Black Out

Another translated treat from Bitter Lemon Press, Gianluca Morozzi’s BLACK OUT plays upon the situation of being trapped in an enclosed space for a long period of time — particularly, three characters trapped in an elevator seemingly stuck between floors. It all takes place during a holiday weekend, so no one is around to help them. If that was not enough to add to the stress, one of the three is a serial killer.

Aldo Ferro is our killer, who slowly tortures his victims in a brutal way, gaining ideas from the comic book PREACHER. After Aldo has skinned a poor boy’s face, he decides to put it back on with a nail. Aldo is part of the faithful elevator trip because he’s headed to his secret apartment, where he keeps the movies he makes with his victims.

Claudia is a waitress at a local bar and hates everything about it, working there just to pay for her tuition. She’s disgusted with how she is treated by her boss, a total pig and leech who spies on the women when they change and makes them dress in some hooker-like outfit while on the clock. While returning home in the oppressive heat ,she reflects about her girlfriend, who is off filming a movie somewhere. She just wants to ride the bus home and avoid any men in the area, who she feels are all after her.

Making this trio complete is a teen named Tomas, a young music fan who likes to start flame wars on some low-rent Pearl Jam message board, until he strikes up a relationship with a member named Bee Girl. After weeks of exchanging messages, they meet at a Pearl Jam cover band show, and it’s love at first sight. Her name is Francesca and they plan on running off together to Europe. Tomas gets on that elevator to grab what he needs from his home, with a train ticket in his back pocket, all ready to go.

This is when the fun starts for these three. Between the 11th and 12th floors, the elevator makes its final stop for the day. What adds to the tension is that none of their cell phones get a signal, in addition to the initial shock of the stop adding to the nervousness of everyone. When it becomes clear the alarm is not signaling, they really start to worry, with the passage of every minute adding to the pressure.

Aldo starts talking about theories, like maybe it’s just a local blackout or, worse, a terrorist attack. But that is nothing compared to what Morozzi has written for them. His style makes it so claustrophobic for the readers, knowing what we know and only hoping for the best to come out of it all. There is a boiling point within that elevator, when nothing will be the same for one of the three.

Then Morozzi takes it one step further with the reveal of the reason for the breakdown and its aftermath. For those searching for a top-notch page-turner, BLACK OUT delivers. This is a British translation, so some terms are of the UK variety, but only a little. Bitter Lemon should be congratulated again for another fine addition to its crime line. —Bruce Grossman

Buy it at Amazon.