In the Dark

I enjoyed this more than the first Laymon book I read, Darkness Tell Us. In the Dark was the novel by him originally recommended to me, but I had been unable to find it in my favorite local used bookstore.

In the Dark has more narrative pull to it than most books you will find--and I would include those that primarily use annoying gimmicks like cliffhanger chapter endings. Laymon's imagination and wicked sense of humor are enough to keep you interested here.

The central plot was enough to tantalize me: a librarian finds a note addressed to her containing fifty dollars and clues as to where to find the next note. The instructions get more elaborate, the pay increases, and the stakes. The less you, the potential reader, know, the better. I show more will therefore say no more about the plot, except that it delivers on its promises of something different and exciting.

I must mention that I came to terms somewhat with what seemed like excruciating padding in Darkness Tell Us. It seems like the twists and turns of the protagonist's thoughts make a lot more narrative sense in this outing, but the book still could have been about 10-20% shorter, I suspect. show less

Jane, the local Donnerville librarian, receives a $50 bill and instructions from a mysterious stranger, the master of games (MOG). The clues continue and every time she succeeds at solving the "game" the money is doubled. This pattern continues on and on and the "game" pushes Jane down a very dark path as her greed overtakes her common sense. The story started out very strong, but the pattern of: Note + Money + Gruesome Task was not strong enough to hold up for 500+ pages.

An interesting premise ruined by unbelievable, two-dimensional characters and horndog writing. Time that would've been better spent fleshing out side characters is instead wasted giving us a minute-by-minute accounting of every single surface that comes into contact with the main character's buttocks or breasts.

Always enjoy Richard Laymon. You're guaranteed certain things from him no matter what, including, but not limited to, a pretty young woman in red gym shorts(although other colours are available), at least one sex-in-the-shower scene(or it may just be wishful thinking), large quantities of descriptive text involving the aforementioned red gym shorts girl, usually involving the sensitivity of her nipples or more than likely, the wonderfully clinging quality of her red gym shorts in relation to her pert buttocks!

All this is well and good of course but what about the story? Well, this one's a doozy. It involves a librarian called Jane who finds a strategically placed envelope on her chair which contains money and a little riddle leading her show more to the next envelope containing more money and another riddle. In fact the money keeps doubling each time as the riddles lead her into more and more dangerous situations.

I had read in various reviews around cyberspace that there's a great twist ending. This confused me since I either missed it, or was too stupid to see it, or was just plain wrongly informed in the first place. MOG(master of games) who's the one leaving all the envelopes and riddles reminds me of another of Richard Laymon's characters from one of his other books. I think it was Blood Games but I can't for the life of me remember his name now. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it can't be linked to that character since there wasn't any reason for it to be so. I don't know.

So leaving aside the slight disappointment with the whole who is MOG? mystery which just fizzled away to nothing really(from what I could see), it was a great ride and featured lots of mentions of breasts, pert buttocks and gym shorts(which were blue and shiny in this instance) rather than the traditional red.

Very good. But I wish the whole MOG thing had been dealt with a little more definitively.

As always with our Mr Laymon, Highly Recommended. show less

I feel like I can't even say anything in this review without spoilers lol this series is so great, I'm sad I put off reading it for so long. It has so many complex characters and false faces. I love so many of the messages this series provides from family to resilience. The ending was messy and complex just like the rest of the books. Loved it.

Finished this book last night. Wow what a difference with the last book I read. This one I could not stop reading and it kept me thinking about it even when I could not read.

My dad gave me about 5 books by Richard Laymon. This is the first book I have read by him and I loved it. So original. I love the toughness, the gore, the sex. lol. Okay sometimes the story was a a bit like "A girl would never do that, but all in all I really loved reading it.

I picked this book because it had the best reviews out of the books i had.
Already reading another Richard Laymon book. And he has written so many books. I am thrilled to explore more.

In The Dark - Richard Laymon *****

Jane is a librarian, one night as she prepares to close up she finds and envelope with a $50 bill and a note with a clue. She follows up on the clue and finds $100 dollars with a further offer of doubling her money each time she completes a task. The note is signed MOG (Master of Games). Each task gets more and more scary to complete, expect graveyards, late nights and death. :)

I have read a few Laymon novels and this one doesn't fail to live up to his legacy to shock. I think most of his books are male orientated with their fair share of jiggling boobs and bums. I just love them. I've not read the Beast house trilogy yet, but this book would seem an ideal place to start for fans new to his work.