The Night Class - Softcover

Piccirilli, Tom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0843951257 ISBN 13: 9780843951257

Publisher: Leisure Books, 2002

Synopsis

When he returns to college after winter break, Cal Prentiss is stunned to discover that someone was brutally murdered in his dorm room while he was gone, and as he sets out to find the truth about the horrible crime, he comes face to face with a dark evil. Original.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Piccirilli's predilection for emotionally scarred protagonists embarking on soul-searching quests (The Deceased; Hexes) runs amok in this hyperventilating horror mystery. Caleb Prentiss, upperclassman at an unnamed northern college, returns from Christmas break to discover that Sylvia Campbell, an 18-year-old student with falsified transcripts, was slaughtered in his room during the school break. In his mind, Sylvia becomes linked with his beloved older sister, whose suicide has left him tortured with guilt since childhood. Cal's obsession with investigating a murder that the school has inexplicably hushed up drives him to break into the library basement where Sylvia's effects are stored and to rifle registrar files in search of a clue to her demise. As dark secrets implicating the school's exploitative faculty come to light, Cal finds his life and those of his closest friends in jeopardy. The novel draws on the venerable tradition of stories that plumb the unbridgeable gulf between school learning and life lessons, but Piccirilli goes overboard in his efforts to give events philosophic weight. The text is freighted with unmerited allusions to faith and forgiveness and with snips of brooding song lyrics that are more pretentious than profound. Most of the major characters are prone to martyrlike behavior: a perfectionist premed student gives her body to keep her grades; a voluptuous ethics student works at a strip joint; and Cal himself's hands develop stigmata every time a murder occurs. All but Piccirilli's most devoted fans will find their interest in this tortuous tale out of school to be purely academic. (Dec.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review:

"...draws on the venerable tradition of stories that plumb the unbridgeable gulf between school learning and life lessons..." -- Publishers Weekly

“All serious students of dark literature are urged to enroll in THE NIGHT CLASS. This is one course you won’t want to drop.” -- Cemetery Dance

“Loaded with grim characters, an unusual plot, and a murky, almost surreal atmosphere, THE NIGHT CLASS is a must-read for fans of the macabre.” -- Masters of Terror

“Piccirilli – America’s Fellini of horror fiction – stirs up a surreal stew of ambitions gone astray, romance, sex, madness and murder...” --Richard Layman, author of AMONG THE MISSING and BITE

About this edition

• Publisher: Leisure Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0843951257
• ISBN 13: 9780843951257
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288