Wednesday, December 3, 2014

When Night Comes by Dan Walsh

Jack Turner comes back to Culpepper to give a series of lectures for his old history professor. Within days, he starts having bizarre experiences at night. Like he's traveling back in time, experiencing the epic events in his lectures firsthand. He has no control over these experiences and can't make them stop.

Joe Boyd thought he'd left big city crime back in Pittsburgh when he took a detective job in Culpepper, Georgia, a sleepy southern college town. His peaceful life ends when two students turn up dead in two weeks. The coroner is saying natural causes, but something doesn't add up.

Rachel Cook, a teaching assistant at Culpepper, can't believe Jack is back in her life again. She's had a crush on him since she was fourteen, but Jack never knew. He instantly seems attracted to her, but she can tell...something is deeply troubling him.

Watching all this from a distance is Nigel Avery. He's certain this experiment's about to unravel. It'll be his job to tie up all the loose ends when it does.


My Review:
Ever wake from a nightmare and think that it was real? Of course, as the head clears, you realize that it was only a bad dream. The protagonist in this novel experiences bad dreams that are quite believable, and he cannot understand why. As his head clears, the dreams seem even more like real life memories! How could this be?

To complicate matters, there are some unusually strange deaths in this quiet, small college town. As the reader turns page after page, tension mounts. If I were this character, I'm not certain that I could let myself fall asleep.

The author's extensive research shows in his writing, giving the reader a close-up look into history. Dan Walsh has effectively written a hold-your-breath thriller. I recommend it.

Thank you to Bainbridge Press for my copy.