Senseless

In his latest novel, Malfi (Black Mouth, 2022) introduces us to three very interesting people: a cop investigating a homicide that has unsettling echoes to a one-year-old murder; an about-to-be-married woman who meets her fiancé's son for the first time, and who senses something wrong with the young man; and a man who calls himself a Human Fly, whose attraction to an unusual woman borders on the psychopathic. It's not surprising that these three characters and their stories begin to weave themselves together (we expect that); what's surprising is the secrets that are revealed, the darkness that is exposed, the terror we are about to experience. In terms of story, Malfi never repeats himself: each book is something entirely new. On the other hand, when it comes to his characters, he's wonderfully consistent: he writes about people who feel abundantly real, who have complex motivations, who struggle to reconcile the good and evil that live inside them. Is this his best book? Considering the depth and high quality of his backlist, that's impossible to say. But it sure is good.

Malfi (Come with Me) takes readers on a tense thrill ride that evokes the thickest and nastiest paperback horror novels of decades past. In the first of three connected threads, a mutilated body in the California dessert draws Los Angeles detective Bill Renny back into a murder case he hoped would stay closed. Meanwhile, in the Hollywood Hills, struggling writer Maureen and her fiancé, Greg, celebrate their engagement--until Greg's violently unstable son, Landon, crashes the party. When a partygoer confides that he's discovered evidence connecting Landon to the recent murder, Maureen is drawn into the same web of intrigue as Bill. The final and freakiest thread follows Toby Kampen, who identifies as "the Human Fly" and haunts the dive bars of downtown L.A. When he meets a woman who might be a vampire, he devotes himself to proving he's worthy of a monstrous transformation. Malfi allows these characters to orbit and intersect with each other in surprising ways as the plot's complex mysteries play out, balancing enjoyably creepy supernatural elements with a gritty detective yarn. Some sections feel shaggy, and the ending isn't particularly neat, but there's fun to be had in all the goopy, gory weirdness. Seasoned horror readers will find plenty to enjoy in Malfi's darkly intricate world of arcane surprises. (Apr.)