Our reviews of
Nightfall by Stephen Leather
Genre
Mystery (View all)
Synopsis:
'You're going to hell, Jack Nightingale': They are words that ended his career as a police negotiator. Now Jack's a struggling private detective and the chilling words come back to haunt him.Nightingale's life is turned upside down the day that he inherits a mansion with a priceless library; it comes from a man who claims to be his father, and it comes with a warning. That Nightingale's soul was sold at birth and a devil will come to claim it on his thirty-third birthday just three weeks away.Jack doesn't believe in Hell, probably doesn't believe in Heaven either. But when people close to him start to die horribly, he is led to the inescapable conclusion that real evil may be at work. And that if he doesn't find a way out he'll be damned in hell for eternity.
Tony's Review
Reviewed: March 2010
Jack Nightingale was a police negotiator, who resigned and became a private detective after failing to stop a young girl jumping from an apartment window to her death, followed by her father at a later date when confronted by Jack about his sexual abuse of the girl. He is finding the going tough as a PD, but things appear to be taking a turn for the better when he finds he has inherited an old mansion from someone claiming to be his father. This is a mystery in itself, as Jack had been brought up quite normally by his parents, who had died some years before. In due course he goes to inspect the mansion, and discovers a library of occult books in the basement, which could only be accessed via a secret panel. Throughout the story, various people, some of them strangers, had suddenly said to him, 'You're going to hell, Jack Nightingale', and he's also been having some other weird experiences. By reading some of the books in the library, he begins to realise that there is some evil influence affecting his life. His investigation now takes him into the darkness of this evil. This book is the 21st book written by this author. It's the first I've read. He's a terrific writer, and has well earned the following he has. I will certainly have to read some of his earlier books.