Ed Gorman's Cage of Night

I was earlier asking about misanthropy in crime fiction, but now I'm writing about a crime novel that's far from being misanthropic. Actually Ed Gorman's Cage of Night is anything but: it's a humane and warm story about people whose lives are petty and close to miserable, full of search for love that never seems to arrive. Gorman really feels for his characters, they are not just toys in a game. There's also nothing nihilistic about their misery and they don't go on a rampage shooting people or some such. They just try to cope. Sometimes something nice happens, but that's sometimes. Yet the story moves along in a nice pace - I couldn't stop reading, as the cliché goes. It was true this time.

I also admired how Gorman handles the very fine line between psychological suspense and supernatural horror. In the end, nothing is obvious.

This was my first novel-length Gorman, but it won't be the last.