Endless Night - Richard Laymon

A couple of days ago I was scanning my bookshelves for something to read. I couldn't make my mind up whether to go for a crime novel, or sci-fi or even something a bit technical. In the end I opted for a book by Richard Laymon. A few years ago now I had read one of his called 'Island' about a group of eight people who become shipwrecked on an, you've guessed it, island with a deranged maniac on the loose which I had really enjoyed. Remembering this I looked forward to tucking into this older title of his, published in 1993, entitled 'Endless Night'. It is a story about Jody Fargo, sixteen years old and spending the night at her friend Evelyn's house, when ...

Jody Fargo is a typical creation by Richard Laymon. A plucky, headstrong and brave sixteen year old girl who is witness to the murder of her best friend and her family. Jody rescues the younger brother and together they begin their flight from The Krulls, a group of homicidal maniacs who dress in the skins of their kills, across America and through the most terrifying moments of their short lives. Excellently written and developed. It is written in a double track plot with the narrators being Jody and one of the Krulls, Simon Quirt. The story offers sadism, massacres, sexual awakening, blood aplenty and deranged killers. All in all a fantastic recipe created my ...

Endless Night is in my opinion one of the best two or three novels Laymon has produced. It tells the story of a girl, Jody, who is staying the night at a friend's house when a gang break in and kill the rest of the family (a typically violent premise for a Laymon novel!). Jody escapes along with her friend's little brother, and they spend the rest of the novel being pursued by one of the killers. The great strength of this novel is that it never lets up for a moment - the excitement is relentless. There is no setting of scene, or tiresome introduction at the beginning: the action starts from the very first page, and I don't think it's physically possible ...