Light Before Day
by Christopher Rice
(Miramax)
At the age of 26, Light Before Day is already the third book Christopher Rice has published for Miramax Books, the first one, A Density of Souls, coming when he was 22. He also happens to be the son of Anne Rice. If that name doesn’t guarantee an unproven kid a mega-contract with a major publishing house, then no name does. Naturally, I was suspicious, but I was also curious–and a cursory glance at Light Before Day‘s first chapter revealed that, despite my misgivings, Rice’s prose is strong, with a steady, unassuming economy that sets him apart from his frequently flowery mom. Rice, who is gay, presents Adam Murphy, a young, homosexual journalist battling alcoholism, his mother’s untimely death, and his recent detachment from a brutal relationship with a violent control freak name Corey. When a news story breaks about a locally stationed Marine Corps pilot who flew his helicopter and three fellow officers into the ocean, Adam starts sniffing around. His investigation uncovers a depraved and dangerous trail of meth cooking and child pornography that leads tragically back to his ex-boyfriend.
Hyperactive plot twists abound, and Rice’s dialogue stays largely expository just to keep the reader caught up. Key details are repeated so many times it’s almost insulting, and Adam’s initially interesting emotional turmoil gets lost as he transforms from protagonist into Plot Development Machine. But then, such elements are an accepted and even embraced part of the genre Rice is emulating, and if you’re a fan of great noir writers like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, chances are you won’t even notice them. With its themes of love, loss, and drug addiction within the homosexual community, Rice’s tale is actually a rather exciting innovation on a classic formula: a genuinely hardboiled thriller that also happens to be gay.
There has been plenty of quality literary fiction with homosexual underpinnings that don’t call excess attention to themselves, but this is the first example I’ve seen in the pulp world. Rice already has two other novels under his belt, and Light Before Day shows why–he may have an old, familiar name, but he’s doing something very new.