A review by saluki
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny

5.0

The Game. In lonesome October.

Factual and fictional characters with their familiars assemble during October for a mysterious event due to unfold on Halloween night.

Jack (the ripper, good with a knife!) is a main character and the story is told from his familiar dog Snuff's point of view. In this game there are openers and closers. But openers and closers of what? Secret investigations, bartering and making deals for information is the name of the game and often carried out by the familiars. Unusual alliances, bizarre deaths, strange tools or artefacts to locate, and this horror-fantasy-mystery story slowly unfolds over the thirty-one days of October.

Well, it is fun to place these characters in literature and history even if their acts are surprising, yet the creepy tale is enhanced by the ingenius use of the familiars trying to solve the mysteries... these animal voices and personalities are superb. Zelazny is genius!

The perfect book to read on Halloween eve! Bloody brilliant!