Joyride [Mass Market Paperback]

'Joyride' opens with a short prologue, just a few lines, that aptly describes the fact that even the most caring and law-abiding citizen cannot exist in this world without destroying some kind of life. The Sheriff, Rule, one of the central protagonists in the novel, is driving through the desert. He is likened to a 'bullet', his patrol car the 'jacket', the highway that folds out before him the bullet's trajectory. Even doing something so mundane as driving, he ends the life of a myriad of winged insects, their tiny bodies splattered against his windshield. This nifty little prologue informs us we are in for another nightmare journey courtesy of Jack Ketchum.

Enter Carol and her lover, Lee. They are having an affair, partly born out of Carol's loathing for her husband who, more predator than companion, has made Carol's life a living hell. Howard has constantly abused her verbally, psychologically, Physically. Even sexually. Despite a restraining order, the relentless Howard continues to prey on Carol. It is now time for the viloence to come to an end. The couple come up with an ingenious and - supposedly infallible - plan: the carefully-executed murder of Howard Gardner. They will kill him somewhere out in the wilds, on a deserted stretch of mountain road.

There is just one problem. They have been watched.

Wayne Lock has not killed anything in a long time, just a few animals, mainly cats and dogs. He came close to killing his girlfriend once but lost his nerve. He considers himself a coward for his inability to go through with the killing of Susan. She, understandably, quits the relationship. Wayne now finds himself watching Howard's murder with a strong feeling of excitement and an equally strong feeling of awe at this couple, who have pushed past the moral boundaries of what is deemed acceptable, and committed the ultimate crime. The taking of a human life. Furthermore, he recognizes Lee, who frequents the bar where he works.

Now Wayne wants to take them on a joyride. Destination: Hell.

He kidnaps Carol and Lee, taking them on a road trip, during which they are forced to witnesses his killing. What Wayne does not realise, however, is that Carole and Lee killed out of sheer desperation and fear. They are not excited by the idea of murder. They are not serial killers. If Carole and Lee are to get out of this nightmarish situation, though, they will need the help of Rule, the bullet, a man with more than a few demons of his own, and who once arrested Howard for abusive behaviour.

The inspiration for 'Joyride' came from the acount of the killers Howard Unrah and Thomas Eugene. Jack has researched the mind of the serial killer, as much as is humanly possible anyway. In addition to this he covers other key themes: spousal abuse (Carole and Howard); obsessive behaviour, the victims being stalked and tormented by an angry, jealous, and psychologically disturbed ex-husband (Carole and Lee 'Vs' Howard); neglect of one's homelife born out of an inability to leave work at work (Rule); and how much can the human psyche take before it crumbles or pushes forward that extra step ('fight' or 'flight').

Typically, 'Joyride' is slim, has a straightforward plot, and is skillfully written and professionally paced. Jack tends to work more from character than plot, placing his characters in a hellish situation and saying 'get out of that one, if you can'. He is very talented at understanding humans and how they work, what makes them tick. He is also good at depicting violence, in such a way that the violence itself is purposefully added into the storyline to highlight not just what is happening, but why it is happening. It is not bad prose or uninspiring ideas hiding behind a mask of blood and entrails.

Welcome, if you dare, to the ride ... the Joyride.

'Joyride' was first published in the UK in 1994 by Headline Publishers under the title 'Roadkill' (in hardcover and paperback). It has since been published by Cemetery Dance Publications as a signed and limited hardcover, and by Leisure Books as a mass market paperback.

This edition of 'Joyride' also contains a bonus novella:
'Weed Species' is again based on true events (1987-1990): the 'Ken and Barbie Killers', Paul Bernardo and Karla Holmoka (husband and wife) who, over a period of time, kidnapped, raped, and murdered young girls, videotaping their exploits. Karla drugged her younger sister with halothane and offer the girl's virginity to Paul as a Christmas present. The incidents resulted in the death of Karla's little sister. Jack wrote 'Weed Species' because these events "pi**d me off".

This novella contains some extreme descriptions of rape and violence. Be warned. Jack pulls no punches. In writing this he first had to repluse himself so that he would be sure the readers would be equally repulsed, and therefore fully understand what he is writing about and why he is writing it. This is not pornography. Jack is not trying to titilate the reader with splatterpunk involving blood and guts, sex and violence. He wants the reader to try to feel what it must be like for the victims, to try understand that the human psyche can often be dark, so dark and disturbed at times that it is beyond rational explanation.

He wants you to sit up and say: 'how the hell can this happen?!'

Matt Lee-Williams.

Wayne witnesses Lee and Carole murder her abusive husband thus releasing Wayne's inner frustration to be a serial killer. He thanks the couple by dragging them along while he merrily ambles on a mindless killing spree. This is up there with some of Ketchum's best, OffspringThe Lost. The reader will be amazed at how effortlessly Ketchum can stack up a body count. It is easy to see that some of this story may be based on real events instigated by real serial killers.

Jack Ketchum knows how to write a good horror story. There is nothing exceptional or highly original about the plot of Joyride, but it is a very satisfying read. The book opens with a murder. Carole has been a victim throughout her entire life; her ex-husband Howard had abused her just about every way possible. The only way to finally get rid of him, she and her new man Lee decide, is to kill him and make it look like an accident. They think they pull off a perfect crime, but they do not realize at the time that someone else has watched the whole thing, someone even more evil and perverted than Howard. Wayne Lock has killed things throughout his life, but he has always stopped just short of killing a human being. He sees Carole and her ex-husband as his deliverance, kidnapping them, trying to learn from them what murder feels like. The end result is a murder spree of epic proportions, with Carol and Lee his reluctant "witnesses."

One criticism Ketchum is vulnerable to is characterization, but he does a pretty good job of it in this novel. Oddly enough, this is most evident in the character of the policeman pursuing the mass murdering Wayne Lock. He knows Carole's history, and she reminds him a lot of his own ex-wife; it is he, however, who makes the most significant realization about himself at the novel's conclusion. We get snips and pieces of Wayne Lock's history, enough to explain the murderous intensity of his personality but not enough to truly understand his reasoning. Carole and Lee are not developed fully in my mind, but this seems to me to be a positive in the context of this novel. I never felt strongly negative or positive toward them; they moved in a haze of contradiction where good and evil continuously wove in amongst each other.

There is plenty of carnage in this book--that's pretty much a given with Ketchum. Another given, and this is what makes Ketchum such a great horror writer, is a brutally honest plot that will not cheat the reader at the end. It is hard to predict a Ketchum ending, which is the main reason I respect him greatly as an author. The cavalry doesn't appear magically over the hill to save the day--instead, things happen the way they would most likely happen in real life--good and evil are second-string players in this game; reality itself determines the fate of Ketchum's characters. This makes for a gripping read, even in a case such as this where the storyline is nothing remarkably original.