Throwback Thursday: All Hallow's Eve by Richard Laymon

Author: Richard Laymon
First published in 1985. 
Re-issued by Samhain Publishing in 2016

This sleepy town may never recover from this nightmare. Every town has as a past but the grizzly murder of the Sherwood family is one the small town of Ashburg barely recovered from. The Sherwood house has remained vacant for years so who is sending out invitations for a party there? The townspeople are intrigued and who can resist a party at the murder house on All Hallow's Eve? 

This title was previously published in 1985.

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Looking back through my list of "read" Richard Laymon books, I can definitely see a trend.  I think I always go into his books with high hopes that this will be the one to scare me, only to be extremely disappointed.  Well, it happened again.  All Hallow's Eve started out really promising but in the end it just didn't deliver.  

I thought the first part of the book was interesting.  The last 2/3...not so much.  The killer was revealed  about 1/3 of the way into the book. So, that took away a lot of the suspense for me.  The ending was so abrupt that all I could think was, " That's it?". It was like there wasn't even a reason for the killings other than gratuitous gore and violence. This book was originally published before the author died, so I can't chalk it up to an unfinished manuscript.  I'm sure there are better books by this author out there, I just haven't found one yet.  Have you?

About the Author: 

Richard Laymon was born in Chicago and grew up in California. He earned a BA in English Literature from Willamette University, Oregon and an MA from Loyola University, Los Angeles. He worked as a schoolteacher, a librarian, and a report writer for a law firm, and was the author of more than thirty acclaimed novels.

He also published more than sixty short stories in magazines such as Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, and Cavalier, and in anthologies including Modern Masters of Horror.

He died from a massive heart attack on February 14, 2001 (Valentine's Day).

Also published under the name Richard Kelly.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/83937.Richard_Laymon
Amazon: http://amzn.to/29nTro2