After Midnight

Her name is Alice (but not really) and she has a story to tell - the truth about what happened when she was housesitting and a naked stranger wondered out of the woods. About when she paniced and grabbed the Civil War Saber off the wall and sliced him through the head... I loved After Midnight as the charactor of Alice was quite realistic and actually had flaws - she was Paranoid and in my opinion had Borderline Personality Disorder. I thought that the book was quite similar to Bite in that the main charactor starts off trying to hide a body and things just go off on a tangent from there. I cant say too much without giving away the storyline, but this is one of Laymons best.

I can't say that I've read all of Laymon's books, but out of the 10 that I have had the priviledge to read, this one is the my second favorite. The best of his reads, I would have to say, is the albeit very slow but definitely captivating "Traveling Vampire Show." This is much faster-paced and exciting. Some of Laymon's dialog feels a bit wooden at times, but in this book I felt some of it was better than usual. Very natural reactions to some insanely unbelievable situations. Alice is awesome. It's a shame she won't be joining us for a sequel. Not for you if you are not an extreme horror fan, but if you are... Cheers!

Laymon's stories are a bit over-the-top, and always filled with gratuitous sex and violence - but his work is really what horror is all about. In this book, we are introduced to "Alice", a protagonist whom we have a hard time relating to, or even accepting, but Laymon's storytelling makes it work. As usual, Laymon wastes no time in getting right to the action and suspense, and it never lets up in this book. While the story is completely unbelievable, Laymon's writing kept me turning the pages. I hated the first book that I read by Laymon, but I gave him another try, and now I am addicted!

Alice is a woman on the edge. After experiencing self-defense gone wrong, she must find a way to free her binds from her mistake, while violent consequences ensue. Richard Laymon's AFTER MIDNIGHT is undoubtedly candy for the eye. Readers will have a field day following the misadventures of a protagonist not only tough but set with a mind as sharp as any pointed object. Again, the author doesn't just slowly but surely build up momentum, but throws it in a handful of action, suspense and gore that hold interest up until the edge-of-your-seat denouement that has to be read to be believed. Yes, Laymon is infatuated with the female form, and yes, his plot tends to be over the top, but his wicked pen sure compensates for these little "flaws". His sense of timing and deliverance make AFTER MIDNIGHT a fun grade-B treat that deserves its big following.-----Martin Boucher

Her name's not really Alice, of course; and naturally, all people and place names in her tale have been changed. To protect the innocent...and the guilty. It begins with a midnight prowler, a man skinny-dipping in a pool. Alice is scared, yes, but not overly-so; she's had a hard, tumultuous life, one that's left her paranoid. She knows how to defend herself. That Civil War sabre hanging above the fireplace is a great self-defense weapon. Until she accidently kills someone with it... From there it's a bloody ride, action piled upon action. While "After Midnight" is not the best Laymon novel of all time, it is certainly one of the better novels published since his death. Alice is not the most user-friendly protagonist; she's hard to sympathize with, at times, and yet you find yourself rooting for her and her psychotic ways. "After Midnight" is overly violent, bloody, and all-together disgusting...but that's Richard Laymon's mass appeal. With all the blood, it's easy to overlook Laymon's knack for character development and suspense; however, dig beneath the blood and gore of his novels, and what you'll find is one of the greatest suspense writers of the twentieth century. "After Midnight" is a superb horror/thriller that will keep you up...yes, here it comes: well after midnight.