In the Dark

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I've read almost all of Richard Laymon's novels. Most of his stories are roller coaster rides with lots of action, violence, gore and characters that will occasionally (and unexpectedly) do something that will make your jaw drop.
"In The Dark" is very suspenseful. That's mainly due to the intriguing character of MOG. You never really know who or what MOG is. Jane is required to do all kinds of crazy stuff playing his game. The ending in a church, where she finally encounters MOG, is a knockout.

Rating:
Summary: It's a horrible, unbelieveable book... but I enjoyed it.
Review: I love Richard Laymon's writing style. Very fast-paced, very creepy, very fascinating. I have read several of his books and there are constant running themes in them that begin to make them all predictable in many ways.
Get ready for rapes galore and constant desciptions of the women's body parts. "In the Dark" was really creepy and disturbing in many parts, excellent and spooky, but as other reviewers have already pointed out, I got really, really tired of the "sweaty panties" and "sensitive nipples." I don't mind sexuality and "naughty" writing but it really did get a bit much here.
I could accept Jane's willingness (unbelievable as it was) to participate in MOG's game, because there wouldn't have been a story without it. Sure, she was stupid, greedy and absolutely unbelievable. But I can get past that for the sake of the story. The "torture house" that she stumbles into, I found awesomely gruesome and hideous. I really liked the book, but I just find Laymon's flippant treatment of brutal rape and horrible abuse of women wears on me, and is perhaps more disturbing than all the horrible images that he MEANT to disturb the reader. All his books seem to have these elements. And the way the women just don't seem to mind!!? Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. I mean, what about the years of emotional pain these women would suffer? Why does no one in his books ever call the police?? From what I understand, he fathered a daughter... does this lend him no empathy to females whatsoever? On reading his books, I have often thought "Wow, does he hate women?"
But ultimately, I couldn't put the book down. It's really creepy and really interesting. I feel kind of bad for enjoying his work. And in this one, I could definitely have done without the constant, detailed images of Jane's panties, endless "rump" descriptions and breast sweat. It ruined what could have been a great book.

Rating:
Summary: A near-perfect book - and the one that made me a Laymon fan!
Review: I love this book. Love it. Love it to pieces. I can think of about twenty 'mainstream' fiction writers that could learn a thing or two from this book and Mr. Laymon's other works. A nice, streamlined, fast moving plot. Great characters. A villain both mysterious and geinuinely scary. There is not one single chapter or sentence in this novel that does not advance the plot or keep the reader hooked. In short - one of the only horror novels I have ever read that truly scared me, and one of the best novels that I have ever read in general.

YOU WANT THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Terrific page turner
Review: I could not put this book down.I read all 500 pages in 3 days.I have never been so hooked.I look forward to reading some of his other books.

Rating:
Summary: fast and frightning...but somethings missing
Review: I like Laymon. His novels are always about a fast start, thin caracters, blood and [breasts]. There is nothing wrong with that, if your in the mood for it. But IN THE DARK was missing something. Why?
Why did M.O.G. pick Jane to do his bidding? Jane gets picked for a game where each time the stakes go higher, with the cash payoff. Fine, a great way to continously introduce us to new discriptions of horror. But the end, well...why was Jane picked? It doesnt say.
I would have liked to know a few more things about the novel, games, caracters, but the end seemed all horror, no answers. Great for some books, when you already know the answers. But you go into the finish wanting to find out who M.O.G. is, and you never fully do.

Rating:
Summary: Fast, suspenseful and a whole lotta fun!
Review: In The Dark is considered to be one of Richard Laymon's best work of suspense. And suspenseful it is! This is the kind of book that grabs you from the very first page to take you on a roller coaster ride that never seems to end. This is like reading a good B-movie; it's completely unbelievable, full of twists and turns and surprises and very very fast-paced.

When Jane receives a note coming from a man who calls himself MOG (short for Master Of Games), she decides to follow the stranger's instructions just to see where it'll take her. And when it brings her to an envelope full of cash, she doesn't shy from obeing his next command. And with each new command, comes a new envelope filled with even more cash.

But with each new envelope, the stakes get higher and higher. How far will Jane go for money? And who exactly is that young professor who keeps popping up at the strangest of times?

Laymon's writing isn't brilliant. His style is simple; short sentences, lots of dialogue and internal dialogue. And yet, this style helps to elevate the novel to a whole new level of suspense. It's also very interesting to see how Jane changes through the book; she starts out as a fragile, shy woman and ends up confident and even full of herself.

I loved this book. It was so much fun! It takes you on a wild ride that you will not soon forget. Laymon does live up to his reputation once again. This is the master of suspense at his thrilling best.

Rating:
Summary: laymon keeps us in suspence...
Review: This is an interesting concept that Laymon uses to the max!

I loved this novel and thought Laymon did a great job pacing the story and capturing the idiosyncracies of small-town life for this plain-jane librarian. The plot centers around a young librarian who gets messages to do bizarre things for a certain amount of money which keeps increasing with each increasingly dangerous stunt.

The master of games or "MOG" is a weird character who gets off getting the librarian to do these acts, hint one is really creepy like sleeping in a coffin almost naked for an obscene amount of money. This is very well-thought out and extremely well-written literary story by the master of horror.

Laymon creates a spooky atmosphere with this book and does a great job with this psychological horror novel. It moves along at a brisk pace and never gets bogged down, like SOME of Laymon's novels.

Just shy of a 5-star rating, but an awesome piece of fiction.

Rating:
Summary: A fun,intense page-turner!
Review: Richard Laymon's death has left the horror fiction landscape with one less master!Fortunately for us his books are many,including many that weren't widely known from the 90s getting a new space to breathe.Thank you Leisure!"In the Dark" is one such book.I read this book pretty fast.Despite its 500 page length,you probably will too.I found the premise interesting,suspenseful and highly entertaining.It's the sort of book that compelled me to keep going on to another chapter to see what happens!I loved Jane,the heroine of the book.She rocked!

Rating:
Summary: Good Suspense/Psychological Novel
Review: On an episode of the old 70's show "The Rockford Files," Jim tells a protégé how to run a scam on someone. Rockford explains that you have to take something from the mark, something valuable, in order to get a hook in them. Then you draw the mark through a series of twists and turns, drawing him farther and farther away from reality. Eventually, you'll be able to get the mark to agree to give up money for something they'd never go for in the beginning. With significant deviations, this is the premise of this Richard Laymon novel, "In the Dark."

Jane Kerry is the new librarian in Donnerville, a type of Anywhere, USA. Jane is young, pretty, but a bit overweight. One day on the job, Jane notices an envelope with her name written on it sitting on her chair. When she opens the envelope, there is a note in it along with a fifty dollar bill. The note is signed by MOG, or the Master of Games. The note urges her to continue the game by using clues contained in the note. In the course of starting the game, Jane runs into Brace, a university professor who quickly joins in the fun. The rest of the book is a long string of increasingly dangerous games as Jane tries to get more and more money. The money doubles every time. By the time Jane is up to $50,000, the games are getting downright dangerous. I don't want to describe any of the games because it is the games, and their descriptions, that make up the bulk of the book.

This book is not overtly violent; it is more a suspense/psychological drama. The Jane character is well drawn as we see her change, both mentally and physically, during the progression of the game. While Jane does give into her greed for more and more money, she also becomes a stronger and better person. Her timidity rapidly diminishes and she improves her physique by exercising and through the physically demanding games.

The Brace character is less developed, probably due to his presence as the concerned lover, a stock character in both horror novels and horror films (note also concerned girl lover, the flip side of the same coin). Brace is lucky to get close to Jane because Jane has a real hang-up about guys. Throughout the novel Jane makes snide observations about Brace and men in general. This is due to a bad relationship Jane had with Ken, a real cad who cheated on her and used her as an ornament. Why are women so angry in horror novels?

There are problems with the novel, as there is with every book. Since Jane knows in advance, by at least 24 hours, where the next game is going to be played, why doesn't she go there early to track down MOG? It doesn't make sense.

Another problem, at least for me, is Laymon's use of the word "rump." This may be forgiven when we consider that Laymon was British, but it still got under my skin. Jane is always smacking her rump into this or that, or falling on her rump. The word appears with such frequency that a drinking game could be based on it. Its repetitiveness became exponentially irritating as the novel progressed.

I found the ending of the book disappointing and anti-climatic. Questions the characters pose throughout the book never get answered. We never learn who MOG really is or what the rationale of the game is all about. At one point, Jane says that MOG must be a spook. Well, what type of spook? Is he supernatural or merely mortal? You will see my concern with this issue when you get to the end of the book. As it is, I can't go into more details without spoiling the ending. In short, Laymon never lays it on the line, at least not to my satisfaction.

Overall, this is a good, suspenseful book. It doesn't do anything spectacular, but is still a fun, quick read. This is my first Richard Laymon novel and I would read another one. If you like suspense with daubs of horror and violence thrown in, you'll like "In the Dark

Rating:
Summary: Yet another page turner from Mr. Laymon!
Review: This was my second Richard Laymon book. My first being One Rainy Night. Richard Laymon was a genius. His books will scare the hell out of you, but at the same time, make you (excited)! I love books like that!!! So, (excited) and terrified, I couldn't put this book down. It actually reminded me a lot of a Phantom of the Opera kind of thing. Very stylish and intense. I look forward to reading my next Laymon novel, which will probably be The Traveling Vampire Show.
Cheers!