The Richard Laymon Collection, Volume 10: Savage / In the Dark

Richard Laymon Collection #10

by Richard Laymon

SAVAGE Whitechapel, November 1888: Jack the Ripper is committing his last known act of butchery in the one-room hovel occupied by the luckless harlot, Mary Kelly. And beneath the bed on which the fiend is cruelly and cheerfully eviscerating his victim cowers a fifteen-year-old boy... This is just the start of the extraordinary adventures of Trevor Bently, a boy who embarked on a errand of mercy and ran into the most notorious serial killer in criminal history, a boy who became a man as he travelled on a quest of vengeance across a wild and untamed continent - a boy who brought the horrors of Jack the Ripper to the New World. IN THE DARK Nothing much happens in Donnerville, at least not in the public library. Then the new librarian, Jane Kerry, receives a strange envelope. Inside is a fifty-dollar bill and a note instructing her to 'Look homeward, angel.'Mystified, Jane pulls Thomas Wolfe's novel of that title off the shelf and finds a second envelope. This one contains a one-hundred dollar bill and a clue to another pay-off. Like the first one it is signed 'MOG (Master of Games)'. Suddenly Jane is hooked, this is one game she must play to the end.

Genres: Horror

896 pages, Paperback

First published December 4, 2006

About the author

Richard Laymon was born in Chicago and grew up in California. He earned a BA in English Literature from Willamette University, Oregon and an MA from Loyola University, Los Angeles. He worked as a schoolteacher, a librarian, and a report writer for a law firm, and was the author of more than thirty acclaimed novels.

He also published more than sixty short stories in magazines such as Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, and Cavalier, and in anthologies including Modern Masters of Horror.

He died from a massive heart attack on February 14, 2001 (Valentine's Day).

Also published under the name Richard Kelly

Reviews

[Kate Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Savage is my favourite Richard Layman book. I have read it five times, and now the cover has fallen off and I will have to buy another. I love the fresh take on Jack the Ripper, he is a figure of such mystery that history lovers would probably enjoy this as well as horror lovers. The main character is plucky and goes on the heroes journey with the usual reluctance. Great book.

[Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Savage is probably Laymon's best written story and one he he put the most thought into. We are on the streets of Victorian London in the days of the Whitechapel murders and not far from Jack the Ripper himself. A boy witnesses one of Jacks murders and decides to go after him only able to slice off his nose before Jack flees with the young boy hit in his heels. His search leads him to the frontier of America. I forgot that this was supposed to be horror novel and soon enough i didn't even care I was lost in the story and loving it. From what i remember there is little to no instances of Laymon's signature depravity it seems to have been replaced by well thought out characters and purposeful storytelling, this is another of his i need to re-read and soon.

[Lala · Rating 3 out of 5]

Savage = 4 stars
In the Dark = 2 stars