Scariest Horror Fiction - Dark Fantasy: The Crow - Clash by Night, written by Chet Williamson

Chet Williamson (known from Ash Wednesday, The Crow – City of Angels, and Hell, a Cyberpunk Thriller) is decidedly one of the most brilliant, gifted contemporary dark fantasy – horror fiction – suspense author. He (like Stephen King himself) has a rare, formidable ability to frighten readers with his gloomy, grim fictions, and move them at the same time. Clash by Night, an awesome part of The Crow series, is perhaps his best horror/dark fantasy novel, which is saying something.




 Chet Williamson - The Crow: Clash By Night, a great horror - dark fantasy fiction

The protagonist is a young lady in her early thirties, Amy Carlisle, happily married and having a job that she loves: she works as a child care center teacher. Having any children of her own, she cares about the children in the center with deep affection. When a certain Democrat senator plans to visit Amy’s workplace, a right-wing extremist militia places a bomb in the center. Amy dies, alongside with another teacher and all the infants and toddlers who were present.
Six months later, at Halloween night, a lonely policeman, David Levinson is patrolling on the streets of the town, and gets a call that a naked woman is wandering on the ruiny plot where once the child care center has been. Levinson finds a disturbed and seemingly unharmed Amy Carlisle on the scene, staring at a crow that perches on a pole near her. David (who feels strangely attracted to Amy) takes her home and tells her a dark legend about the Crow and his Uncle Abraham who returned from the dead to kill everyone who murdered him and his family.
Soon an elusive enemy gets the members and supporters of the secret militia, one by one. They die painfully and violently at an empty building, a gun show, and a white supremacy meeting. Witnesses talk about a slim, dark clad young woman, an angry lady who seems unnaturally strong and invulnerable, her apparently fatal wounds heal in a few seconds.
In the end Amy enters the secret compound of the militia…
Chet Williamson won an International Horror Guild Award and was shortlisted for the Edgar Award of Mystery Writers of America and twice for the World Fantasy Award.
The film titled The Crow, based upon the comic book of the same name, by James O’Barr, became infamous when its star, Brandon Lee, was accidentally shot during making the film.

About the Book
Vengeance strikes from beyond the grave to halt a deadly, vicious terrorist organization in this original novel based on The Crow, the wildly popular subject of feature films, an upcoming TV series, comic books, and merchandise.
When a Dedicated Teacher Discovers an Explosive device planted in her day-care center by a crazed militia group, she is just in time to rush everyone to safety ... almost everyone, that is. But in the realm of The Crow. death can be refused by the virtuous if their lives are taken too soon by violence. Now a dark shadow of the young woman that once was -- reanimated through the arcane powers of vengeance -- descends onto secret terrorist nests and clandestine meeting places, delivering her own violent message of fear and retribution to those who would mercilessly slaughter the innocent.
Testament to dark fantasy's explosive popularity, the vengeful character of The Crow consistently remains one of the most revered and influential figures in the genre.

The cult classic comic book creation of writer/artist James O'Barr, The Crow has limitless appeal across various media formats, including two successful films (with a third on the way), an upcoming television series, new comic book stories, and such merchandise as T-shirts and posters. In this third original novel, The Crow continues to excite and mystify its legions of fans with its tortured, cyclical tale of untimely demise and dark, brutal justice.