horror novel with elements of the supernatural. But, it turned out to be a psycho thriller. Can't say that it is a great piece of literature - it's obvious, isn't it! Frankly speaking, it is a typical 80s thriller which provides some thrills and chills. If you enjoy such thrillers, then you might want to give this one a try.
March 15, 2019
The kinda low budget average thriller that's on basic cable, and you end up watching. The characters are cookie cutter, premise is a little overwrought, but hey, it entertains.
April 28, 2023
Absolute madman Angel escapes from captivity and goes on a rampage as he works his way across America to reach his wife and son, whose only protection is the landlord of the house they’re staying in on the bayou. This man is ex-military but he can only see in daylight. And did I mention the madman has mafia connections? It’s all a bit daft and not very thrilling.
December 11, 2016
Unnerving Magazine Review
I had zero expectations going into this one being new to John Farris as I was. I am a sucker for a vintage hardcover in great shape for a couple bucks. What I found inside was a mostly good tale told on the bayou where the gators are placid and the love is quick –smidgen too quick for this guy.
Immediately, the chosen themes of horror revealed themselves and I did my best to hold back a groan. There was a trend that really took off sometime in the mid-80s and carried on into the early 90s. Probably Reagan’s fault. Authors were scared, or possibly saw that the public was scared, of home invaders. In this tale, unlike so many reheated Dean Koontz barf fests –note, Koontz has written a handful of good-to-great books– this was not a chance encounter. A mentally unstable husband, a super hacker, is estranged and looking to remedy the fact. Here is the second theme I’ve seen often from those days; fear of the computer takeover.
The hero has a few fun and notably original traits that make him stand out, point for Farris. He’s been in the air force for all his adult life and was only just forced into retirement by night blindness. Total night blindness, even with the lights on. He’s come to his family home on the swamp to discover a mafia dude is one of the renters and he’s running drugs –PING! Third theme, definitely Reagan there, every scary drugs. The mafia dude is also there to protect the Don’s daughter in-law and her son from psycho hacker husband with supernatural strength, this despite sitting comatose in a hospital. Atrophy? Pfft, atrophy smatrophy, this mean dude is not having it and seeks out his wife via an internet hook-up that can pinpoint with perfection.
From there, the usual thriller fun comes out. It comes down to a bit of corny fun with the blind man fending his abruptly acquired new family on the instruction of the seeing boy.
Nightfall is better than most invading-your-space-murderer stories that I’ve read and I’ve read plenty of them. Strangely, my favorite bit was the sleepy gators, they always get such a nasty rap.
I had zero expectations going into this one being new to John Farris as I was. I am a sucker for a vintage hardcover in great shape for a couple bucks. What I found inside was a mostly good tale told on the bayou where the gators are placid and the love is quick –smidgen too quick for this guy.
Immediately, the chosen themes of horror revealed themselves and I did my best to hold back a groan. There was a trend that really took off sometime in the mid-80s and carried on into the early 90s. Probably Reagan’s fault. Authors were scared, or possibly saw that the public was scared, of home invaders. In this tale, unlike so many reheated Dean Koontz barf fests –note, Koontz has written a handful of good-to-great books– this was not a chance encounter. A mentally unstable husband, a super hacker, is estranged and looking to remedy the fact. Here is the second theme I’ve seen often from those days; fear of the computer takeover.
The hero has a few fun and notably original traits that make him stand out, point for Farris. He’s been in the air force for all his adult life and was only just forced into retirement by night blindness. Total night blindness, even with the lights on. He’s come to his family home on the swamp to discover a mafia dude is one of the renters and he’s running drugs –PING! Third theme, definitely Reagan there, every scary drugs. The mafia dude is also there to protect the Don’s daughter in-law and her son from psycho hacker husband with supernatural strength, this despite sitting comatose in a hospital. Atrophy? Pfft, atrophy smatrophy, this mean dude is not having it and seeks out his wife via an internet hook-up that can pinpoint with perfection.
From there, the usual thriller fun comes out. It comes down to a bit of corny fun with the blind man fending his abruptly acquired new family on the instruction of the seeing boy.
Nightfall is better than most invading-your-space-murderer stories that I’ve read and I’ve read plenty of them. Strangely, my favorite bit was the sleepy gators, they always get such a nasty rap.
May 12, 2015
This was just an okay read for me but it did help to pass the time between classes. Some parts were really interesting and other parts moved so quickly that I felt there could have been more detail. It was a short read which I suppose was the authors point but it definitely has the potential to be extended and become even better.
March 2, 2015
Extremely fast-paced '80's thriller. Not high art but a fun October read
November 16, 2017
I went through a period a few years back of reading John Farris' books and thinking "Hey, this is just like that Stephen King book..." only to find Farris had written his years earlier. Which I suppose is neither here nor there, except that as I was on "F" and it had been a while, I picked up this slight (it's only 186 pages, despite the count shown here) volume with expectations of a well written and competently plotted thriller with horror overtones.
And this is basically that. It suffers from some sloppy editing. There's a point early one where a character ("Opal") is described as the niece of "Chessie", from whom she's taken over housekeeping duties, and the next page, first paragraph describes Chessie taking the main character's ("Clay") coat. Because it was on a page turn, I wasn't sure if there had been a break and Chessie had shown up or Clay had gone to visit.
I had to go over it several times before I realized it was just an editing miss. There are a few, fortunately much smaller incidents of the same thing.
The book is weak on a lot of levels which didn't bother me too much: It's very much a creature of the '80s. The villain ("Angel") is a psychotic, super-powered, possibly randomly catatonic, computer nerd who has broken out of the insane asylum to hunt down his (ex-?) wife ("Anita") and son ("Tony") who, since they're Sicilian, are in the mafia's equivalent of the Witness Protection Program. (Don't ask a lot of questions.)
Angel is a typical '80s era slasher. He has supernatural strength—even while apparently being catatonic and IV drip fed for 18 months—and no emotional content. He's also a computer wiz, with Farris trading on '80s fears of any computer being able to connect to any other computer. In fact, he finds Anita and Tony by locating their computer which appears to be a standard PC and has no earthly reason to be connected to anything, much less running a server that could allow the remote control effect that Angel pauses his killing spree to arrange.
Again, didn't really bother me. I was prepared to give the book four stars because it was more or less what I expected, if a little sloppier than I'd hoped for. It's also terribly contrived in a lot of ways. Clay has night blindness which, okay, it's a fine device for a horror/thriller. Angel has a catch phrase though, "Do you love me?" which is (besides being the '80s-ist thing ever) "meh" but used to trigger Anita by having Clay say it at what seemed to be really awkward time.
All that aside, what really did bug me was that Farris cheats at the end in some pretty significant ways, which I will block out with spoiler tags herein.
So, that dropped the book in my esteem. A lot of books of the time (and doubtless now, for that matter) seem to be written in a "cinematic" style, as in I'm-hoping-someone-makes-this-into-a-movie, and this book felt like it was made to be a vehicle for Chuck Norris (Silent Rage anyone? No?) or some other B-level actioner.
Which, hey, a man's gotta eat and Farris probably liked the sweet, sweet movie dosh from The Fury but it wouldn't be until 2006's "Masters of Horror" that his writing got filmed. And this year he's got "Horrorshow" coming out, so maybe that will be good.
But this was a little disappointing.
And this is basically that. It suffers from some sloppy editing. There's a point early one where a character ("Opal") is described as the niece of "Chessie", from whom she's taken over housekeeping duties, and the next page, first paragraph describes Chessie taking the main character's ("Clay") coat. Because it was on a page turn, I wasn't sure if there had been a break and Chessie had shown up or Clay had gone to visit.
I had to go over it several times before I realized it was just an editing miss. There are a few, fortunately much smaller incidents of the same thing.
The book is weak on a lot of levels which didn't bother me too much: It's very much a creature of the '80s. The villain ("Angel") is a psychotic, super-powered, possibly randomly catatonic, computer nerd who has broken out of the insane asylum to hunt down his (ex-?) wife ("Anita") and son ("Tony") who, since they're Sicilian, are in the mafia's equivalent of the Witness Protection Program. (Don't ask a lot of questions.)
Angel is a typical '80s era slasher. He has supernatural strength—even while apparently being catatonic and IV drip fed for 18 months—and no emotional content. He's also a computer wiz, with Farris trading on '80s fears of any computer being able to connect to any other computer. In fact, he finds Anita and Tony by locating their computer which appears to be a standard PC and has no earthly reason to be connected to anything, much less running a server that could allow the remote control effect that Angel pauses his killing spree to arrange.
Again, didn't really bother me. I was prepared to give the book four stars because it was more or less what I expected, if a little sloppier than I'd hoped for. It's also terribly contrived in a lot of ways. Clay has night blindness which, okay, it's a fine device for a horror/thriller. Angel has a catch phrase though, "Do you love me?" which is (besides being the '80s-ist thing ever) "meh" but used to trigger Anita by having Clay say it at what seemed to be really awkward time.
All that aside, what really did bug me was that Farris cheats at the end in some pretty significant ways, which I will block out with spoiler tags herein.
So, that dropped the book in my esteem. A lot of books of the time (and doubtless now, for that matter) seem to be written in a "cinematic" style, as in I'm-hoping-someone-makes-this-into-a-movie, and this book felt like it was made to be a vehicle for Chuck Norris (Silent Rage anyone? No?) or some other B-level actioner.
Which, hey, a man's gotta eat and Farris probably liked the sweet, sweet movie dosh from The Fury but it wouldn't be until 2006's "Masters of Horror" that his writing got filmed. And this year he's got "Horrorshow" coming out, so maybe that will be good.
But this was a little disappointing.
October 24, 2023
No one can stop Dark Angel... His heritage is violence and terror, a creature nightmare who kills without warning or mercy. Only once has his prey survived and, scarred emotionally and physically, his wife Anita has fled to the sanctuary of Lostman's Bayou with their son, Tony. There she rents the house of Clay Tomlin, an ex-naval pilot who has night blindness.
First published in 1987, I have somehow avoided John Farris until now (after a discussion with my friend, Gary McMahon, I think I was getting him confused with John Saul) but decided to jump into this one and I’m really pleased I did. Typical of its time period - and not supernatural, as the blurb might lead you to expect - this is wonderfully written, with a great grasp of character, a keen sense of location and some nicely use suspense and violence to punctuate the narrative. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and look forward to exploring more of his back catalogue. Well worth a read and I highly recommend it, even though most horror fans (unlike myself) will already be keen readers of Farris.
First published in 1987, I have somehow avoided John Farris until now (after a discussion with my friend, Gary McMahon, I think I was getting him confused with John Saul) but decided to jump into this one and I’m really pleased I did. Typical of its time period - and not supernatural, as the blurb might lead you to expect - this is wonderfully written, with a great grasp of character, a keen sense of location and some nicely use suspense and violence to punctuate the narrative. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and look forward to exploring more of his back catalogue. Well worth a read and I highly recommend it, even though most horror fans (unlike myself) will already be keen readers of Farris.
January 4, 2018
Surprisingly good read when you consider I got it out of the "For Free" box of my local library. When I was reading it kept making me think of the movie Halloween. In the case of this story though, it's not a brother and sister, but a husband and wife. It's not really a take off, or anything, but that's what was in my head.
It's a pretty fast paced easy read. A good book to enjoy on a chilly day with a cup of coffee.
It's a pretty fast paced easy read. A good book to enjoy on a chilly day with a cup of coffee.
June 7, 2020
Entertaining pulp fiction. Didn’t age particularly well. The language is pretty racist and misogynist, but I think that’s the characters and not the author. Not necessarily to the point of being offensive, just to the point of seeing how l times have definitely changed since this was written.
March 25, 2021
I kinda gave up halfway through. It's okay. I like the setting, and I like the characters well enough, I just wish there was a little more horror sprinkled throughout. I really enjoy how batshit insane the plot is though (the mafia is involved!)
October 6, 2023
I remember reading this as a kid, and thinking about it often I finally located it online (it was out of print). It was almost as good as when I first read it, but teenage me was obviously more easily impressed than 50's me! Still a bloody good read though!
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March 15, 2022De handen van MARK DRAVEN
February 4, 2024
I liked the suspense but don't think it needed the sex element
July 22, 2009
This is another of those I read in my teens; I must be going through a kind of revisionist period. I am certainly understanding a lot more of it than I did at the time! It's good stuff. I'm about a quarter of the way in.
November 25, 2019
* perplexed face *
not the Farris i was expecting
not the Farris i was expecting
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews