The Colors of Hell

by Michael Paine

An interesting twist on conventional speculative fiction This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 155773349X
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Diamond Books
• Length: 279 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

" . . . there were punctures around her head, and . . . blood soaked her hair . . . "

Right away you know that you are in for something unusual in "The Colors Of Hell", a historical horror novel, as the first part of the novel takes place in the year 1958. Hey, my birth year, I always knew I was special. Ahem, anyway, lawyer Robert Semnarek, his client Charlotte Alderson and her son Steve are in Marrakesh looking for any trace of Charlotte's sister, ex-Tiffany stained glass designer, artist, and forger Clare Markham, who with her male companion Marty Kampinski, had disappeared somewhere in this area sometime in the late nineteen twenties. They get a lead and travel to an isolated mountain range where there is an odd and even more isolated Catholic nunnery where there might be some information as to Clare and Marty's fate. "The Colors Of Hell" is a novel in three distinct parts. In the first part of this novel, we learn of the existence a special shard of stained glass that Louis Tiffany owns that can pierce flesh without drawing blood or leaving a wound, and which has strange glow to it. It is rumored that the shard was forged with the blood of one of Christ's apostles. Clare and Marty had disappeared while searching for more shards of the blood glass. In the second part of "The Colors Of Hell" Robert and company arrive at the nunnery and discover that there exists a journal that tells of Clare and Marty's journey to discover more of the fragments of the blood glass. It's not pretty. The third part returns us to 1958 as Steve is acting like a vacuous, spoiled, undisciplined fool and decides that he wants to have sex with a young epileptic nun who turns out to be his cousin. The tension builds as Charlotte and Mother Joseph spar with each other; Steve keeps sneaking into the nunnery to romance Sister Martin, and Robert tries to do his job and mediate everything. There has been some criticism that I have read that mentioned that Paine's early novels always ended in explosive climaxes, and in some of my reviews I have mentioned this. With this novel, I'm glad to stand corrected. While a bit abrupt, "The Colors Of Hell" hardly has an apocalyptic ending. It should be mentioned that the action in this novel is a bit slow . . . real slow. The supernatural elements really don't kick in until the halfway mark, and even then, its mostly minor stuff. What we are stuck with is a historical novel of manners, decadence, droll contempt, and madness. As we read the Clare's journal we gradually realize that Clare is unbalanced. She's emotionally distant, easily upset, and slow to forgive or forget, coming from an unhappy household she takes Louis Tiffany as a father figure. Clare's also depressive, may have a multi-personality, and is possibly homicidal. By part three we realize that "The Colors Of Hell" is just not going to end well for anybody. The novel has an undercurrent of both blatant and subtle sexual commentary to it. The lead, and many of the minor, males are constantly described as being "beautiful", "angel