Road Kill

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing and Scary
Review: Earlier this week I read the scary little novel ROAD KILL by Jack Ketchum. I was first introduced to Ketchum through his novels OFF SEASON and OFFSPRING which concerned a small town haunted by a cannibalistic family descended from shipwreck survivors. But ROAD KILL hits much closer to home and is thus not suitable for everyone.

A woman decides that the only way she can be free of her abusive ex-husband (one who has scarred her and been unrestrained by restraining orders) is to kill him. She and her new boyfriend come up with a plan and carry it out one dark night. By they were not alone. Their actions were witnessed by a man who became fascinated with what they had done. He has often wondered what it would be like to kill someone, but has never had the courage to follow his desires.

Obsessed with this couple who have done what he cannot, the man tracks them down. He wants to talk to them to see what it was like. He wants all of the details. But his obsession grows and soon he has killed his first victim. He is ecstatic and drags the couple around on a killing spree. But the police manage to track him down rather quickly and put and end to the short-lived horror.

ROAD KILL is an excellent example of psychological horror. The reader is drawn into the mind of a slightly twisted individual where they can then see the complete breakdown piece by piece. The terror lies in just how easily the deterioration progresses. The victims are random and could be anybody. It manages to convey the ides that we live in a very dangerous world where anything can happen. But at the end of this novel we find out that justice is not completely blind and that the sword of justice can be blunted with compassion. And that can give the reader hope.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing and Scary
Review: Earlier this week I read the scary little novel ROAD KILL by Jack Ketchum. I was first introduced to Ketchum through his novels OFF SEASON and OFFSPRING which concerned a small town haunted by a cannibalistic family descended from shipwreck survivors. But ROAD KILL hits much closer to home and is thus not suitable for everyone.

A woman decides that the only way she can be free of her abusive ex-husband (one who has scarred her and been unrestrained by restraining orders) is to kill him. She and her new boyfriend come up with a plan and carry it out one dark night. By they were not alone. Their actions were witnessed by a man who became fascinated with what they had done. He has often wondered what it would be like to kill someone, but has never had the courage to follow his desires.

Obsessed with this couple who have done what he cannot, the man tracks them down. He wants to talk to them to see what it was like. He wants all of the details. But his obsession grows and soon he has killed his first victim. He is ecstatic and drags the couple around on a killing spree. But the police manage to track him down rather quickly and put and end to the short-lived horror.

ROAD KILL is an excellent example of psychological horror. The reader is drawn into the mind of a slightly twisted individual where they can then see the complete breakdown piece by piece. The terror lies in just how easily the deterioration progresses. The victims are random and could be anybody. It manages to convey the ides that we live in a very dangerous world where anything can happen. But at the end of this novel we find out that justice is not completely blind and that the sword of justice can be blunted with compassion. And that can give the reader hope.