Richard Laymon (1947-2001) wrote 67 books, mostly horror novels under his own name and some psuedonymns from 1980 to 2008. To wrap up this month of Halloween and Horror stories, I chose Laymon’s The Beast House from 1986. The Beast House is the second book in The Beast House series.
The Beast House is a creepy structure where 15 people have been killed over a number of years…by a Beast. The Beast House is located outside Malcasa, California. A young girl, Janice Crogan, writes to successful horror writer Gorman Hardy offering to share the secret stories of The Beast House in return for half of the profits of the projected best selling book. Little does Janice know that Gorman plans to get the facts of the story and cheat Janice out of the money.
The Beast House is run by a bizarre couple who offers tours to tourists. Most people think The Beast House is a huge hoax. They don’t believe The Beast exists. But…they are very wrong!
Richard Laymon knows how to amp up the fear and horror as the death count starts to mount. What better way to get ready for Halloween than to read this spooky tale! GRADE: B
THE BEAST HOUSE CHRONICLES SERIES:
The Cellar (1980)
The Beast House (1986)
The Midnight Tour (1998)
Friday Night in Beast House (2001)
Laymon was one of the bet writers of extreme horror in the 80s and 90s. Despite critical acclaim and praise from his fellow writers, he never reached the heights he deserved in the US, although he was extremely well-receive in England; this appears due to the terrible editing many of his books got in America. It was only until he died (far too young, at 54) that he began to get the commercial recognition he deserved here, mainly because of new editions of his work from several publishers. All of his horror novels are recommended; he also wrote effectively in the young adult, romance, and historical novel genres. According to Wikipedia, Laymon was the editor of the short-lived EXECUTIONER MYSTERY MAGAZINE and the 87TH PRECINCT MYSTERY MAGAZINE (four issues each, in 1975), instead, the editor is one “John H. Burrows,” of which nothing is known…so, could be…
The Horror Writers of America honor him with the annual Richard Laymon President’s Award.
Best writers.
Stupid fumble fingers!