Black Horizon

by Robert Masello

Pulled from the womb of his dead mother, Jack Logan was born lucky, a veritable miracle baby with a gift of second sight that helps him bring the dead back to life but that eventually leads to his exploitation and the horrible summoning from the souls ofthe recently deceased

Genres: Horror, Fiction

308 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1989

About the author

Robert Masello is an award-winning journalist, TV writer, and the bestselling author of many novels and nonfiction books. In addition to his most recent book, THE HAUNTING OF H.G. WELLS, he has written the #1 Amazon Kindle bestseller, THE EINSTEIN PROPHECY, and many other popular thrillers, including THE JEKYLL REVELATION, THE NIGHT CROSSING, BLOOD AND ICE, THE MEDUSA AMULET, and THE ROMANOV CROSS.
He is also the author of two popular studies of the Occult -- FALLEN ANGELS AND SPIRITS OF THE DARK and RAISING HELL: A CONCISE HISTORY OF THE BLACK ARTS.
His books on writing include WRITER TELLS ALL, A FRIEND IN THE BUSINESS, and the classroom staple, ROBERT'S RULES OF WRITING.
His TV credits include such popular shows as "Charmed," "Sliders," Early Edition," and "Poltergeist: the Legacy."
A native of Evanston, Illinois, he studied writing at Princeton University under the noted authors Robert Stone and Geoffrey Wolff, and served for six years as the Visiting Lecturer in Literature at Claremont McKenna College.
He now lives and works in Santa Monica, CA.

Reviews

[Marvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Black Horizon is one of 4 books by horror writer Robert Masello that have been reprinted as ebooks on July 1st, 2014 by Open Roads Media. I have not previously read Masello but he appears to be interested in writing about the supernatural as in topics of spiritualism, life after death, and spiritual communication. Black Horizon was originally published in 1989 and feels very much in the mainstream style of the supernatural fiction of that era. The novel is about a musician who literally brings a dying man back from the dead. The press picks up the story and a scientist, translate to "mad", persuades him to become a subject in his experiments. Needless to say, Dr. Sprague's "experiments" are not exactly approved by the Board of Behavioral sciences. The musician, Jack, is however beginning to see other apparitions, most importantly his mother who died when Jack was born. It is an interesting story with some nicely written parts. I especially was moved by a scene where a man dying of cancer believe Jack can heal him despite Jack's admonitions that he can not heal anyone. But overall, it felt a little too old fashioned and formula. None of the character really stood out and on their own. It was good enough to consider reading another of his novels or one of his non-fiction works. He seems to know a lot about the field of paranormal investigation. There is a number of passages that center around deprivation tanks which were a huge things in the 80s. Yet based on the high quality of good supernatural thrillers since the 90s, I am not sure Masello really stands up well...or at least this particular novel doesn't stand up well. Two and a half stars.

[RA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly interesting & entertaining story about death/the afterlife powers hidden in a musician in New York. It turns out he has "powers" related to his mother & his birth.

Kinda like it, but the nihilistic vision of the afterlife offered at the end was rather puzzling and put the central theme a downward spiral.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book - distracting editing?

As he has in his other books, we get to wind the path of mystery, action, hope, and the spiritual. At the same time the myriad of spelling errors in this book were distracting. I figured there couldn’t be that many in a public book so looked at them for codes, cyphers- but “alas” no,luck - just errors

[Ruby K. Schaeffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Black Horizon

Book kept my attention but it was quite annoying that there were so very many topographical errors. I'm surprised the publisher let it go to print this way.

[NINO · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tense

A easy to follow and a very well written. Recommend a good reading for all who love a good suspense.

[April McKay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, as usual.

I love Masello! All his books reach out and grab you and won't let go all the end! This one, unfortunately, had a lot of typos and such.