Yeah, yeah, I know - ANOTHER Richard Laymon novel but I promise I'm taking a break after this one. Maybe.
I wrote about the others in multiples but this one gets its own post purely because it's my favourite one yet.
This one tells the story of Jody and starts off with her having a sleepover at her friends house. When the friend wakes her up having heard glass breaking, we know it's not going to be innocent but what I didn't expect was quite how f*cked up the outcome actually was. A group of killers have broken into the house and kill the family, and although Jody and 12 year old Andy manage to kill one of them and escape, they are seen and followed.
After a late-night chase and more murders than you could shake a stick at, everything seems to work out alright. Jody makes it home to her father, who happens to be a totally macho cop, Andy gets shipped off to live with his Aunt and Uncle and it seems like, despite having the house surrounded by police, everything will be ok.
This is where the story cuts to the perspective of Simon - he belongs to the gang of killers and was left behind to get rid of the children, but he failed and it's now up to him to sort his mistake. I enjoyed hearing things from his perspective and Laymon managed to get into the mind of a serial killer quite convincingly. Simon and his friends started their murderous gang as children, purely because they were sick and twisted individuals. They shed their clothes and hair and even make themselves kilts and garmets using skin leather to try to confuse any crime scene evidence, not that there is much as they torch houses once they're done killing everyone.
This is definitely one of the most gruesome and messed up books I've read, especially from this guy and that's saying something! I don't want to write about the ending because there is a spectacular twist that is worth waiting for. Laymon is also incredibly successful at building up the suspense as we follow Simon in trying to track down Jody and her family - there are close misses, then you think she'll be ok and uh, it just kept me "on the edge of my seat" as it were which made it a really enjoyable read.
If you fancy trying Laymon I don't know whether to suggest starting with this one, as while it has his trademark gore and and pervertion, it's also one of his better ones that I've read (so far anyway), meaning the less well written and successful ones may be a bit of a let down afterwards.
I'm taking a break from the messed up horror for a while now!
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