Rating: 
Summary: Horrror-black, no cream-no sugar!
Review: An undead mummy is stalking the halls of a natural history museum. Several captives are imprisoned in an underground vault and sexually tortured in bizarre ways. These are the two main plotlines in a twist and turn filled pulp horror novel from the late Richard Laymon. There are suprises around every corner, laughs and plenty of extreme gross-outs. If you have never read Richard Laymon before this is a fine place to start, but beware: this is undiluted horror-black, no sugar, no cream, but plenty of blood, sex and torture.Also recommended: BLOOD ROAD by Edo Van Belkom, THE CHURCH OF DEAD GIRLS by Stephen Dobyns, and RISEN by J. Knight.
Rating: 
Summary: Did Laymon even write this?
Review: I am a HUGE Laymon fan and it pains me to give anything bearing his name one star. But in the midst of all the garish, gaudy sex (which comprises the bulk of the novel), and the tiresome use of "Christ" as a swear on every page, I found I kept asking myself if Laymon had even written this book. This is not one of his better novels in my opinion. It's not scary, it's not creepy, it's just vulgar. The mummy plot was a good one, but there were too many other plots mixed in which watered it down, and by the end of the novel I didn't care anymore. There were new characters being introduced and killed off too far into the book (like chapter 45). All of the sub-plots (if we may call them that) tied together in the end rather messily and, for me, didn't make much sense. I had no idea what any of those people really had to do with the mummy at all. Those extra plots could've been taken out of To Wake the Dead and made into separate novels - that would've been better. I love Richard Laymon's writing, but I had to force myself to finish this book, I hate to say. If you want prime Laymon check out Madman Stan from Cemetery Dance Publications (cemeterydance.com), or, for prime Laymon at a cheaper price check out In the Dark or Blood Games. Anything before this book will do.
Rating:
Summary: One of the worst books I've ever TRIED to read
Review: I bought this book expecting to read a thriller about a mummy returning to life...well that lasted for about the first two chapters. This book borders on pornography with the plot line focusing on sex slaves being held captive in cages. The plot is disjointed with storylines having nothing to do with each other. I couldn't even finish it. Don't waste your money on this. I wish I could ask for mine back.
Rating:
Summary: What Stupid Twaddle
Review: I can't belive Dean Koontz recommends this guy..Only because they are friends I bet......Perveted sex with an inane attempt at a plot......
Lack of focus except for the sexual fantasies of teenage boys...
what garbage.....!
Rating:
Summary: This book is a Ripper!!
Review: I picked this up for a bit of gratuitous escapism and it turned out to be a really enjoyable book. OK, so it isn't in the same class as a good Stephen King novel, but Laymon wastes no time in dropping you into the deep end and doesn't get lost along the way. This story is less of a supernatural chiller and more of a splattering gore-fest. The book is actually a very good analogue to the classic B horror movies that were spawned in the 70s - Bravo! It is intentionally confronting as Laymon seemingly tries to squeeze strong scenes into every chapter and this might disturb some people or indeed many. But, if you are looking for a somewhat tongue-in-cheek, page-turning book, that makes no apologies, then this is worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a Ripper!!
Review: I picked this up for a bit of gratuitous escapism and it turned out to be a really enjoyable book. OK, so it isn't in the same class as a good Stephen King novel, but Laymon wastes no time in dropping you into the deep end and doesn't get lost along the way. This story is less of a supernatural chiller and more of a splattering gore-fest. The book is actually a very good analogue to the classic B horror movies that were spawned in the 70s - Bravo! It is intentionally confronting as Laymon seemingly tries to squeeze strong scenes into every chapter and this might disturb some people or indeed many. But, if you are looking for a somewhat tongue-in-cheek, page-turning book, that makes no apologies, then this is worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Trashy Piece of Bare-bones Garbage
Review: I think the title of my review speaks for itself. I suppose if the characters were at all realistic and/or interesting, the mummy had some clever twist to her other than lots of biting and tearing, and every SINGLE character wasn't engaging in bizarre sex acts every other moment, this MIGHT have been diverting. Laymon's style is so bare-bones that it's distracting, his prose like an abbreviated menu with little to no detail. He clearly can get a reader to FEEL something at times, which is laudable, but he uses that power to feel more disgust than horror. If sick, twisted sexual horror is your thing, then you'll love this book. It's not mine. I put this down after five chapters, and I'll never visit this author's work again. And hey, that's what makes this world a great place...we can choose to disagree on what constitutes good writing. I happen to think this author's style makes the horror genre deserve it's current B-grade status, but that's just me. I think Dean Koontz's introduction (Hardcover) should have warned me; he spent 95% of it talking about himself.
Rating:
Summary: strong mummy tale
Review: In 1926 Robert Callahan accompanied his father to Egypt and through an unusual set of circumstances found the tomb of Amara, the favorite wife of Mentuhotep I. He unknowing opened the magic seal that prevented her from walking the night and actually saw the body of the man she had killed. He finds an Egyptian mystic to fashion two seals that will keep her in her coffin and when that is done he smuggles her home to add the sarcophagus to the family's Egyptian antiquities collection. In the present thieves enter Robert's home and break the seal that binds Amara. Freed, she kills Robert before returning to her resting-place. The collection is willed to the Charles Ward Museum but at night Amara walks, killing anyone whom gets in her way. She looks for her infant son once buried with her and will not rest until she finds him. The police refuse to believe there is a killer mummy stomping around, but one man knows the truth and is bound by his promise to Robert to find a way to stop the mummy's reign of terror. Richard Laymon is an award-winning author and after reading this book it is easy to see why. Unlike the recent Mummy tongue in cheek (wrap?) movies, TO WAKE THE DEAD is a very scary novel, so frightening that readers will go to bed with the lights on. The author has given the mummy quite a personality without her ever saying one word and somehow he makes her believable to the audience and that is what makes Mr. Laymon so good because few horror novelists ever achieve the stark realism he attains. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover
Review: Looking at the cover the book appears to be a mummy thriller. I expected the creepy tomb feel with a good story. What I got was trashy sex that didn't seem to fit into the story at all. As a matter of fact, most of the characters didn't tie in together at all. It is too bad because Laymon had a good story base with the mummy if he would have just kept to it and left the other story plots out of the book. The result was a very bad book and I felt cheated.
Rating: 
Summary: A brutal, breathtaking ride through horror...
Review: Susan Connors works in the Charles Ward Museum. They've just received a new artifact: a mummy, actually. Amara. Rumor has it, Amara isn't really dead...well, she's dead, alright, but she gets up after nightfall and walks around...with murder on her mind...
Unfortunately, Susan's life isn't the only one affected. There's Grace, who, along with her boyfriend Cody and little sis Pix, is running away from home. There's Ed, who just got abducted by some mysterious stranger, with sadistic purposes in mind. There's April, who's all alone in her dark house, searching for a lover. These people's lives, along with those of others, will collide, revolving around one deadly mummy in pursuit of a child lost to her centuries ago...
Richard Laymon has proven time and again that he can write horror like nobody else. "To Wake the Dead" is not the best novel he's written, to be true; and certainly, the last twenty pages or so are a let-down, a climactic conclusion that seems to have been thrown together. But the ride there...wow. "To Wake the Dead" is pure, horrific, suspenseful Laymon that is bound to give you the willies.
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