Pyed Piper
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Ray Pye is the coolest guy in the world. Cool car, cool apartment, cool clothes. At least, that's what his friends think. His two closest confidants are Tim and Jennifer. These two people share Ray's secret. They were there when Ray decided to take his shotgun and murder two young women at a campsite in the summer of 1965. The police had their suspicions that Ray was the perpetrator of this brutal act, but they could never prove anything. Jennifer has feelings for Ray while Tim is his right-hand man, drug mule and stooge.
The violent opening to Jack Ketchum's novel immediately grabs you and propels you into the lives of several inhabitants of Sparta, New Jersey. The author skillfully weaves his story around his fascinating characters. Other than Tim and Jennifer, these include a serving police officer whose certainty that Ray is guilty gnaws away at his conscience; a retired police officer who is now in a romantic entanglement with Sally, an eighteen-year-old girl; and then there's a new girl in town, Katherine. Ray likes her. She's unpredictable, classy, glamorous and beautiful: a heady concoction as far as Ray's concerned.
This is, in some ways, another story about the darkness that lurks beneath the surface of a respectable small town. The story's title, `The Lost' does not just relate to the people who are killed in the prologue. It also relates to the impact that event has on the lives of the other characters when the story resumes four years later. Lost innocence, lost youth, lost opportunity, lost humanity. It's a novel that builds its tension slowly, but palpably. The odious Ray Pye is literally a ticking time-bomb waiting for the correct combination of circumstances that will lead to his detonation, and the novel to its stunning climax.
Incidentally, a film version of this novel is now available on DVD. In my opinion, the film is not quite as good as the book, but it is worth seeing. Jack Ketchum's fans will probably be interested in his audio commentary in the DVD's bonus material. He speaks a lot about his writing projects and the background of `The Lost'.
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Good but not great
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I had been told this was a prety poor book and probably not worth reading but I gave it a go anyway as I love Jack Ketchum. This book is way underrated. Its definetaly not his best work but its still an excellent story. Well worth a read. I think that when you write as many legandary books as Ketchum then you write something like the Lost people just expect more but I still recommend this book and would argue with anyone who said it isn't worth reading.
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