We all know that Daniel Ransom is really Ed Gorman, and with the devoted following that Ed’s work has, I suppose it’s hard to consider any of his books actually forgotten. However, as far as I know this novel hasn’t been reprinted since its original publication seventeen years ago, and it’s not one that you hear all that much about, and it’s one that I’d never gotten around to reading until now, so . . .The prologue takes place in the 1940s, an era which Gorman recreates well, much as he does the Fifties and Sixties in some of his other books. Richard Candlemas is a lonely high school student with some sort of mysterious special powers that are vaguely sinister. Jump ahead to the Nineties, and Candlemas is the former director of the Perpetual Light Orphanage, an establishment that closed down years earlier after a tragic car wreck claimed the lives of one of its staffers and several students. I use the word “students” because Perpetual Light, ostensibly an orphanage, was actually a school where Richard Candlemas and the people who worked for him tried to find children with psychic powers and help them develop those powers.
When one of Perpetual Light’s instructors is murdered in Chicago, a former student (the sister of one of the girls killed in the car crash) is drawn into the investigation and develops a romance with the police detective handling the case. Someone starts stalking the woman, there are more murders, the scope of the case expands to include some shadowy operatives who claim to be working for the government, and the woman finds evidence that her sister may still be alive after all, as impossible as that seems.
Gorman weaves all these plot strands together with an expert hand, bringing in a number of surprising twists along the way, but as usual in one of his novels, the characters and the little touches of humanity are the real highlights. Everybody in THE LONG MIDNIGHT seems to be carrying his or her own load of melancholy, which is not to say that the book is without hope or even an occasional bit of humor. This is a novel that’s difficult to classify. It’s part thriller, part horror, part science fiction. Mainly, though, it’s a great yarn that races along, inhabited by characters the reader cares about. That makes it well worth seeking out and reading. Highly recommended.
9 comments:
I knew that Ed Gorman was really Ed Gorman, but didn't know Daniel Ransom was too. I'll be on the lookout for this one.
Actually, I did not know this. I must have been living under a rock. Cool to find out though.
Wow. This is very different from this books I've read. On the lookout.
I know that Ed, for the most part, dismisses his work as Ransom, but he really did some great work under that name, and this featured book is certainly one of them. SERPENT'S KISS is another good one, and I really enjoyed his two sci-fi novels (ZONE SOLDIERS and FUGITIVE STARS). Some of his older horror novels, like THE BABYSITTER and NIGHTMARE CHILD are also quite good, as are many of the others...I think Ed too quickly negates their entertainment value. No, they're not up to the standard he's set for works under his own name, but they're immensely readable.
~ Ron C.
I should clarify here I guess. The Ransoms that I think are decent enough are Serpent's Kiss (my favorite), Long Midnight, Nightmare Child and the two sf novels. The rest are to my reckoning c-r-a-p.
For ages Gorman was one of those people I kept meaning to get around to but never did. Recently I have, and the first ones I read were the Leo Guild westerns. These are just absolute knockouts, especially "Death Ground". I'm currently working my way through the Robert Payne and Sam McCain series. I've only read the first Payne novel but I've read the first four McCains and just love them. The mystery element is the weakest part of them, but the regular characters and the 50s-60s setting are just great. Anyway, I'm completely sold on Gorman and plan to read whatever I can find. I seem to recall reading a couple of the Ransom novels back in the 80s, but back then I'd never heard of Gorman. I don't recall which ones I read, but they didn't make any great impression on me.
Ed, you should add THE FORSAKEN to the list of good Ransoms. It's one of the few books I can remember that made me break down and bawl like a baby. And I don't mind admitting that (too much).
James--you know I'd completely forgotten that one. I dimly remember a large section of it being removed by the editor and how that colored my view of the book. I also dimly remember that being my first really long book and how good it felt to deal with characters at that length. I'm not even sure I have a copy. But thanks.
The Sharpshooter is also a pretty good Daniel Ransom Western. Like James so aptly describes it, the "touches of humanity" and "loads of melancholy" that the main character seems to be carrying are also highlights in that book.
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