From Publishers Weekly
The Laymon renaissance continues with this provocative author's
third novel (along with Come Out Tonight, Forecasts, May 31, and Bite,
Forecasts, May 24) to appear this spring/summer. None of the three
showcase Laymon at his finest (as did last year's The Midnight Tour,
also from Cemetery Dance), though Come Out Tonight (Cemetery Dance as
well) comes close. All, however, exhibit his talent for immediate prose
and breakneck pacing, and, most interestingly, his penchant for blending
genuine pathos with brutality. Here, the blending isn't so artful. This
novel, set mostly in 1975, reads like two novellas glued together. One
is atypical for Laymon, a sharp skewering of academic life, particularly
the marital tribulations of faculty members of Grand Beach (Calif.)
High. Substitute teacher Janet Arthur dumps her abusive lover, who wants
her to abort their unborn child; librarian Lester Bryant gets involved
with aging Southern belle Emily Jean Bonner; Lester's formidable wife,
Helen, is sleeping with one of her students, etc. The other plot line is
boilerplate Laymon: an Illinois teen, Albert Prince, goes on a
homicidal rampage, stalking, raping and slicing several women. The
author binds the two plot lines in an arbitrary way, though his tying of
pathos and brutality--as Albert is gravely wounded, then soothed, by
his final victim--is admirably audacious; and the story concludes with a
coda as clever as it is nasty. As is usual with this author, there's at
least one scene of heinous sexual violence, intimately detailed, that
will leave readers shuddering with disgust. In this novel, as before,
Laymon flashes serious storytelling talent, but also the refusal to
compromise on theme and depiction that seems to have made him more
talked about than read, at least in the States. (July)
Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Review
“White-hot pacing (with) rivers of blood… memorable evocation of the fathomless mystery of the moonlit hours.” —Publishers Weekly on The Lake
“If you’ve missed Laymon, you’ve missed a treat!” —Stephen King
“No one writes like Laymon.” —Dean Koontz
“The master of stomach-churning violence.” —Kirkus
“Laymon is, was, and always will be king of the hill.” —Horror World
