Pick one, grab, and run. Tony Matheson makes his living snatching purses. But one of these days he's going to grab the wrong one. Views: 131
SUMMARY:When a group of young campers meet and are forced to kill a dangerous psychopath, his mother, a witch, puts a deadly curse on them Views: 126
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION For Stanley, the earthquake is a heaven-sent opportunity. Just before it struck, he was ogling Sheila, a female jogger, and that's not all he'd like to do to her. Now the city lies in ruins, and Sheila lies trapped and naked in her bathtub. Can her husband make it to her before Stanley does?*** From Publishers Weekly In this above-average disaster thriller, Sheila Banner is looking forward to a long, relaxing bath when a massive earthquake hits southern California, trapping her in the tub, naked but intact under two fallen beams. Meanwhile, Sheila's husband, Clint, is stranded at work, his car sitting behind a pair of powerless electronic security gates, while their daughter, Barbara, along with three classmates, is caught in a speeding car with a panicky teacher at the wheel. Through alternating chapters, Laymon (Savage) tells these three tales of survival in his customary speedy, whip-lean prose, eschewing descriptions of fallen bridges and highways to focus on the disintegration of humanity, the violence and predation unleashed by the quake. The imagery is graphic-roving gangs stripping and mutilating the bodies of the living as well as the dead-but, as in the best of Laymon's work, like The Stake, there's an edge of black humor to the proceedings, a faint cackle in the background. Still, this is strong, disturbing fare, not for the thin-skinned.*** From Library Journal Stanley Banks is not the neighbor one would want when Los Angeles is hit by "the Big One," the earthquake that destroys the sprawling city. In the quake's aftermath, the thin veneer that keeps the savages civilized crumbles almost as fast as the real estate. The Banner family is scattered when it hits, and Sheila Banner is trapped in a tub under the wreckage of her house when Stanley, her psychopathic admirer, finds her. Meanwhile, Clint and daughter Barbara are separately struggling to get home to Sheila, walking through Los Angeles while fleeing and fighting gangs that rob, rape, murder, and mutilate. Laymon (Savage, LJ 12/93) expertly lays on the horror here, and at times his Los Angeles seems to have been invaded by aliens, so quickly have the residents turned savage. Horror fans will find this hard to put down. Strongly recommended for public libraries.*** From Booklist Anarchy reigns supreme and altruism is obsolete in Laymon's novel about "the big one." The book opens minutes before an earthquake hits Southern California with the force of an atom bomb. We often hear heartwarming tales of neighbors reaching out to each other and communities pulling together in the wake of sudden disaster. Concentrating on one family, the Banners, whose members are caught on opposite sides of the city by their daily routines, Laymon throws all that out the window, portraying instead a world where normal people become panicked maniacs, perverts find the opportunities to act out their fantasies, and the stable and sane find it increasingly difficult to stay that way. Laymon writes well enough to maintain interest in the fates of the characters, and all the jumping back and forth among the separate Banners' various venues isn't as distracting as you might think. All in all, horror and suspense fans will be satisfied. Views: 124
From Publishers WeeklyIn February of this year, Laymon, then president of the Horror Writers Association, died of a heart attack at age 53. A few weeks ago, the last of his novels to be published before his death, The Traveling Vampire Show, won the HWA's Stoker Award for best novel of the year. Soon after Laymon died, Cemetery Dance, which issued that award winner, brought out Night in the Lonesome October. But it turns out that wasn't the last we'll see of Laymon, nor is this new, enjoyable short novel. The Beast House Chronicles, launched in 1979, made Laymon's reputation. This novella is the slightest of the series four entries, emotionally as well as in page length, but it features all the trademark Laymon touches. There's a horny teen protagonist, Mark, and a spooky adventure, as Mark accepts the dare of the girl of his wet dreams, Alison, that he help her sneak into Beast House, scene of several horrific murders during past decades and now a major tourist attraction in the small West Coast town where it stands. There are plenty of suspenseful and scary moments as Mark breaks into the Beast House and hides in the Beast Hole, and a particularly shocking twist at book's end. Above all, there's that inimitable Laymon style, the use of simple, strong sentences to construct, via extraordinarily vivid sensual detail, a narrative that envelops the reader in a moment by moment revelation of events in the service of a story that's terrific, nasty fun. All Laymon fans and anyone who likes horror served with a cackle are going to like this one. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.Review“Terrific, nasty fun. All Laymon fans and anyone who likes horror served with a cackle are going to like this one.” —Publishers Weekly“One of horror’s rarest talents.”—Publishers Weekly“If you’ve missed Laymon, you’ve missed a treat!” —Stephen King“All Laymon fans and anyone who likes horror served with a cackle are going to like this one.” – Publishers Weekly Views: 118
The Vampire movie came first - the girl died in a welter of blood as the vampire bit clean through her jugular... The Inquisition came next - the victim confessed all as the spider crawled over her naked body... Then came the story of the Ax-man... This was the horror-movie series to end them all. Cinema buffs particularly admired the grainy, amateurish camera work - it suggested the action was the real thing. But it couldn't be - could it? Views: 111
Mordock's Cave is one of the wonders of the world: a place where thousands of sightseers every year take an awe-inspiring boat trip on a lake deep beneath the earth's surface and marvel at Nature's handiwork. But the darkness is also the home of things Nature never intended - things violent, bestial and obscenely evil. And when a sudden power failure traps a group of tourists underground, the unnatural creatures who dwell there emerge from the depths…
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From Publishers Weekly
Fast-paced and tightly constructed, this novel by the author of The Stake combines the best elements of psycho-slasher thrillers, disaster epics and classic supernatural horror tales. When a power failure traps a tourist group deep in Mordock's Cavern, tour guide Darcy Raines leads a small team that attempts to break through Ely's Wall, a man-made barrier sealing off one end of the cave. Creepy Kyle Mordock, teenage descendant of Ely, the wall's builder, and son of the attraction's current owner, is along on the tour because of his morbid erotic fascination with the beautiful Darcy. Flashbacks reveal that he has recently inherited a longstanding Mordock family trait, namely, the propensity to rape and murder female guests of the Mordock Cave Hotel and dump the bodies in the sealed-off part of the cave. Laymon adds fiendishly clever topspin to this gruesome revelation, placing on the other side of the wall a danger grislier and more bizarre than any natural disaster or psychotic killer. Horror fans will relish this highly entertaining tale. Views: 105
