Nightwing

By: Martin Cruz Smith

Narrated by: Richard Ferrone

From Martin Cruz Smith, the internationally bestselling author of Gorky Park, comes a reissue of Nightwing, the million-copy bestseller that Stephen King called “one of the best horror novels in the last twenty years.”

As darkness gathers, the sky is filled with frantic motion and maddening murmurs. In an effort to end the world, an unhappy, aging Native American shaman invokes the Hopi god of death. Those around him remain skeptical, dismissing him as crazy old man. Then they discover his mutilated, bloody body and soon other similarly disfigured bodies begin to appear. Horses, sheep, cattle—no living thing is safe. But what is causing the horrible deaths? Deputy Sheriff Duran is called back to the reservation to investigate. Immediately, Duran recognizes the significance of the shaman’s spell and, with the help of two scientists, he works to combat the supernatural scourge—before there’s nothing left to save.

Written “in the tradition of Stephen King” (Kirkus Reviews), Nightwing is part love triangle, part Native American case study, part supernatural thriller…and “genuinely horrifying” (The Washington Post Book World).

Like Moby Dick was to whales, Nightwing is to bats

I got this book because I enjoy the author. This was certainly a major departure from his Russian crime novels. This seems to have been an extremely well-researched book on bats and vampire bats specifically. Also author delved headfirst into the culture of the Hopi tribe. I would be interested to see what is said about the authenticity of his comments on both bats and the Hopi tribe, but hopefully, he got things right. The story itself was quite fascinating and the bats made for exceptionally "good" villain characters. It took a while for me to care about the main hero character but he grew on me. The ending may have been a bit expected, but I'm glad it didn't end up in an apocalyptic fashion.

Excellent

I highly recommend this novel. I’ve read several by this author. In my opinion, this is one of his best.

Brilliant AND gruesome!

This book does for vampire bats what “Jaws” did for white sharks. There is a great deal of important knowledge about bats in general, Native American culture, and the conflict between culture and business. It is very much worth reading.

DETAILS!

Someone should have researched how to pronounce some of the words that are are regional to South West USA. Very distracting.

A Departure For Smith

I sure wish that Smith would write more horror novels, because Nightwing is one scary book. It keeps your attention throughout. There is plenty of suspense and action....even supernatural and Native American mythology. Solid characters, solid plot, solid narration.....highly recommended. One of my favorite reads this year.