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John Saul has been a fixture on the horror and psychological thriller scene since 1976. Books like SUFFER THE CHILDREN and THE MANHATTAN HUNT CLUB have garnered for him a modicum of respect and notoriety; he has averaged a book a year for almost 30 years now. It accordingly is somewhat surprising that at a point when most other writers would have either hung up their spurs or phoned in their work, Saul has produced what is arguably his best work to date.
There is a subtle air of quiet menace that hangs over PERFECT NIGHTMARE from practically the first paragraph. Steve Marshall, the beneficiary of a job promotion, is preparing to move his family from Long Island to Manhattan. The familiar relocation problems that are part and parcel of such a move provide a backdrop --- and camouflage --- for a stalker who is plotting the kidnapping of Lindsay, the family's teenage daughter. Mother Kara's sense of uneasy but unspecified foreboding is pooh-poohed by the rest of the family until, alas, it is too late.
The novel's point of view, however, isn't limited to that of the uprooted and distraught family. Saul intersperses the Marshalls' reactions to the humdrum and nightmarish with commentary from the stalker as well, from failure to success. Saul then takes things a bit further, placing four suspects under a literary microscope while at the same time examining Lindsay's escape attempts and doling out, piecemeal, the "why" of the stalker's actions.
It is this latter element that ultimately makes PERFECT NIGHTMARE worth reading. In lesser hands this would be ghoulish entertainment, and nothing more. But Saul has honed his craft to the point where everyone is convincingly a suspect with the absolute worst of motives.
Saul has never written badly, but his more recent work, particularly of the past five years, has been possessed of the brilliance promised in the beginning and middle points of his career. If you haven't read him lately, now would be the time to return, and PERFECT NIGHTMARE would be the perfect place to start. Recommended.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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