Richard Laymon

Sorry if has been posted before but im new :) Does any one here like Richard Laymon? I discovered his books at the library and couldnt put them down!! :)

[colubrid660]

Never heard of him, but I'll give him a shot, I am always on the lookout for a new writer.

EDIT: I looked him up and I am surprised I never heard of him. He seems to have been a very prolific writer until his death in 2001. Style and subject matter seems to be a sort of blend between Clive Barker and Stephen King, which is a VERY good thing. I am looking forward to starting on his "Beast House" series sometime soon. Thanks for bringing him to my attention, Killer.

No problem!! i have a number of his books and i cant put them down - they are pretty gory and a very good read! :)

[ABnormaL]

I'm a big fan of Laymon's novels, discovered them in my public library and after reading all they had I moved on and bought my own lol. I think my favourite is Flesh because it was one of the first I read and the one that sticks with me most. I don't think there is one I don't like, out of the ones I've read anyway. I own 22 of his books, plus the ones I borrowed from the library. :)

[Sleepy]

The only book by him I've read is The Traveling Vampire Show. I loved it and plan to read more of his work.

From Publishers Weekly

Like the vampire he celebrates so often (Stake, etc.), this talented writer's career, once dead in the States though not overseas, has risen anew--thanks largely to Cemetery Dance, which has issued his work (Cuts; Come Out Tonight; etc.) even as no mainstream American hardcover publisher would touch it. The author's fall after his successful run in the 1980s was due to several factors, including his writerly predilection toward excess sex and violence. Here, Laymon takes those elements in hand, not so much abjuring them as putting them to artful use as he tells a wickedly involving story of three 16-year-olds and their life-changing encounter with the road show of the title. It's hot August 1963 when narrator Dwight, along with his pals--overweight Rusty and pretty (female) Slim--note flyers for the Traveling Vampire Show, featuring a purported real vampire, Valeria. Intrigued, the trio sneak onto the backwoods site of the show and there tangle with a vicious dog; after the others leave, Slim watches the spooky show troupe spear the mongrel to death. This, plus a long buildup to the show (spinning on whether troupe members are after the teens) forms most of the long narrative. Unusual for Laymon, the emphasis is on atmosphere rather than action, and he sustains a note of anticipatory dread throughout, made particularly resonant through his expert handling of the social, particularly sexual, tensions among the three teens. The novel's climax is the show itself, and here Laymon lets out the stops in typically ferocious fashion. In its understanding of the sufferings and ecstasies of youth, the novel carries some of the wisdom of King's The Body or Robert R. McCammon's Boy's Life, but the book, Laymon's best in years, belongs wholly to this too-neglected author, who with his trademark squeaky-clean yet sensual prose, high narrative drive and pitch-dark sense of humor has crafted a horror tale that's not only emotionally true but also scary and, above all, fun.

Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

[beckylouise2904]

I picked up a Laymon book a few years back -only really remember some girl being locked in a house with a guy in a thong in her garden perving over her?? but was put off by the amount of sex which I thought wasn't really vital to the story - are all his books like this?