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Ashley Cordova was the 24-year-old daughter of Stanislaus Cordova, the brilliant and reclusive horror film director whose movies inspired a cult following. As a child, she was a piano prodigy; now, she’s been found dead of an apparent suicide at the bottom of an elevator shaft in an abandoned warehouse in Manhattan.
When veteran journalist Scott McGrath learns about her death, he is sure there’s more going on than a suicide. He knows a great deal about her filmmaker father, and even Ashley, from the copious research he conducted a few years before on Cordova. He had become convinced that Cordova was more than just a filmmaker with a strange philosophy on life; he was dangerous, and too many bad occurrences were linked to him. But after lots of legwork and then some damning information given to him by a mysterious inside source, his work was publicly discredited and he was sued for slander by Cordova’s attorneys.
Since then, McGrath’s reputation has been sullied and his marriage ruined, and he’s been lying low. But Ashley’s death draws him back in to the old investigation, the draw irresistible to learn more, to prove he wasn’t a hack, to redeem himself, to finally find the truth.
As he begins looking into the death, two young people he questions end up following along, despite his efforts to get rid of them and work alone. But they become invaluable help, the three an unusual team. They venture into some of the murkiest corners of the filmmaker’s life as they follow the path of Ashley’s final weeks of life. It takes them into darkness and danger, and this time McGrath could end up not just losing his marriage and his reputation as a journalist, but experiencing far worse.
Night Film is mesmerizing. The atmosphere is so distinctive and Cordova such a real character, a looming menace over the whole story, even as his whereabouts are unknown, even as it’s impossible to know exactly what information that’s rumored about him is true — and that makes the story even more unnerving. The worst could be true, or it could all just be myth grown up around a very secretive man. The experience for me was much like reading Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind and its sequels: falling into a gothic story that’s been crafted by a brilliant writer. I’m so glad I finally picked up this novel (although, of course, I’d have been happier if it didn’t have so much bad language).
Rated: High, for about 3 dozen uses of strong language, plus other instances of milder language and a noticeably high number of uses of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content is fairly minimal. There is occasional violence but there’s more overall a feeling of danger permeating the story rather than many overt acts of violence. There are a number of references to dark magic and the use of some plants or drugs with strong effects.
