First published in 1983; published digitally by Open Road Media on November 25, 2014
Notable for its intricacy of plotting and depth of characterization, Escape the Night interweaves the lives of a number of characters while building a tight story. I liked it more than some of Richard North Patterson's recent fiction.
The backdrop to Escape the Night is a publishing dynasty. Peter Carey's grandfather, John "Black Jack" Carey, co-founded the firm. He built the business with ruthless efficiency. When Peter was a child, his father, Charles, and his uncle, Philip, competed for its control. Missing from the equation, and from Peter's life, is his mother. The novel begins with Allie Carey giving birth to a baby she does not want. It moves forward a few years to reveal Allie's strained relationship with Charles, whose relationship with his father and brother is equally strained. The brothers are divided in their response to HUAC's demands that they not publish "subversive" books, while a HUAC investigator takes Charles' defiance personally.
Peter is nearly 30 when the story resumes. He has nightmares that he doesn't understand. Nor does he understand why he lost the memories of his childhood. Peter is poised to take control of the publishing company just as a wealthy businessman named Clayton Barth is attempting to acquire it. The genesis of Barth's interest in the business lies in John Carey's past. Peter and his uncle Philip become locked in a conflict that centers on Barth's bid for ownership.
Patterson takes his time to build characters and suspense. During the first half of the novel, it is clear that something will threaten one or more of the central characters, but the source of the threat is not immediately apparent. Will this be a novel of brother against brother? Overzealous law enforcement agent against innocent victim? Aggrieved descendent seeking revenge for sins committed against a father? As possibilities unfold, Patterson holds the reader's attention with an intricate family drama that avoids melodrama. Still more questions arise: Why does Peter hate Philip with so much passion? What memories has Peter suppressed?
Patterson also builds tension with the setting -- a menacing city, violent posters, lurking strangers. Danger seems to be everywhere, leaving the reader to wonder where it will strike. Patterson fashions some truly warped characters, including a former CIA assassin, the HUAC investigator, and Clayton Barth, but they are all convincingly nuanced. He also creates sympathetic, troubled characters, including Charles' secret lover and that woman's brother, a therapist who is haunted by his mother's suicide, by his friendship with Charles, and by his interpretation of Peter's nightmares.
Escape the Night is written in a cinematic style, with jump cuts and multiple images flashing through Peter's mind. Some of that (particularly all the one sentence paragraphs) is overdone. Multiple murders, framed suspects, and a desperate man in a tightening noose give the plot a Hitchcockian feel. The plot becomes a bit too convoluted at the end, demanding that the reader accept too many improbabilities at one time, and the climax is too obvious, but those flaws diminished my enjoyment of the story by only a small degree.
RECOMMENDED