‘Beware!’ - Richard Laymon (Headline)

 

Page Count: 279 Pages

Halloween approaches and across the land, charity shops are remembering that they’ve been keeping ‘that box of horror books’ since the beginning of last November, in readiness for this year’s ‘October 31st’. They don’t seem to realise that I’ll quite happily buy horror fiction whatever the time of year but… I’m trying to make the most of the ‘flurry of horror fiction’ in the meantime ;o)

Old horror books have been popping up, here and there, and yesterday lunchtime, it was the turn of Richard Laymon’s ‘Beware!’ to catch my eye. Now, I’ve had what you’d call an ‘up and down’ reading experience with Laymon, for every ‘The Cellar’ there’s a ‘Flesh’, but I’m a sucker for the cover art, on these books, so I was always going to pick up ‘Beware!’

And…

The supermarket shouldn’t have been shut – it wasn’t normal for Elsie to quit early. But then it wasn’t normal for a meat cleaver to fly through the air by itself. Or for a guard dog, locked in overnight, to end up like hamburger meat. Or for Elsie herself to feature on the butcher’s slab, neatly wrapped and jointed…

Weird things are happening in the town of Oasis and certain folks – like hotshot local reporter Lacey Allen – had better… Beware!

Before we get into the book itself… It’s worth noting that the villain (well, one of them) is an unrepentant rapist who is all too willing to confess to his crimes, and does so at great length. And if that wasn’t enough, our heroine is pitted squarely against him. This makes for some horrifying moments that Laymon confronts head on. I think it’s handled appropriately but maybe have a think first, it before picking up ‘Beware!’ up.

I stuck with it, partly because I liked the initial concept of a haunted supermarket (I’m like that…) but once Laymon turns everything on its head, the plot took off like a rocket and I kind of got swept up in it. Turns out that it’s not a haunted supermarket after all and while my wait for that particular tale goes on a little longer, I wasn’t complaining about where the story ended up heading. ‘Beware!’ is definitely horror but there’s also a lot of action that really powers things along; especially when you take into account the nature of the villain and realise that he can literally strike at any time, with no warning.

The ending felt a little abrupt but to be fair… When a plot tears along like this and then concludes, it’s bound to end a little sharply. There was literally nothing left to happen.

Up until that point though, ‘Beware!’ was very much a ‘read in one sitting’ kind of book (albeit with a little skimming here and there, Laymon’s prose is gripping when things kick off, not so much in the ‘lulls’ but that’s a matter of taste though). Maybe it’s a little too straightforward for a re-read, any time soon, but for a quiet Sunday afternoon where I just wanted to stop and recharge a little… ‘Beware!’ entertains just as much as it scares and that was just what I needed.