Friday Night in Beast House

The last novel in the Laymon’s Beast House series. Michael would do anything to get a date with Alison—anything. Alison has just one condition for guys that want to date her—they have to spend a night with her in the legendary Beast House. To Michael a night alone with Alison is a chance of a lifetime but if the stories about the Beast House are true it may also be a chance to die. As he waits for Alison, in the cellar of the macabre museum, Michael tries to keep his first date nerves in check. But what he’s feeling now is nothing compared to the terror he’ll face before the night is out…

From Publishers Weekly

In February of this year, Laymon, then president of the Horror Writers Association, died of a heart attack at age 53. A few weeks ago, the last of his novels to be published before his death, The Traveling Vampire Show, won the HWA's Stoker Award for best novel of the year. Soon after Laymon died, Cemetery Dance, which issued that award winner, brought out Night in the Lonesome October. But it turns out that wasn't the last we'll see of Laymon, nor is this new, enjoyable short novel. The Beast House Chronicles, launched in 1979, made Laymon's reputation. This novella is the slightest of the series four entries, emotionally as well as in page length, but it features all the trademark Laymon touches. There's a horny teen protagonist, Mark, and a spooky adventure, as Mark accepts the dare of the girl of his wet dreams, Alison, that he help her sneak into Beast House, scene of several horrific murders during past decades and now a major tourist attraction in the small West Coast town where it stands. There are plenty of suspenseful and scary moments as Mark breaks into the Beast House and hides in the Beast Hole, and a particularly shocking twist at book's end. Above all, there's that inimitable Laymon style, the use of simple, strong sentences to construct, via extraordinarily vivid sensual detail, a narrative that envelops the reader in a moment by moment revelation of events in the service of a story that's terrific, nasty fun. All Laymon fans and anyone who likes horror served with a cackle are going to like this one. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Publishers Weekly

“Terrific, nasty fun…One of horror’s rarest talents. All Laymon fans and anyone who likes horror served with a cackle are going to like this one”

Stephen King

“If you’ve missed Laymon, you’ve missed a treat!”

About the Author

Richard Laymon is the prolific author of more than 30 novels and 65 short stories which have been published in Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock and Cavalier. A Bram Stoker and Science Fiction Chronicle Award-winning author, his novels have been translated into fifteen languages.

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