“By virtue of being smart, scathing, and verbally inventive to an astonishing degree, David J. Schow distinguished himself early on as one of the most interesting writers of his generation. In BULLETS OF RAIN, he has given us his boldest, most audacious fiction to date. Here, all of Schow’s glittering weapons are sharper than ever before.” — Peter Straub Elements of Panic Room collide with Memento in this dark and suspenseful novel from the screenwriter of The Crow. Recently widowed Arthur Latimer has become a recluse within the blueprint of his specially designed storm-proof home, fortressed in against his feelings of abandonment and loss. But his convenient, cocooned, and secure life falls under attack when he is inexorably magnetized to the bizarre weekend party taking place at a neighboring house down-beach from him. Suddenly Art begins to doubt everything he sees: Was the unannounced visit from an old friend a hallucination? Is he receiving messages from his dead wife in the form of bottles found in the sea? And shouldn’t he warn those oblivious partygoers about the incoming storm, the biggest hurricane ever to hit the Pacific Northwest? Art’s inner and outer realities are turned upside down; nothing is as it appears to be. And he is about to be plunged into a world more brutal and illusive anything he has ever imagined. Schow is a recognized name in the horror field, credited with coining the term splatterpunk and probably best known for his screenplay of the cult film The Crow . (This may be part of the reason this novel often seems more like a screen treatment than a full-bodied piece of fiction.) Evoking both John Fowles' The Magus and Ed Woods' Glen or Glenda (but leaning heavily toward campy schlock rather than higbrow lit), Schow experiments with the concepts of sexual identity, personality disintegration, and megalomania. A recluse living near the ocean gets mixed up in a confrontation with a bunch of people from a nearby house who have been fed a cocktail of mind-altering drugs. There's also a hurricane brewing. It's all fairly predictable with the exception of a gender switch involving the main character. On the plus side, the writing is generally smooth, the dark-and-stormy-night settings are well crafted, and the characters are interesting if not always believable. Schow doesn't quite make this odd book work, but his considerable following will want to see for themselves. Elliott Swanson Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved “BULLETS OF RAIN is a highly original, boldly conceived psychological thriller observed with the rapt eye and assassin’s sting of the artist as fer-de-lance.” - John Farris, author of The Fury and the Power “By virtue of being smart, scathing, and verbally inventive to an astonishing degree, David J. Schow distinguished himself early on as one of the most interesting writers of his generation. In BULLETS OF RAIN, he has given us his boldest, most audacious fiction to date. Here, all of Schow’s glittering weapons are sharper than ever before.” - Peter Straub “David Schow’s BULLETS OF RAIN is a thriller, a literary metaphor, and one dark speeding bullet of a novel. Edgy, insightful, and fearless, it’s a book I couldn’t put down.” - Joe R. Lansdale, Edgar Award winner and author of A Fine Dark Line “A jagged nightmare spiked with charm, melancholy and vicious intelligence. Don’t accept this novel’s invitation to party unless you’re prepared to be dragged to some very dark places --and to love every step of the way. Like being punched in the face by a poet.” - Michael Marshall Smith, author of Only Forward “A thriller, a literary metaphor, and one dark speeding bullet...Edgy, insightful, and fearless...I couldn’t put [it] down.” - Joe R. Lansdale “Schow is so fine a writer, so imaginative a storyteller, that he deserves a place in all contemporary fiction collections.” - Library Journal “Take no prisoners fiction that rarely pulls away from the grisly heart of the matter, Schow’s prose is extremely cinematic, filled with pungent dialogue, sharp, memorable characters, and a sense of macabre irony worthy of Alfred Hitchcock.” - San Francisco Chronicle "[A] sinuous psychological thriller. Schow works suspenseful sleight-of-hand...[The] thunderclap climax…is a measure of coolly calculated audacity." - Publishers Weekly Widowed architect Arthur Latimer has become a recluse in his own home: a storm-proof fortress that doubles as a shrine to his dead wife. But the outside world beckons in the form of a bizarre party downbeach. Now, just as the biggest hurricane ever to hit the Pacific Northwest rolls in with deadly force, Art is subjected to intrusions from his past and invasions from the present. And soon he begins to doubt everything he sees or thinks he already knows. And soon you may too. David J. Schow is a multimedia writer whose work includes the script for the darkcult classic, The Crow . His award-winning short stories are featu