- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Headline Book Publishing (5 April 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747269335
- ISBN-13: 978-0747269335
- Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 692,521 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Leigh is young, rebellious and beautiful and she yearns for a summer of excitement by the lake. Maybe she'll find it in the arms of the handsome boy who rows her out to the abandoned beach house. Or maybe she'll stumble into a legacy of terror which will shatter her life..
About the Author
Richard Laymon was born in Chicago in 1947. He grew up in California and took a BA in English Literature from Willamette University, Oregon, and an MA from Loyola University, Los Angeles. He worked as a schoolteacher, a librarian, a mystery magazine editor and a report writer for a law firm before working full-time as a writer. Four of his books have been shortlisted for the Bram Stoker Award, which he won in 2001 with THE TRAVELLING VAMPIRE SHOW. Richard Laymon wrote many acclaimed works of horror and suspense, including THE STAKE, SAVAGE, AFTER MIDNIGHT and the three novels in the Beast House Chronicles: THE CELLAR, THE BEAST HOUSE and THE MIDNIGHT TOUR. He died in February 2001.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
He has his very own writing style - well, most of the better authors do but Laymon's is really unique. No one writes like him. His novels are always gory, there's always a lot of violence, people are being stalked, women are getting raped. It's always the same situation - people are being victimized in the worst ways imaginable, because some seemingly tough guy/guys think it's funny and they get away with it. They might, for a while, but eventually someone will stand up to them and fight back.
Laymon is very creative and comes up with the most far-fetched and unbelievable theories, but the way he describes things, they usually start to sound at least possible quite quickly. Laymon also injects a large portion of (black) humour into his stories. The message is clear - Trust no one. Everyone out there could be a potential killer/rapist/psychopath trying to get you.
I've read 30 Laymon novels and I must say, I'm much more careful now. I certainly make sure all the doors and windows are locked at night! I especially loved The Travelling Vampire Show, Funland and Fiends.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've read approximately a dozen Richard Laymon books and this one ranks toward the lower half of them . If you've never read Laymon you should know that the vast majority of his works sit in the Horror genre, usually feature vulnerable females and include very graphic & often sickening situations. That said, many of his novels are fast, pacy affairs and although hardly ground-breaking usually very entertaining if you're a fan of the genre. Many of the books are of the non-super-natural variety though.
Previous Laymon favourites of mine are Funland, Midnight's Lair & The Travelling Vampire Show and by comparison "The Lake" is Horror-By-Numbers. I won't dwell on the plot but will say that by far the most entertaining piece of the book for me was the large "flash-back" to the lead characters youth. Up until then I was begininning to become bored but the nostalgia-tinged chapters focused around a lake and it's surrounding camp areas quickly drew me in. Unfortunately this part of the book didn't last too long and you are quickly back to "the present" which in all honesty is far less interesting than the past.
Most of the characters are VERY stereotypical to this type of work of fiction which also doesn't help things. At times, like quite a bit of Laymon's work, situations border on the totally ridiculous.
As a writer I'd recommend Richard Laymon to anyone who enjoys a good horror yarn but as I'm finding out, the more of his books you read, the more predictable they become as many of them rarely veer from a tried & tested path. Choose wisely ...
Previous Laymon favourites of mine are Funland, Midnight's Lair & The Travelling Vampire Show and by comparison "The Lake" is Horror-By-Numbers. I won't dwell on the plot but will say that by far the most entertaining piece of the book for me was the large "flash-back" to the lead characters youth. Up until then I was begininning to become bored but the nostalgia-tinged chapters focused around a lake and it's surrounding camp areas quickly drew me in. Unfortunately this part of the book didn't last too long and you are quickly back to "the present" which in all honesty is far less interesting than the past.
Most of the characters are VERY stereotypical to this type of work of fiction which also doesn't help things. At times, like quite a bit of Laymon's work, situations border on the totally ridiculous.
As a writer I'd recommend Richard Laymon to anyone who enjoys a good horror yarn but as I'm finding out, the more of his books you read, the more predictable they become as many of them rarely veer from a tried & tested path. Choose wisely ...
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Richard Laymon has been dead for a couple of years now, and he left behind some work which his literary executor (Dean Koontz?) edited and knocked into shape for publication. With this book I did find myself wondering how much of this was written by Laymon. Was it a complete work which he hadn't previously published because it wasn't quite up to scratch? (I could believe that as its not as good as previous books) Was it an incomplete work which someone else finished for him? (I could believe that too)
My wife says that she thought the book felt like it had been written by a woman. I'm not sure I agree, but I never dare argue with her.
Many of the usual Laymon features are here - people with over-active imaginations which border on the paranoid. These same people then do things which even a reckless person would think twice about. These very same people seem to have a magnetic attraction to any psychos within a mile radius, and there is a plentiful supply of them. The California tourist board must hate Laymon books!
Laymon stories usually have a element of coincidence in them, like the way a character who is most vulnerable to a psycho attack finds themselves subject to one, and normally I accept this and willingly suspend disbelief for the sake of the story. In this case I felt the coincidences go just that bit too far and strain credibility too much - but I won't give specific examples as they would give away some twists.
There is the suspense and the gory episodes which is what we read Laymon for, but maybe not in such extreme measures as other books, and somewhat spoilt by the more ridiculous elements of the plot. Having said that, with the author now dead, there is a strictly limited amount of new material going to ever be published so you have to take what you can get. This will do, but it could have been so much better.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not the best
Have read everything Laymon has written and this is by far the worst. If you`re a Laymon fan then you can tell this is not all his own work. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mr. Bryan R. Chapman
Disappointing!!
This book is not as good as others that I have read by this author. I felt the parts of the book that were set in 1968, and dealt with the character Leigh, when she was eighteen... Read more
Published on 3 Dec 2007 by J.Flood
Great BOOK Big Laymon Fan
This was the first laymon book i read and it drew me into buying more after the first taste i had to have more. i noticed a few bad reviews here. Read more
Published on 28 July 2006 by Rachel Ritchie
Absolutely awful!
This book was terrible from start to finish.The only reason I didn't throw it down in disgust halfway through was because I wanted to see if it could possibly get any worse. Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2006 by Jennifer Talbot
Cool Book
Excellent!!! Don't think I'll ever go camping again but I did thoroughly enjoy this one of Laymons
Published on 6 Jun 2005
Middle of the park
This book has all the ingredients for a Laymon special. This time however, the author did not quite cook it up right (pun intended). Read more
Published on 4 Mar 2005 by Mr. J. H. Stokes
not that bad
i am a big richard laymon fan and i was looking forward to this new novel.it is not bad but it is not like the laymon i love. Read more
Published on 27 July 2004 by Ms. B. E. Harris
the lake
i have been a fan of Richard laymon now for many years and i have enjoyed all of his books, until now,this book is one of, if not the worst book he has written,Richard died a few... Read more
Published on 17 May 2004 by Mr. Md Roberts
richard laymon- the lake
i have been a fan of Richard laymon now for many years and i have enjoyed all of his books, until now,this book is one of, if not the worst book he has written,Richard died a few... Read more
Published on 13 May 2004 by Mr. Md Roberts
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