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Nocturnal by Scott Sigler — book cover

Nocturnal

by Scott Sigler
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Overview

Scott Sigler reinvented the alien-invasion story in his bestselling novels Infected and Contagious… rebooted the biotech thriller in Ancestor…now, in his most ambitious, sweeping novel to date, he works his magic on the paranormal thriller, taking us inside a terrifying underworld of subterranean predators that only his twisted mind could invent.
 
Homicide detective Bryan Clauser is losing his mind. 
 
How else to explain the dreams he keeps having—dreams that mirror, with impossible accuracy, the gruesome serial murders taking place all over San Francisco? How else to explain the feelings these dreams provoke in him—not disgust, not horror, but excitement? 
 
As Bryan and his longtime partner, Lawrence “Pookie” Chang, investigate the murders, they learn that things are even stranger than they at first seem. For the victims are all enemies of a seemingly ordinary young boy—a boy who is gripped by the same dreams that haunt Bryan.  Meanwhile, a shadowy vigilante, seemingly armed with superhuman powers, is out there killing the killers.  And Bryan and Pookie’s superiors—from the mayor on down—seem strangely eager to keep the detectives from discovering the truth. 
 
Doubting his own sanity and stripped of his badge, Bryan begins to suspect that he’s stumbled into the crosshairs of a shadow war that has gripped his city for more than a century—a war waged by a race of killers living in San Francisco’s unknown, underground ruins, emerging at night to feed on those who will not be missed. 
 
And as Bryan learns the truth about his own intimate connections to the killings, he discovers that those who matter most to him are in mortal danger…and that he may be the only man gifted—or cursed—with the power to do battle with the nocturnals.
 
Featuring a dazzlingly plotted mystery and a terrifying descent into a nightmarish underworld—along with some of the most incredible action scenes ever put to paper, and an explosive, gut-wrenching conclusion you won’t soon forget—Nocturnal is the most spectacular outing to date from one of the genre’s brightest stars.  

About the Author, Scott Sigler

SCOTT SIGLER is a popular podcaster and the New York Times bestselling author of Infected, Contagious, and Ancestor.  He lives in San Francisco with his wife and their dog.
 
www.scottsigler.com

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Editorials

From the Publisher

"Sigler delivers again in this fiercely creepy page-turner."—San Jose Mercury News

"If you're a fan of police procedurals from Michael Connolly, Elmore Leonard or Joseph Wambaugh and you miss the bio-tech science fiction of the late, great Michael Crichton, you'll find "Nocturnal" a treat."—Huntington News  

"Sigler is in full control of his talent for sharp characterization and amazing visualization." — Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series

"Red meat for readers who wish Harry Potter had swapped his YA credentials for a badge and gun." — Kirkus Reviews 

"Some of the most beautiful carnage we've seen in ages."—io9.com 

"A terrifying science thriller that reads like Silence of the Lambs as written by Michael Crichton. Inventive and deeply disturbing." — Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Assassin's Code

"Will make the end-of-year favorite lists for mysteries, thrillers, science fiction, horror, and yes, just plain old fiction, period. If you are a fan of genre fiction, you have to read Nocturnal."—BookReporter.com

"For fans of realistically presented horror fiction, this is a must-read.”—Booklist

"A hugely enjoyable read by an author who continues to grow."—British Fantasy Society 
 
"One of the most original pieces of genre fiction I have read in a long time. Sigler is like Stephen King with a huge dose of testosterone and adrenaline."—Crimespree Magazine 

Kirkus Reviews

A genre-bending urban fantasy that pits San Francisco's Finest against a subterranean horde of monsters who threaten the human race. Inspector Bryan Clauser, SFPD, is disturbed because he keeps dreaming of crimes that come horrifyingly true when he's awake. Rex Deprovdechuk, 13, is disturbed because the older kids bully him when he's at Galileo High and his mother beats him when he's not. Aggie James is disturbed because someone has snatched him from the streets of San Francisco, where he's made his home ever since things went terribly wrong in his life, and chained him up in an underground realm of mutants who keep taking away his fellow prisoners and killing them one by one. These three unlikely combatants are brought together by a series of murders that seem at first to be the work of a human killer. In short order, someone kills a pedophile priest, a cop newly promoted from Vice to Homicide and several of Rex's teenaged tormentors. Rex and Bryan, not to be outdone, get to taste blood themselves, and very tasty it is too. Sigler (Ancestor, 2010, etc.) drops hints of the paranormal from the beginning, but it's not till halfway through that his tale jumps the shark by means of forensic findings that mark the killers as both human and bestial--and indeed as rather close blood relatives. Once they realize what they're up against and see that the police department and the city government are anything but trustworthy allies, Bryan and his motley crew shift from police-procedural mode to save-the-world heroics, even when "they were outnumbered four to one by motherfucking monsters with guns." A bait-and-switch for fans of police noir, but red meat for readers who wish Harry Potter had swapped his YA credentials for a badge and gun.

Book Details

Published
January 8, 2013
Publisher
Crown Publishing Group
Pages
576
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780307952752

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