Rating: 
Summary: Not as clever as it thinks it is
Review: 'The Horned Man' is a psychological thriller about a college professor who starts to feel that mysterious characters are trying to frame him for various crimes.The book is well written and tightly constructed; maybe too tightly. The relatively simple story isn't really enough to keep readers guessing all the way to the end. In fact, many will see the "twist" coming from page one. It's not original, either. The device of telling the story from inside the mind of an increasingly unreliable narrator feels derivative. As a satire of political correctness, it's pretty much spot on in its depiction. Many readers will recognize the dilemma of agreeing with the principle but being frustrated by the excesses of PC-ism. However, the satire is not particularly funny and therefore ends up as a failure. Fifteen years ago, 'The Horned Man' might have seemed fresh and clever. Now it just feels behind its time.
Rating: 
Summary: A compelling and literate creation
Review: A beautifully crafted work that first captivates, then challenges the reader. I certainly plan to read it again. Readers that gravitate toward literature will find the story and it's telling richly rewarding and stimulating. Readers looking for more traditional mystery/thrillers may be intrigued or dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: A dazzling and compelling work by a terrific author. This is a work of literature - not some hackneyed pot-boiler or silly thriller for the cruise ship. A layered and intricate little novel that creeps up and seizes you by the throat - one of those "to hell with the time, I'm finishing this thing!" books that you will pass on to friends and chat about over cocktails.
Some of the reviews have been breathlessly enthusiastic, so expect it to be difficult to grab off the shelf of your local bookstore. But do yourself a favor: pour a stiff drink, light the fireplace, settle in and ... brace yourself. A real winner.
Rating:
Summary: Surrealistric : perfect for film adaptation by David Lynch
Review: After reading this fantastic novel, it should come as no surprise that James Lasdun won a Best Screenplay prize at Sundance some years ago, for "The Horned Man" (HM) is cinematic if nothing else. The only surprise is that it hasn't - to the best of my knowledge - been optioned for film but if and when that happens, there is no one better to direct the movie than David Lynch, the master of celluloid surrealism. It is hard to tell if Lawrence Miller is living or hallucinating his nightmare existence. After all, he may not be the most reliable of narrators. He is plagued by self-doubt, the result of an emotionally scarring incident involving his step-sister recalled most colourfully and in great style by Lasdun. His wife has left him and he is seeing a shrink. But we take what we read at face value. Then strange things begin to happen and Lawrence thinks he's losing his mind or there's somebody - a disembodied soul perhaps - occupying his office at night or worse spying on him all the time he's working from a little space under his desk. Lasdun cranks up the spook factor by revealing that the previous (day) occupant of his room died under mysterious circumstances and some of her belongings are still left in the room. Lasdun then plants evidence suggesting that our invisible stalker may be a shadowy Bulgarian playwright figure whom we never get to meet. From then on, HM starts to pan out like familiar episodes from "Twin Peaks". No, there are no dwarfs but Lawrence starts mistaking a strange exotic woman for the shrink he is seeing, getting drawn almost against his will into a totally unreal relationship with a woman attorney, dressing up in his dead ex-colleague's clothes to follow a lead in his investigations, and trading physical blows with a faceless violent presence. As Lawrence's paranoia mounts, we begin to doubt his story. By the time he starts growing horns - as in the book's title - we don't know what to think anymore. Lasdun doesn't offer readers a pat ending. That's why Lynch is the perfect director for a film adaptation of HM. I'm not sure I truly "got it" but I don't care because maybe I'm not meant to. HM is a real page turner. I was thoroughly entertained every page of the way. Lasdun's prose is crisp, concise, yet suffused with a brooding menace that brought a special intensity to the atmosphere. HM is simply unputdownable. One of the best reads this season.
Rating:
Summary: Strange Fiction
Review: Fantastic - I couldn't put it down. It keeps getting stranger and stranger, but it has a dark logic that makes everything believable and compelling. If you like high-anxiety tension/suspense and super-smart writing, this is a must-read.
Rating: 
Summary: Going nowhere fast
Review: Has its moments, and the prose is good (what one would expect from a poet). But the bright little fragments of the mosaic never coalesce into a larger picture. Confusing, episodic, rambiling and disconnected. The ending disappoints. Hardly the page-turner others have made it out to be.
Rating:
Summary: Frightening trip into a warped psyche
Review: I agree with "beautiful bleakness." Lawrence Miller's flimsy grasp on reality is chilling, especially the way it's revealed. This book is beautifully written and brilliant in its subtlety. Lasdun -- maybe because of the first person POV -- does a lot of telling, which may put off some, but it worked for me. As a reader, you're completely at the mercy of Miller's narration, and you find yourself hungering for details while feeling manipulated and then alternately frustrated with Miller's sometimes blockheadedness. The Horned Man is in some repsects a horror show of psychological sickness, and truth be told I figured out what was going on midway through, but I really respect what Lasdun chose to leave to the reader's imagination.
Rating:
Summary: Might give him another chance, but not impressed...
Review: I agree with the previous reviewer, in that I rated this book a 2 rather than a 1 due to the fine writing that kept my interest despite the fact that I could predict the outcome from the very first page. I kept waiting for the author to prove my theory wrong. He did not. In addition, call me detail-obsessed, but I found the author's description of the "small city" of Corinth extremely distracting--this very small town does in fact exist about 150 miles north of NYC, and bears no resemblance whatsoever to the place he describes in his narrative (I grew up there). I could excuse the fact that there is no bus station in the town, but there is not a [...] or [...] for miles around, let alone "dilapidated mansions." I understand that the name is symbolic, but perhaps he might have either done some research or placed it in Pennsylvania???
Rating: 
Summary: Bewildering to the very end
Review: I am not normally a reader of mysteries or fiction generally, so maybe that simple fact accounts for why I feel as if I have been reading a different book than those reviewers who figured it out in the first few pages. I was fascinated and confused by the text all the way through. At times, I felt certain I knew who the perpetrator was, but then I would be thrown off the trail. How else to explain the 'gift' left for him, the inexplicable reaction of Elaine to him. I may be too literal-minded for this sort of gauzy surrealism, but I enjoyed it just the same. I finished the book last night, and my mind is still trying to sort out the details of the book. As another reviewer mentioned, I may have to re-read this one just to impose some degree of mental order on the story. In any event, the prose is as finely wrought as any you'll read, so even if your sensibilities are more in tune than mine in figuring out 'whodunit', the book is worth reading for the writing alone.
Rating:
Summary: Dark and Hilarious Page-turner
Review: I found myself chuckling nervously throughout this dark mystery. Lasdun has a masterful command of the English language, and an inspired imagination. This is most innovative novel I've read in a long time.
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