To Wake The Dead
By Richard Laymon

         When Richard Laymon was struck down by a heart attack on Valentines Day 2001, his fame in the United Kingdom, Australia, and parts of Europe was well established, but he was just beginning to gain respect as a horror writer in the United States. Sadly, after writing over thirty novels, he was almost unknown here. His popularity has gained strength since his death, and To Wake The Dead is the newest post-mortem Laymon novel.

       Though she has no redeeming qualities or character, the resurrected female mummy, Amara, and her murderous rampage in search of her stolen child, is frightening. Amara was the beautiful wife of Mentuhotep the First. Now she is just a brittle bundle of bones and dried skin, though her beautiful flowing red hair has survived. I especially enjoyed the journal flashback, told in first person, by the man who originally excavated Amara from her tomb and inadvertently set her free 4,000 years after her death.

       The musings of a lonely blind woman living in a remote mansion afford a quiet, sad reprieve from violence, but seem out of place until the multiple plotlines converge at the end.

        The horrors encountered by three people who have been kidnapped and are being held as sex slaves in an underground chamber are not for the faint-hearted. All the violence occurs in the dark, and the assailant is unknown. The third plotline follows Susan Connors, the assistant Curator of the Charles Ward Museum where Amara has been placed for exhibit, and her struggle with the mummy for possession of her own baby, Geoffrey. Pull the blinds and lock the doors before you read this fast paced and frightening novel that rushes headlong to a satisfying climax.

          In this age of cutting corners and cheap bindings, Leisure's new line of horror novels are beautiful books. I was very pleased with the quality. This book is cloth hardback with gold spine lettering and a glossy dust jacket. The binding is reminiscent of the days gone by when publishers put out a product to be proud of, and that would survive multiple readings.