The Dark House is the first
novel of John Sedgwick; it’s a psychological mystery set in Boston with some
pleasing eccentricities. Edward Rollins
just goes by the name “Rollins.” He obsessively
engages in following random cars after leaving work, recording his comments
about his pursuit on tape. At home he
has a collection of hundreds of tapes of his journeys following strangers. He doesn’t have a girlfriend and he is not
on very good terms with his family.

We gradually come to see what lies behind
Rollins’ neurosis, as we get flashback images from his past and we learn that he
had a sister who drowned in the bath when he was a young boy and his cousin/babysitter
Cornelia disappeared nearly seven years ago. 
Rollins becomes involved in an apparently unconnected mystery when one evening
he follows a car to a Boston suburb and the driver eventually stops and walks
into a house, but does not turn on any lights. 
He tells his officemate Marj about this strange event, and the two of
them start working together to work out what might explain this odd behavior.

As the plot thickens, it becomes quite
complex and we see dark family secrets revealed and it becomes clear that
Rollins and Marj’s lives may be in danger. 
His exploration of the past unearths repressed memories and he becomes
more able to engage in real human relationships. (It is not surprising that Sedgwick’s second novel The
Education of Mrs. Bemis focuses on psychotherapy.)

The Dark House is an
entertaining novel, even if it requires rather careful attention to the twists
and turns of the unfolding story. It
includes some rather clumsy coincidences in the plot, with rather clichéd
villains, and the flashbacks and glimpses of Rollins’ unconscious traumatic
experiences seem rather heavy-handed as psychological devices. Nevertheless, it should be a sufficiently unusual
approach to intrigue readers who enjoy psychological mysteries.

© 2002 Christian Perring. All rights reserved.

Christian Perring,
Ph.D., is Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island.
He is editor of Metapsychology Online Review. His main research is on
philosophical issues in psychiatry. He is especially interested in exploring
how philosophers can play a greater role in public life, and he is keen to help
foster communication between philosophers, mental health professionals, and the
general public.

Categories: Fiction