‘Ka is a friend to evil as well as good. It embraces both…’
With the arrival of Stephen King’s new book Other Worlds Than These very much on the horizon, this has seen a renewed interest in the other two books in the Jack Sawyer trilogy – The Talisman and Black House. Co-written with celebrated horror author Peter Straub, The Talisman flirted with King’s Dark Tower series without ever properly committing to the link. Black House, however, dives straight into all things Dark Tower, and it’s a better book for it…
We reunite with Jack Sawyer about 25 years after the events of the The Talisman. The mother that he worked so hard to save has long since died. Jack himself is a retired detective, famous for apprehending a notorious serial killer a few years earlier. But now, there is a new serial killer on the loose, calling himself The Fisherman (in a macabre tribute to Albert Fish) and taunting local police in the fictional Wisconsin town of French Landing. But how does this link to Jack Sawyer’s past and who is the Crimson King?
As with much of King’s post-millenium output, Black House is a mixed bag. I like the plot, and the weaving in of Dark Tower lore is effective, but King and Straub take big swings on characters here and only some of them pay off. Henry, a blind DJ with numerous personas is one such example. The character veers between cartoonish and annoying and it’s a relief when he’s cut down in the third act. Jack himself continues to be fairly bland also. King has an annoying habit of making his protagonists perfect in every way and Jack falls into this trap. That being said, Charles Burnside is particularly effective villain, and the town of French Landing, a fictionalised version of Trempealeau, Wisconsin (a place where Straub used to holiday as a kid) is well fleshed out. There is also a group of intellectual bikers who dominate the third act that some will find terminally earnest but who I rather enjoyed. Mileage may vary. A metaphor that the lads themselves would surely appreciate.
While neither The Talisman nor Black House are minor undertakings (both are over 700 pages), King fans will find plenty to enjoy here and for Dark Tower heads such as myself, both books are pretty essential.