Beware, by Richard Laymon

In small town America, everyone loves their local supermarket. What about a supermarket though where meat cleavers come flying at your head, a local guard dog gets murdered, and others are brutally violated by an unknown source? This is just the lead in to a fast paced novel from the mid-80's, by the grandmaster of horror himself, Richard Laymon.
Lacey is from the local News Tribune and is viciously violated by this unknown invisible entity. She moves out of town to a hotel, in hopes to escape whatever is after her. She meets a nice man named Scott, who offers his assistance in keeping her safe. Scott has bitten off more than he can chew though, when the entity comes back to get Lacey, with murderous intent. Scott then decides to call in the big guns, his hero and friend, premise of his novels, Dukane.

Can this man stop what is after Lacey? What has made the entity invisible in the first place? Why was he on a killing spree in Lacey's town, and at the supermarket of all places? Why is it targeting Lacey, and who else has it been ordered to target? All of this and more in this exciting novel!

This is the second go-around for me with this novel. It definitely held up for me, and holds up quite well considering it was written in 1985. It reads like a novel written today, and packs an intense punch. While not my favorite Richard Laymon novel, it definitely ranks up there, and I would recommend it to new readers of his work for sure. Overall I'm going to give it a B.


Review by Kyle Lybeck