Richard Laymon: To Wake the Dead

[Anamnesis]

To quickly summarize the story: ancient mummy is awakened and people die. There's also a subplot about three people locked up in cages by a mysterious kidnapper.

Surprisingly, the side story was more interesting than the mummy plot. It certainly proved to be the less predictable. Laymon didn't do much with the Egyptian mythology. Substitute another monster/mythological system and the book would probably feel the same. The explicit gore and sex was fine, but you can find plenty of horror writers who do that well and create a solid storyline. Still, I'll give Richard Laymon's books one more try before I write him off completely.

 

[lenny nero]

Ugh, this one was awful. I struggled to finish it when I read it years ago. It was released in the UK under the title Amara. One of his worst.

 

[Anamnesis]

Have you read Bite? I saw it at the library and thought about getting it.

 

[lenny nero]

Bite is one of the first one's I read by him, one of the earliest Leisure releases by him as well. I don't remember liking that one much either.

 

[Will]

Laymon either nailed it well, i.e. Flesh, TThe Beast House books, The Stake, Darkness Tell Us, or else missed completely i.e. Blood Games, Amara.

 

[pettersmith]

You tell the story too fastly. but i want to know what happen at the end. after reading your post. it really encourage me to read that books. the Egyptian mythology is very interesting to read. because they have really very nice story about their past culture.