The rain
The rain (original title: One Rainy Night ) is a horror novel by the American writer Richard Laymon . The English-language original version appeared in the United States of America in 1991 under the title One Rainy Night . The German translation was first published in 2009 by Heyne Verlag in Munich .
action
Colored high school student Chidi is murdered and burned on the football field in the small town of Bixby. A police officer wants to inspect the crime scene with a caretaker. Dark clouds rise and thick black rain falls over Bixby. He soaks the two, who suddenly taste the taste of blood on their tongues. They start attacking each other for no reason.
In several parallel storylines, the reader learns how the black rain is changing the inhabitants of Bixby - and those who have remained dry are fighting for their survival. The teenager Denise Gunderson, who takes care of little Kara with his neighbors Lynn and John Foxworthes, and has to defend himself against her boyfriend Tom, who is surprised by the rain. The Foxworthes themselves are in a restaurant when a murderous horde, drenched in black rain, tries to storm the building. The guests who remained dry barricade themselves and take up the fight with the black monsters.
At the same time, Maureen O'Casey is surprised by the strange rain while a pizza is being delivered. Driven by an irrepressible lust for murder, she goes for the recipient of the pizza: Buddy who is spending an evening with his friends. The reader realizes that Buddy and his two friends are the murderers of Chidis, who was banished from the football field. Buddy manages to overpower Maureen. After cleaning Maureen from the black rain in his bathtub, the unscrupulous Buddy rapes her. At this point, Maureen is again in control of her senses - as it turns out, the effects of the black rain can be ended by washing off.
The last main character is Trev. He is a police officer and takes the testimony of Lisa - Buddy's ex-girlfriend. Lisa has left Buddy for Chidi - and suspects that Buddy's act of revenge was behind the brutal murder of him. At the police station there is a sudden shooting by a police officer hit by the black rain. Trev can kill this one. Trev, Lisa and their mother Francine suspect relatively quickly that the rain is responsible for the transformation of people. Trev, protected by a garbage suit, and the two women first go in search of Maureen, Trev's secret love. When they don't find it, after a conversation the group comes up with a possible cause for the strange, black rain: the grandfather of the murdered Chidis is said to be able to use the dark magic. So Trev goes to see Chidy's grandfather. Once there, he discovers his grandfather who is obviously performing a voodoo ritual. Trev shoots the grandfather - and the black rain stops falling.
Before that, there is a showdown in the Foxworthes' house: Buddy and his friends, who want to silence Lisa, mistakenly suspect that Lisa works as a babysitter for the Foxworthes. When they find Denise, Kara and Tom, this does not relieve their thirst for murder. When the three seem already lost, Maureen appears and kills her tormentor Buddy. In the end, Lynn and John arrive at the house and hug their daughter Kara overjoyed - the cop Trev and Maureen finally find each other.
Reviews
Thomas Harbach complains at sf-radio.net that “ the book is not concluded satisfactorily, there is no catharsis, no classic showdown for the suffering of its many characters. In contrast to the often over-the-top, bloody final battles - see "The Game" or "The Island" - the end of the book is an anti-climax and seems written down without much thought . "
In summary, Harbach assesses the novel as follows: “ […]“ One Rainy Night ”[is] in terms of ideas one of Richard Laymon's better books, which suffers from a listless dissolution of the premise. The figures are described satisfactorily to very well. The narrative structure is much more stringent than in many of his other books. Above all, the author dispenses with the sometimes unnecessarily inflated and clichéd flashbacks, but develops his characters solely from the current plot . "
literature
Richard Laymon: Der Regen , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag Munich 2009. ISBN 978-3-453-67554-4
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Thomas Harbach: The rain by Richard Laymon. sf-radio.net, accessed January 25, 2013 .