Noir: Three Novels of Suspense
Although Matheson is known primarily for science fiction and horror stories, his first two novels were suspense paperbacks. Those 1953 works,Someone Is BleedingandFury on Sunday,kick off this troika, followed byRide the Nightmare, also published in paper in 1959.Fury, the tale of a deranged concert pianist, was written in three days and manages the rare feat of being relentlessly tedious (or perhaps tediously relentless). But the other two novels are minor gems that sparkle in this new setting.Someone Is Bleedingfollows a young writer in Santa Monica as he falls into a fatal attraction with a seemingly sweet woman who swears all men are pigs.Ride the Nightmaredelivers a potent narrative jolt as another young Californian tries to protect his wife and daughter from desperate characters out of his sordid, hidden past. In delivering high-tension suspense, Matheson displays an uncanny knack for showing the physical toll fear and desperation take on his characters, grounding them in grim, sweaty-palmed reality even as they face often-outlandish situations.Frank SennettCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved