In the 1880's Nathaniel Courtwright imprisons his demon-possessed son Nathan in the family mansion in the Maine town of Dark Harbour using a magickal rite. Unfortunately when a century has passed all memory of this has long passed and the Courtwright's have donated the land where the old mansion stood to be redeveloped as a Drug Rehabilitation Centre. As the machines destroy Nathan Courtwright's prison he is freed to begin again.

At around this time Paul Stanford returns to his home town - Dark Harbour - after being away for ten years, driven by a sense of wanderlust and plagued by dark dreams. He hopes that a reconciliation with his high school sweetheart, Dr. Jenny Gazio, might be lying in his future and that his days of wandering and feeling ill-at-ease and without a sense of belonging might finally come to an end.

But on the day of his return a series of bizarre and very gruesome murders begin, and the local police deputy, a determined paramour of Dr. Gazio, seems to believe Paul is guilty of these killings, or at least, is determined to prove he is, irrespective of the actual facts.

This novel is going to be plagued by comparisons with Stephen King. The setting being in Maine USA doesn't help it any. But the plot also bears string similarities to some of Mr. King's work. That said, however, this book and the author do not suffer too greatly from that comparison.

Howard Hopkins has a fine clear, easy-to read writing style. He tells a good story, and creates a very well paced plot that occurs in a fully fleshed out three dimensional world. Some of his characters can be seen as tending a little towards certain horror stereotypes (Deputy Hudson and Sherrif Baker being the two guilty parties here), but generally they are consistent, believable and easily imagined. They populate his world, they aren't just played against it.

On the strength of this I would gladly read more by this author, and would suggest that if you like Stephen King, or Dean R. Koontz or other recent American horror writers then there is most likely something in Mr. Hopkins writing for you.

Synopsis
Deep within the blood-drenched walls of an ancient mansion Nathan Courtwright initiates a bizarre rite that will free every depraved soul since time immemorial to prey upon the living and grant him eternal reign over the legions of the damned. The price: the sacrifice of his beloved Catherine. Halted on the verge of success, Nathan discovers the cost of failure is far greater: living interment in the family mausoleum, his demon soul consigned to a netherworld of torture and suffering for all eternity.

But when the mausoleum is torn down to make way for a new drug rehabilitation center a century later, the evil that was Nathan Courtwright escapes...an evil capable of prying into its victims' deepest fears and blackest nightmares.

Haunted by images of the past and frightening visions, Paul Stanford returns to the fate-shrouded town of Dark Harbor, Maine--a town filled with sorrow and dark memories. Within days he finds himself locked in a desperate and terrifying struggle that spans a century-old feud and demonic desires. The ancient horror, reborn and all-consuming, lures him into its deadly web of deceit and lust and only he holds the key to the door of the damned, a key that will cost him the life of the woman he loves and his very soul.

A key that will fill the world with Night Demons...