There are not enough authors who utilize the historic area of upstate New York quite like Carol Goodman does. It should be more accurately called the historically “spooky” region of New York's Hudson Valley, as Washington Irving resided there and wrote about it. This is the territory that Goodman has made her playground for the majority of her novels, and THE NIGHT VISITORS may now be added to that list.

The book tells a story that we have all seen before and thereby can make some assumptions as to where we think things will logically end up. In this case, it's an allegedly battered woman escaping from her abuser with her son and running into the arms of a supposed safe haven, all in the midst of a deadly winter storm. However, in the hands of Goodman, there are so many twists and turns that readers will literally give up trying to predict what happens next, and just sit back to rest their spinning heads and go along for a crazy ride straight through to the end.

"THE NIGHT VISITORS is a brilliant work of psychological fiction that is meant to be devoured in one sitting --- preferably on a dark, stormy night where anything can and will happen."

Alice is taking a few buses along with her son, Oren, to accept temporary exile in the town of Delphi, New York. It is in Delphi where Mattie is waiting for them. Mattie works for the non-profit group Sanctuary, and will get Alice and Oren placed in the nearby convent until they can be transferred to a safe house. The man from whom Alice and Oren are running is the embodiment of evil. It seems inevitable that no matter how well hidden they may be, it will not keep Davis from locating them and exacting violent revenge upon them and their new keepers.

The snowstorm ends up being so bad that Mattie decides it is best to have Alice and Oren spend the first night at her house, which is much closer than the convent. Once there, Mattie gets their guest room made up and fixes them something to eat. She also spies the bus tickets in Alice's jacket that shows they started their travels in Ridgewood, New Jersey, instead of their expected origination point of Newburgh, New York. Normally, this would not make much of a difference except that Mattie read in the news about a 30-year-old man found dead earlier that day at an apartment in Ridgewood.

Mattie is a straight shooter --- a former troubled youth who engaged the aid of Sanctuary --- and confronts Alice about the dead man. Oren ends up confessing to being the one who actually stabbed the individual who we believe to be the abusive Davis. This is just the first few layers of information that Goodman unveils to readers, and I advise you not to take any of this at face value as the situation is sure to change in a quick succession of plot twists.

To spice things up, Goodman peppers the narrative with a nice dose of the supernatural. There are literal references to Stephen King's THE SHINING, both the novel and the original film version directed by the late great Stanley Kubrick. Within Mattie's house, there are also surprises and creepy occurrences. To begin with, why is the cleanest place there the seemingly pristine young boy's bedroom? And why does Oren begin to have eerie connections to this other boy, who we learn is Mattie’s deceased younger brother, Caleb? These initial parallels come by way of action figures of various characters from the original Star Wars films. I won't give anything away but will say that there is more than a passing nod to the events in those movies that correspond with the action here.

It turns out that Mattie's parents and Caleb all died in that same house. If you think that is the most shocking revelation the book has in store for Goodman's faithful readers, you would be sadly mistaken. The inevitable confrontation with the hunter and the hunted will eventually play out but perhaps not quite the way you might think. THE NIGHT VISITORS is a brilliant work of psychological fiction that is meant to be devoured in one sitting --- preferably on a dark, stormy night where anything can and will happen.