Darkness Comes (or Darkfall) is a novel written by Dean Koontz. Released in 1984, it tells of a houngan unleashing demons in New York City as the city is unnaturally snowed over.
Characters[]
- Jack Dawson - a New York City detective
- Baba Lavelle - a chaneller of the Power and a bocor
- Penny and Davey Dawson - Jack's children
- Rebecca Chandler - Dawson's partner
- Faye - Jack's cousin-in-law and the aunt of his children
- Keith - an uncle to Jack's children
- Gennaro Carramazza - the patriarch of the Carramazza family
- Dominick Carramazza - Gennaro Carramazza's brother
- Carver Hampton - a practicioner of white (or good) voodoo
- Walter Gresham - the Captain of Homicide
- Vince Vastagliano - a mobster killed in the Prologue
- Ira Goldbloom - a medical examiner
- Mrs. Quillen - Penny's teacher
- Nayva Rooney - Jack's housekeeper
- Ross Morrant - Vince's bodyguard
- Shelly Parker - Vastgliano's racist and egotistical girlfriend
Publisher's summary[]
STRANGE DAYS
Winter gripped the city. Terror gripped it, too. They found four corpsed in four days, each more hideous than the last.
STRANGE NIGHTS
At first the cops thought they were dealing with a psychopath. But soon they heard eerie sounds in the ventilation system. And saw unearthly silver eyes in the snow-slashed night.
FINAL HOURS
In a city paralyzed by a blizzard, something watches, something stalks...
Plot summary[]
Prologue[]
In the middle of the night, a young girl named Penny hears something scrabbling in the night. She considers waking up her cop father but doesn't want to be "treated like an infant". As such, she pursues the noise but it leaves the house before she can find it. Meanwhile, a mobster named Vince Vastagliano and his bodyguard are killed by a swarm of small rat-like creatures.
Part One[]
Chapter One[]
The next day, two detectives named Jack Dawson and Rebecca Chandler investigate the two murders. It is revealed that someone (or something) is killing mobsters throughout the city. Both the detectives believe it is a single maniac working to eliminate mobsters. While examining the bodies, they discover that Vince was killed in a locked bathroom. While speaking with the Narcotics detectives who were investigating Vastagliano, they learn that he was a weak link within the Carramazza family. Once Rebecca leaves, Jack asks if Vastagliano could have any ties with a voodoo practitioner known as Baba Lavelle. This leads to an argument between Jack and Rebecca. While Jack believes that voodoo has something to do with the unusual murders, Rebecca believes that there is a more logical answer to them.
Meanwhile, as the first snow of the year falls, Penny finds that her locker at her private school has been trashed. While she initially thinks that it is some stuck-up bullies, she realizes that they did not do it. Instead, her locker was seemingly torn up by rats. Meanwhile, Jack's housekeeper hears something scurrying through the house and chases it throughout the apartment.
Chapter Two[]
After examining Vastagliano's corpse, Jack and Rebecca question his girlfriend. Though Vince's girlfriend initially wants to say nothing, the two investigators are able to get her to confess that she knows about Baba Lavelle. She says that Lavelle is a rival drug dealer who the Carramazzas tried and failed to get rid of several times. She also reveals herself to be extremely racist, which makes Rebecca hate her. Shortly after this, Jack and Rebecca visit the medical examiner and learn from him that Vince and his bodyguard were seemingly bitten to death by small creatures.
While trying to get new supplies from the school's basement, Penny is found and menaced by a group of mysterious creatures with brightly-shining eyes. Before they can attack her, Penny is able to escape their clutches. Meanwhile, a construction worker sees similar creatures.
While questioning Vince's neighbors, Jack and Rebecca learn that there have been more murders. They learn that the most recent victim (Dominick) was the brother of the Carramazza family's patriarch (Gennaro) and that he was killed in a hotel. They discover that Dominick was killed just like Vastagliano and learn that the occupant of an adjacent room (who was shot at through the walls by one of Dominick's bodyguards) heard rats shortly before Dominick's death.
As a snowstorm rages, Baba Lavelle slinks into a shed nearby his hideout (which seemingly sits over a massive pit) and channels the forces of evil to kill his enemies. Shortly after this, the rat-like creatures that Penny spotted flood into Jack's apartment.
Chapter Three[]
After briefly speaking with their Captain, Jack and Rebecca are found by Gennarro Carramazza and asked to get into his limousine. Though Rebecca is hesitant to get into the limousine, Jack convinces her to. Gennarro reveals that Baba Lavelle has been attacking his family for weeks (managing to kill his beloved small dogs alongside his brother) and gives them a photo of Lavelle before asking them to do whatever they can to take out Lavelle.
After leaving the limousine, Jack (now armed with a photo of Lavelle) visits his contact within the voodoo world - a shop owner named Carver Hampton. When Jack shows Carver the photo of Lavelle, Carver realizes that he threw Lavelle out of his shop (as he refuses to sell products to bocors, practitioners of the evil side of voodoo) and that Lavelle retaliated by magically sending a snake as a warning. Believing that Lavelle could attack him, Carver absolutely refuses to help Jack and demands that he leaves.
Shortly after leaving Carver's shop, Jack notices a ringing payphone and feels an unearthly desire compelling him to answer it. Once he does, he makes contact with Baba Lavelle. Lavelle tells Jack to ignore the case and consider him to be nothing more than pest control. Jack refuses and is able to figure out Baba's motives - several years previously, his brother (a renowned investigative journalist) was killed by the Carramazzas. Baba is not working out of grief but out of the belief that not retaliating would make the dark gods ashamed in him. To get Jack to drop the case, Lavelle threatens the lives of his children - which only infuriates Jack and makes him absolutely certain that he will bring Lavelle to justice. Shortly after this phone call, Jack calls his cousins-in-law to pick his children up from school while Lavelle sets up a ritual to kill Jack's children.
While waiting for their aunt to pick them up, Penny and Davey discuss the somewhat recent death of their mother and what they would do if their dad died. Soon, Aunt Faye arrives. While Penny is walking to the car, she is grabbed by one of the "goblins" from inside the sewers. Though she is extremely disturbed by their mere presence, she is able to escape their grasp and make it to the taxi that Aunt Faye has hired.
Part Two[]
Chapter Four[]
After visiting Chief Gresham to set up a taskforce on the Lavelle murders and a protection detail for his children, Jack drives through the blistering snowstorm to Rebecca's apartment. Once inside, the two almost immediately begin making love. While doing this, Rebecca discusses what made her become a cop and become somewhat distant towards everyone around her. As a kid, her parents were murdered by a junkie and her grandparents both died before she turned eighteen. This made her hesitant to form bonds with anyone else - fearing that whomever she made the bond with would die. Jack is able to convince her that this is wrong and the two of them go back to making love.
Meanwhile, Baba Lavelle becomes worried that Jack (who has some unknown power that greatly disturbs Lavelle) could be strengthened by the brutal deaths of his children instead of weakened by it. He seeks guidance from his incorporeal allies - who tell him to make the deaths especially brutal. As such, Lavelle immediately rushes to his Pit to summon some of his otherworldly allies to murder Jack's children before sending a poltergeist to wherever Jack is. This poltergeist tears up Rebecca's apartment before Lavelle calls Jack to tell him about the immanent death of his children.
Chapter Five[]
As Lavelle's assassins (with whom he has established a psychic link) approach Penny, she can hear them and realizes that they are crawling through the vents in the apartment. Jack and Rebecca rush to Aunt Faye's apartment and arrive right before the assassins breach the apartment. As they crawl through the vents, Jack and Uncle Keith are able to see the malformed humanoid rat-sized assassins before fleeing from the room. With the children in tow, Jack and Rebecca (alongside Faye and Keith) reach an elevator and (after getting to the deserted lobby) depart the hotel. Jack tells his cousins to stay away while Lavelle's assassins are trying to hunt his children so that they do not become collateral damage.
While walking to Jack's car, Rebecca notices that two of the assassins are lurking inside of it. Though these assassins are able to get out of the car and grab for Davey and Penny, Jack is able to hold them off - and discovers that the assassins refuse to attack him. After tossing one of the assassins away, Jack meets back up with Rebecca and begins looking for any sort of transport or shelter on the streets. Unfortunately, the raging blizzard means that they are unable to find any pedestrians that could help them. As such, they are forced to bluff their way into a nearby apartment and hope that the assassins will not find them while they are hidden.
Chapter Six[]
After hiding in the apartment for several minutes, Jack notices that an entire horde of assassins has massed around them. Shortly before the assassins can swarm into their hiding place, their prey leave the apartment and cross over to another apartment before escaping onto the street. Once on the street, Jack is able to flag down a street department station wagon. While driving down the street, the drivers of the Jeep find one of the assassins and (assuming that it is a stray cat) drive towards it - allowing it to jump onto the windows and nearly break through the window before it is thrown off.
As the storm rages outside, Carver Hampton tries to muscle up the courage to help Jack. While he builds up the courage, he can feel the forces of pure evil that Baba Lavelle has opened a door to and is now holding at bay through his immense power. Back in Baba Lavelle's hideout, the pit that Lavelle uses to contact his otherworldly associates becomes deeper and wider.
Part Three[]
Chapter Seven[]
After returning to the precinct, Jack and Rebecca take two cars out of storage. While Rebecca drives around with the kids to keep them out of harm's way, Jack visits Carver Hampton. Carver reveals to Jack that Baba Lavelle has almost opened the gateway to Hell and that Jack's altruistic nature and actions have made him almost completely immune to the dark forces of voodoo. To strengthen Jack's abilities, Carver sets up a ritualistic bath.
Meanwhile, as Rebecca drives through the streets of New York, two assassins who clung to the car while it was in the precinct begin tearing at the car to get at their prey. Rebecca is forced to ditch the car and is fortunately right next to a church while doing this. Rebecca and the children rush to the church - which repels the assassins, though they are seemingly able to walk towards it with great effort. While the children are able to get in the church and shut its doors, Rebecca is left outside with the assassins.
Chapter Eight[]
After finishing the ritual, Jack gains the blessing of the Rada gods - allowing him to intrinsically know where Baba Lavelle is. While driving to Baba Lavelle's hideout with Carver Hampton, the two of them get ampoules of holy water from a nearby church. While this is going on, Rebecca is attacked by the assassins but is able to slip into the church. Though it seems like the assassins cannot breach into the church, a horde of assassins slip into the church and slowly circle around Rebecca and the kids.
Shortly after reaching Lavelle's hideout, Jack and Lavelle get into a shootout - with Carver being shot in the process. Lavelle is able to escape Jack and make his way to the pit but finds that it has considerably widened. Lavelle realizes that he has accidentally opened up the gates to Hell right before a massive Ancient One emerges from the depths of the pit and consumes him. As the Ancient One emerges, Jack throws an ampoule of holy water at it. This briefly keeps it at bay (and causes the assassins to dissolve into clay) but it is able to regenerate and grab Jack - causing him to bleed. When the blood falls on the pit, it causes the Ancient One to weaken. Jack realizes that his blood is as dangerous to the creatures of Hell as holy water and lets his blood fall into the pit until it closes shut - saving Rebecca and his children from death at the hands of the assassins. Shortly after this, Rebecca calls out her love for Jack and her lover hears this proclamation in the air.
See also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Moon | Dean Koontz | 1994 | A novel by the same author with similar themes |
| White Darkness | David A. McIntee | 1993 | A horror novel that also uses voodoo |
| The Forgotten Army | Brian Minchin | 2010 | A novel with a similar setting |
| The City of the Dead | Lloyd Rose | 2001 | A novel which also uses voodoo |
| The Serpent and the Rainbow | Wade Davis | 1985 | A work which possibly inspired this novel |
| Times Squared | Rick Cross | 2016 | A novel with a similar setting |
Sources[]
- Wikipedia
- Goodreads