In the Dark

Richard Laymon

There are a small (but growing) cadre of us out here in readerville who have been wondering for decades why Richard Laymon, who was toiling in obscurity even during the salad days of the eighties horror boom, never got the recognition he deserved. Unfortunately, what brought about a renaissance in interest in Laymon was not the current horror boom so much as Laymon's untimely demise in 2001. (Not like one of his victims-- erm, characters-- did, though, which I'm sure he'd have preferred.) Leisure have been releasing manuscripts he completed before his death, as well as re-releasing some of his older titles, and he's quickly gaining the hardcore-fan readership in his native country he's long enjoyed in others. There is no doubt in my mind that In the Dark will do nothing but continue the growth of that readership.

Librarian Jane Kerry is closing up for the night when she finds an envelope on her chair. In it is a fifty-dollar bill and a cryptic note. She figures out the (relatively easy, as it's supposed to be) clue and goes to find what she hopes will be a second envelope. On the way there, she runs into Brace, a university professor who's stayed past closing unintentionally; together, they discover the second envelope and another cryptic note. Jane soon finds herself torn between Brace, who obviously cares about her, and following the whims of the man she knows only as MOG, the Master of Games.

In the Dark is quite unlike many of the Laymon novels I've read in that it's not a straight horror tale. His older novels are very much in the proto-splatterpunk tradition, deliciously gory romps through horrific landscapes produced by one of the truly twisted imaginations to inhabit our planet. In the Dark, however, is 90% straight thriller (the other 10% can't be mentioned here, as it would be the biggest of spoilers), and Laymon delivers the goods with an exceptionally rapid punch. While the novel tops half a thousand pages, Laymon starts off at breakneck speed and only gets faster, while his writing style, which is never anything less than utterly compelling, keeps the pages turning at a record pace. While there's not quite as much constant action as the benchmark for record-pace-setting books (Douglas A. Winter's Run), you won't notice a lull; Laymon keeps you moving right along even through the times when Jane's being introspective.

The book's only real letdown is its climax. It's a thriller, so you rather expect what's coming, but the final revelation seems like something of a cop-out when Laymon has spent so much time building up the rather obvious suspects for MOG's big reveal. Still, unlike many books where the anticipation leads to a dud payoff, here the journey is so much fun that the final few pages of "oh, please" don't seem nearly as silly as they otherwise would.

A truly fun novel. It's not going to go down in history as one of Laymon's best, but it certainly gets the job done.