Into the Fire
by Richard Laymon
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Book Summary Information
Author: Richard LaymonEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-07
ISBN: 0843957328
Number of pages: 374
Publisher: Leisure Books
Book Reviews of Into the Fire
Book Review: A typically violent and weird Laymon novel.
Summary: 4 Stars
It's been a while since I had the time to sit down and read a novel. When I finally did I immediately gravitated to literature's great dessert, Richard Laymon. I think I made a good choice, because for the most part "Into the Fire" is entertaining.
For most of its length, the novel is split in two: One story finds a woman, Pamela, kidnapped by a psycho from her past and driven into the desert. The other finds a young college student who gets hooked into a blood-and-sex crime spree with two people he picks up while traveling home from school.
Pamela is eventually saved by a mysterious man named Sharpe, who rides around in a bus full of mannequins, and taken to a tiny desert town called Pits. She is warmly greeted there by its few inhabitants and nursed back to health.
Norman's two companions are Duke and Boots -- Duke is a retro bad-boy who fashions himself after Elvis, and Boots is a morally loose woman who Norman insists resembles a pig. This trio takes off, killing and robbing people indiscriminately.
Duke and Boots are such anachronisms that for quite a while I thought they were simply delusions in Norman's mind.
As silly as this part of the novel is, it's hard not to enjoy -- Laymon is winking at you just enough, while making their crimes hideous in a real sort of way, to strike a perfect balance. And when Norman (the "normal" guy) begins to fall for this bloodlust, he becomes the manifestation of the male id -- finally set free to live that teenage outlaw fantasy.
Back in Pits, Pamela finds out something shocking about her murdered husband and begins to think she might want to stay. As you'd expect, she discovers Pits might have a bizarre past.
If "Into the Fire" has any flaws, it's that the two stories take a really long time to finally come together, the big reveal about Pits is very obvious and handled unceremoniously (despite the buildup), and when the stories finally collide the finale they inspire doesn't make much sense.
But I can't say I didn't enjoy the whole thing. Without an insult meant, I consider Laymon's books like B-movies. And sometimes a good B-movie, made with style, hits the spot. That's how I felt about "Into the Fire" -- it veers into the wacky and ridiculous, but I was never sorry I picked it up.
Even the out-there ending, which feels almost like it was cut from "The Goonies," is amusingly dumb.
I agree that it would have been nice to hear more about Sharpe. However, for what it was (or for what I was expecting), "Into the Fire" worked for me.
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