Tribulations, by J. Michael Straczynski.

This is a mystery to me. I bought this novel back in 2004, when it was first published, but I didn’t read it until this week. Perhaps the cover, perhaps a Horror novel about demonic possessions. And I don’t understand it. It is a J. Michael Straczynski novel, for Pete’s Sakes!!

But the novel had to wait until the moment was right. And now I must say that this novel was worthy of being read. Straczynsky is one of the best writers we can read. He is an expert in TV and movies scripts, he writes comic scripts (his FF and his Spiderman are new standard quality for the comic book medium). And He is a good writer. A gifted one.

Tribulations creates the story of a Reporter (Susan), hunting down the story of the year. A serial killer is terrorising the city of Los Angeles and she wants to be the first to uncover the whole story. Her personal life is falling down. Her lover don’t walk in the same direction as she does, her work is getting dull and predictable. There is no need to pay much attention to the killer. It is only an everyday work.

But, accompanying the police to a crime scene, Susan get shot and fall unconscious. When she recovers partially, she could see a man healing a girl next to her. Then Susan falls asleep and in a few days she recover completely.

Then an email arrive to her and with an important clue. This takes the reporter to a close contact with the police and with an strange character, Raymond, that knows many things about the whereabouts and the behaviour of the killer. Raymond is the man Susan saw at the hospital. There is something fishy here.

Raymond seams to know so much that he began being frightening. Could it be that Raymond is in fact the killer and that he is hunting himself in a sophisticated way to delude his guilt?

Susan character is a strong one. Being written by a male writer, she is developed nicely. You can believe she is a “She”. When Susan begins felling interested in Raymond, you could see a woman in doubt of taking the new man and throwing the old lover or stick to something secure.

But problem comes when Raymond points that the killer could not be a single person, but a person possessed by the same devil. Could Raymond be “nuts”? Susan follows Raymond always sceptic, digging in LA most uncovered psiquic and occult people. The possession theory becomes more and more possible, but the possibility of Raymond as a maniac killer is always there for the reader.

Raymond remains me a lot to Marvel’s Punisher. His woman is in coma and his daughter death because of the actions of a killer in a crowded pier. And Raymond comes back with a vengeance. But there is also something that happened in Bolivia’s jungle that could be the trigger of this character mood.

The novel turns into a more conventional horror novel towards the end. The detective like first attempts of Susan are substituted at the end with a conventional exorcism ending. No spoiler intended here, but I must say that the novel looses a lot of interest at the last fifty pages. No problem if you were enjoying the 300+ that precedes it.

Straczynski creates a new kind of non-religious demonic possession novel. In previous attempts, many writes needed to use the common conventions regarding this themes, but Straczynski writes a mystery-detective novel that doesn’t need to be contrasted with anyone religious believes. It is straight forward adventure and mystery.

Perhaps I didn’t enjoy that much the ending because it was conventional, but I think many readers will be pleased with this ending. Expectative will be full covered for them.