RICHARD LAYMON, BAD ASS AUTHOR
by A.D. Barker

You want murder, mayhem, kinky sex, torture, beasts, fiends, and teenage girls in their underwear? Then author Richard Laymon has all that for you, and so much more.

With Laymon there’s no tip-toeing around; it’s always full-on, unrelenting, hardcore horror.

The author of more than thirty novels and countless short stories, Laymon’s work is not for the weak of heart. He goes far beyond what any movie could ever show (probably why he’s never been adapted for the screen), and writes with a quick, pacey prose that never lets up.

Yet, through all that, he also has the ability to make us care for his characters. He is a master at dialogue, witty and natural, and his protagonists (and antagonists) are always layered and textured, and above all, truthful. A lot of horror novels, particularly hardcore horror novels, are just trash, but Laymon manages to balance his scares (and he does go further than most) with humour and believability. And story! He’s books rattle along like there’s no tomorrow.

I started reading Laymon in the early 90s, and although I’ve gone off to explore all kinds of other authors, I always come back to himfrom time to time. It’s like seeing an old friend again; a particularly nasty and twisted one, but a friend nevertheless.
Below is a list of my personal top five books of his that I have read thus far. There is still a long list I have yet to read, particularly Savage – Jack the Ripper in the Wild West! – and I am just about to start reading, fittingly for autumn, Night in the Lonesome October.

Unfortunately Richard Laymon died of a heart attack on Valentine’s Day 2001 aged 54, but what he left behind is an absolute treasure trove of depravity.

Anyway, my Richard Laymon Top Five!


5. Friday Night In Beast House

Part of his ‘Beast House’ books. This thin volume is one hell of a fun ride, and can be read pretty much in one sitting. The reason I’ve got this here is because of how and when I read it. It was October, one rainy night, and I settled down and burned through it cover to cover. Sometimes reading Laymon makes me think of watching a good 80s horror flick; a titillating, no-holds-barred assault on the senses.

4. Out Are The Lights

Here basically because it was the first Laymon book I ever read. Loved it because it’s about movies – well, snuff movies anyway.

3. Island

A masterpiece of tension and twisted depravities with several castaways trapped and fighting for their lives. This is a great book.

2. The Stake

Only read this one recently and loved every page of it. I’ve never been that into vampires, and I feel they are completely saturated nowadays, but there was something about this novel that got me. Laymon plays with conventions, as so often he does, and waves several interlinking stories which meet beautifully at the climax. Quite a touching ending as well.

1. The Travelling Vampire Show

So having just said I’m not that big on vampires, why then have I got two ‘vampire’ novels back to back, you ask. Well, it’s simple; this isn’t really a vampire novel, not for the main bulk of it anyway. This one is about kids on an adventure, albeit a dark adventure, during the burning hot summer of 1963. I could liken this one to a couple of Stephen King stories, The Body (adapted into Stand by Me of course) and his towering classic It. This is a wonderful novel, filled with lovely observations on being a teenager, complete with a truly vivid and relentless climax.

Happy reading folks!

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