Several years back I read Tom Piccirilli’s Dead Letters, and gave it a negative review. It was the only thing I’d ever read by him, and for some reason his mixture of horror and noir just didn’t click for me. I may have to revisit that book, because I loved his Bram Stoker award winner, The Night Class. Interestingly, as the book came to a close, I went from thinking the dominant influences of Poe (“Tell Tale Heart) and Shakespeare (“Macbeth” “Out damned spot”) had shifted, with the big influence being, if anything, Jim Thompson. So much so (Piccirilli clearly knows the genre), that I’ve also added this book on my crime/noir shelf. Lines, of course, blur with the various genres. One could easily make the argument that The Killer Inside Me is also a horror novel. And as someone said, horror is not so much a genre but an emotion. For all of that, I’ll just simply say that The Night Class is one hell of a book.The Night Class tells the story of Caleb Prentiss, a senior college student struggling to hang on. Caleb is a binge drinker, and he has a horrible past, one where he witnessed his sister’s suicide. On top of that, upon his return to school after break, he finds that a girl has been murdered in his dorm room while he was away. No one wants to talk about it, and Prentiss, haunted and drunk, sees blood on the walls, his hands (as stigmata!), while hearing the voices of his sister and the murdered girl. Picirrilli’s depiction of Prentiss’disoriented state of mind here is outstanding, creating an oppressive and surreal atmosphere that feels like you’re caught in a David Lynch movie (and we know how creepy that can be). People say and do weird things, but can you trust Caleb’s account? The setting, a college, really adds to the horror. (If you were less than thrilled with your college days, this book is for you.) Friends cannot be trusted, while the teachers and the administration seem connected to something shadowy and controlling. I’ll say no more about the story because I don’t want to reveal too much. Piccirilli is probably one of the more literary horror writers I’ve run across in some time. It’s pulp, but very thoughtful pulp, the influences (see above) are incorporated seamlessly, and never feel tacked on in a name dropping Look-What-I’ve-Read sort of way. Piccirrilli strikes me as a pro, and I intend to read more by him. Highly recommended. 5 (within genre) stars.
Caleb is in the last year at university, struggling with his thesis, his girlfriend and a drinking problem. When he returns to school after winter break, he discovers that a female student had been murdered in his room, and that the evidence had been shoddily covered up. After a run in with his bullying Ethics professor, he retreats to a storage room under the university library where the dead girl's belongings are being stored. He he works on his thesis, and attempts to make sense of this mysterious woman's death and his own sister's suicide. When he is invited to a party at the house of the university's dean he begins to unravel a complex web of murder, sex and betrayal. This is an early book from Piccrilli, one of my favorite writers, a melancholy coming of age tale, with overtones of horror, crime and the supernatural. He would return to the school setting later in the excellent Shadow Season, but this book drifts on heavy dialogue and exposition, despite having some fascinating characters like the narcoleptic psychic Fuggy Fred, and Caleb's friend Melissa Lea. The story ends abruptly and hanging in midair, frustrating yet occasionally fascinating work from a writer of immense talent.
What do You think about The Night Class (2002)?
October 2012 -- Read to page 151 out of 278 pages.I gave this a decent go, but it's just weird and confusing. The premise was interesting: a college student returns from Winter Break to find that a girl had been killed in his dorm room. And it's got several elements that I always love in a story: a murder mystery with lots of snow and a college campus setting. But the style of writing just wasn't for me. Lots of dreamy, fantasy-type tangents, and the storyline jumping around in a confusing fashion. I only got as far along into the book as I did because there were portions that were more clear and realistic, which I enjoyed. But ultimately, after reading a few reviews and finding that a lot of readers didn't like the ending, I didn't feel that it was worth continuing. I hope I remember not to try anything more by this author!
—Kelly
This book was somewhat of a disappointment considering how much I liked Piccirilli's The Last Kind Words. It's well-written, and the basic plot is interesting, but Piccirilli simply fails to execute on this. I like a cerebral horror story as much as the next person but this book went over the top, with characters acting in bizarre and unnecessary ways and saying non-sensicle things which didn't serve to help the story at all. The resolution was an intersting concept but explained in such a bizarre and confusing way that it lost any intended effect. Piccirilli needed to tone down the dream-like way in which the story unfolds and just have the plot play out naturally, which I think could have worked effectively. Lots of promise that was never delivered.
—Gatorman
Who is Sylvia Campbell? She is the reason why I read all 278 pages of a novel that read like an eppisode of "Prety Little Liars". In a novel that was more concerned with informing me of issues concerning which character with a troubled background is sleeping with which other character who, woulden't ya know it, is attempting to escape a troubled background. In a novel that reads more like a hollywood tabloid I found myself worrying more about the STD's being passed around campus than I did abou
—Paul
