Endless Night - Richard Laymon

A couple of days ago I was scanning my bookshelves for something to read. I couldn't make my mind up whether to go for a crime novel, or sci-fi or even something a bit technical. In the end I opted for a book by Richard Laymon. A few years ago now I had read one of his called 'Island' about a group of eight people who become shipwrecked on an, you've guessed it, island with a deranged maniac on the loose which I had really enjoyed. Remembering this I looked forward to tucking into this older title of his, published in 1993, entitled 'Endless Night'. It is a story about Jody Fargo, sixteen ... more

Endless Night is in my opinion one of the best two or three novels Laymon has produced. It tells the story of a girl, Jody, who is staying the night at a friend's house when a gang break in and kill the rest of the family (a typically violent premise for a Laymon novel!). Jody escapes along with her friend's little brother, and they spend the rest of the novel being pursued by one of the killers. The great strength of this novel is that it never lets up for a moment - the excitement is relentless. There is no setting of scene, or tiresome introduction at the beginning: the action starts from ... more

Endless Night is a good book although it had enough potential to have been a lot better. A large amount of the story was told from the killer’s perspective, especially about his past which was mostly disgusting. Most of this wasn’t really necessary to the plot and was probably only there for shock value which got a little boring after a while. I found myself skipping through these parts to get to the exciting bits in the story, of which there were plenty. Other than that the book was brilliant. It was well written and I quickly became attached to the good characters. This is a typical Laymon ... more

"Endless Night" was the first book I ever read by Richard Laymon. And it just got me going form there. At first the book was that thick I couldn't possibly finish in time to return it again. But as I started flipping the pages, it just struck me how good of the writing was in this book. Laymon writes as if in real life, not concentrating on the scenary, but on the conversation and the surrounding things. It certainly makes you scare and want to flip a few more pages just to peaks what happends, also knowing this would spoil the surprise. "Endless Night" was based on a girl and a boy how they ... more

Endless Night is one of the most disturbing books written by Laymon, the story begins with a bunch of serial killers who break into houses and slaughter everyone in it. Jody Fargo is a sixteen year old daughter of a cop, who is having a sleepover at her friends when the killers break in, they massacre the entire family but Jody along with her friends brother Andy manage to escape. The story follows two different angles, one from Jody's escape and fleeing with her father from the killers, the other from Simon Quirt who is one of the members of the group who slaughtered Andy's family, they call ... more