All and all I could only think of one word that perfectly describes John Saul’s In the Dark of the Night: mediocre.

It was not gripping in the least. Unlike some of Saul’s other books it was not a page turner. There was some suspense near the end but it still left a lot to be desired. I could have cared less what happened to those teenagers. They were very shallow, high school kids who wanted to get laid on vacation. The old man and his rickety dog were perhaps the most interesting characters in the story, though they only appeared now and again.

I do not read Saul for his writing and with a badly carried out plot and characters with zero depth I quickly lost interest. It was not terrible, at least he kept up the pace to keep the string of events semi-interesting, but it was not what I expected from him. Sometimes surprises can be pleasant but in this case it took a negative turn.

John Saul had an intriguing idea that fell flat on its face. I’ll give him props for an interesting plot but that can not carry the weight of a thoroughly chilling story, which this was not. This novel has soured me on Saul for awhile but I will surely return for him later after the monotony of this book wears off.

This could have been so much better. The idea for the story is unique, but he went nowhere with it nowhere fast. I had high hopes for it, but I was sorely disappointed. I’m glad I got it from the library!