cover image NIGHT VISIONS

NIGHT VISIONS

Thomas Richard Fahy, . . Dark Alley, $13.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-06-059462-6

Fahy's debut novel hovers uncertainly on the borders of the horror and suspense genres, much like his insomniac characters hover on the edge of sleep, yearning for unconsciousness but fearing the visions and nightmares they know they will find there. In present-day San Francisco, lawyer Samantha Ranvali's ex-lover Frank Bennett shows up asking her for help locating a missing woman for his employers, the Palici Corporation, a high-priced private investigative firm. Samantha, a severe insomniac, has just begun experimental treatment at a sleep disorder clinic. She's worried about the treatment and worried about Frank, but agrees to help him. Their investigation leads to a body, the first of many, that has been slashed and crucified. Meanwhile, flashbacks to the court of the historical German Count Hermann Carl von Keyserlingk—also an insomniac, and the man who hired Johann Sebastian Bach to write what will become known as the Goldberg Variations—prove crucial to the solution of the puzzle. The problematic finish of the book aims for stylish intrigue, but ends up as simply unclear and unsatisfying. Perhaps this is because the novel is intended as the first in a projected series of five using the same characters, but unless Fahy finds some way to put a little zip into the sleepy Samantha, readers will be disinclined to pick up the next installment. Agent, Elaine Markson. (Nov.)