THE SHIMMER may well refer to the DayGlo peach-and-teal color scheme of the book that lay underneath the jacket of David Morrell’s latest novel. Or — oh, yeah! — perhaps the plot, which is based on the real-life unexplained phenomena of the “ghost lights” of Marfa, Texas.
As the characters of Morrell’s work experience them, the lights of fictional Rostov are colored and of varying size and luminosity, too low on the horizon to be stars, hovering in the grasslands at night. Their effect is hypnotic on those who are drawn there inexplicably. A hair above imperceptible initially, the lights dance until entranced watchers extend their hands, as if to touch them.
Tori Page is one of them, a Santa Fe police officer’s wife who leaves for Rostov one day, with no advance planning, warning or notification. Her husband, Dan, freaks out when she’s not at their home or her mother’s house, until the authorities in Rostov contact him. She’s alive, she’s safe, but there’s something about her that they tell Dan is best seen in person, rather than attempted to be explained over the phone.
A flight later, Dan finds her returning to the lights, amid dozens of other onlookers. A crazed gunman opens fire on the crowd, killing 20 of them, but the Pages are safe. As Dan relays what he knows to the cops, the guy’s cries of “You’re all damned!” could have been directed at the people or the lights.
What are they? Theories abound: UFOs, ball lightning, temperature inversion. Regardless, their sighting dates back to 1885. The Pages try to get to the bottom of it, and their story is compelling; the alternating narrative of the government and scientific researchers, considerably less so.
Morrell never seems to have a problem with pacing, and that’s true here as well. Even the scenes markedly less interesting than the others fly by with efficiency. But the plot imbalance remains, throwing THE SHIMMER off-track, to where it feels like half a satisfying thriller. It also lacks the urgency of not only his previous novels, but SHIMMER’s own previous chapters; finding out what happened to Tori was more suspenseful than those damned lights. —Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• CREEPERS by David Morrell
• SCAVENGER by David Morrell
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