Going from the first to the second story, it seems as if you have found yourself before a volume of disjointed stories. Until you start to detect that night music ... A kind of soundtrack of evil that begins as a slight rattle and ends up leading to a great symphony of symphony orchestra that plays from the hell of lost souls.
All the characters in this story have only one detail in common, they end up surrendering to evil or living with it from the first start of the story. It is not always good to have too much free time, as is the case with the retiree with whom we begin to slide down the winding roads to madness and doom.
Nor does youth ensure maximum enjoyment of vitality and joy. In a young soul all that energy can be concentrated towards evil, ending as a powerful devastating force or simply as a hatred capable of crushing your will towards brutal revenge.
Evil is sometimes not entirely intended. When thieves break into a house, they do not contemplate killing the grandmother who lives there, but there are unwitting underworld patrons who do not know how to stand still in a corner while they are dispossessed of their most valuable assets.
The horizon of evil can always be glimpsed. We just have to give in to the inner unstable balance, succumb to what pushes us to fall, give in to the devil who offers us everything in exchange for our full servility.
Taking a tour of this volume ends up being an entrance to the most gloomy musical composition, marked by a staff of gloomy notes that end up moving all the characters in the book in the same dance hall.
You can now buy the volume of stories Night Music, John Connolly's new book, here: