Page Updated: 09/09/02
Richard Laymon
Richard Laymon
The Travelling Vampire ShowThe Travelling Vampire Show
Come Out TonightCome Out Tonight
WebPage: http://rlk.cjb.net
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About the Author
Bibliography


First British Edition Headline (2000)
Buy at Amazon.co.uk The Travelling Vampire Show
The summer I was sixteen, The Travelling Vampire Show came to town. I heard about it from my two best friends, Rusty and Slim.
Rusty pulled a piece of paper out of the back pocket of his jeans. Unfolding it, he said, 'These are all over town.' Slim came in close so she could look at the paper too. It had four torn corners. Apparently, Rusty had ripped the poster off a wall or tree or something.
It looked like this:
It’s a day like any other in the hot August of 1963. Sleepy little Grandville holds few excitements for three thrill-seeking teenagers with time on their hands. Except for the posters. They've appeared on the streets overnight and for Dwight, Rusty and Slim the message is irresistible - The Travelling Vampire Show is coming to town.
Not that getting in is going to be easy. For a start, the show's only for over-18s and they can't pass for that. And the performance begins at midnight, way past their parents' curfew. There's also the price of admission - ten bucks each will take some finding.
But the whole day stretches ahead of them. What's to stop them taking off for Janks Field, the spooky venue for the show, and watching the crew set up? Maybe they can get some idea of what the performance will be like - even catch a glimpse of 'gorgeous, stunning' Valeria, billed as 'the only known vampire in captivity'. There can't be any harm in that - can there?
The Travelling Vampire Show is the story of what happens to Dwight, Rusty and their tomboy pal Slim on the day they hike to Janks Field. Three teenagers who go where they shouldn't go, do what they shouldn't do - and run into big trouble.
'In Laymon's books, blood doesn't so much drip drip as explode, splatter and coagulate' Independent
'Stephen King without a conscience' Dan Marlowe
'A gut-crunching writer' Time Out
'An uncanny grasp of just what makes characters work… readers turn the pages so fast they leave burn marks on the paper' Horrorstruck
'Incapable of writing a disappointing book' New York Review of Science Fiction
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Paperback - Headline (2000)
Buy at Amazon.co.uk Come Out Tonight
It's a hot, hot night.
Too hot to be making love unless your romance is young, like Sherry and Duane's. It's their first time and there's just one problem - they have no condoms. Of course they could wait until tomorrow...
In the usual circumstances, the twenty-four-hour Speed-D-Mart is not a place anyone would want to visit at night. But these aren't usual circumstances. Duane throws on his clothes - the store is just ten minutes down the block.
Now Sherry is waiting. Ten minutes has gone, so has twenty. She's not worried - what's another few minutes? Then she hears the noise from down the street. It might be a door slamming. It might be the backfire of a car. But Sherry thinks it sounds mostly like a gunshot... Richard Laymon was born in Chicago in 1947. He has worked as a school-teacher, a librarian and a mystery magazine editor. He is now a full-time writer. His novel, Flesh, was named Best Horror Novel of 1988 by Science Fiction Chronicle and was shortlisted for the prestigious Bram Stoker Award, as were Funland, and his short story collection A Good Secret Place. He lives in California with his wife and daughter.
'If you've missed Laymon you've missed a treat' Stephen King
'No one writes like Laymon and you're going to have a good time with anything he writes' Dean Koontz
'This author knows how to sock it to the reader' The Tiimes
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About The Author
Richard Laymon was born in Chicago in 1947. He grew up in California and has a BA in English Literature from Willamette University, Oregon, and an MA from Loyola University, Los Angeles. He has worked as a schoolteacher, a librarian, a mystery magazine editor and a report writer for a law firm. He now works full-time as a writer. Apart from his novels, he has published more than sixty short stories in magazines such as Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock and Cavalier and in anthologies, including Modern Masters of Horror, Book of the Dead, Stalkers, Under the Fang and Dark Love. His novel Flesh was named Best Horror Novel of 1988 by Science Fiction Chronicle and also shortlisted for the prestigious Bram Stoker Award, as were Funland, his short story collection A Good, Secret Place and his controversial account of life as an author, A Writer's Tale. Richard Laymon is the author of many acclaimed works of horror and suspense, including The Stake, Savage, Among the Missing and the three novels in the Beast House Chronicles: The Cellar, The Beast House and The Midnight Tour. He lives in California with his wife and daughter.
For up-to-date cyberspace news of Richard Laymon and his books, contact Richard Laymon Kills! at: http://rlk.cjb.net

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Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

  • The Travelling Vampire Show (Headline, 2000)
  • Come Out Tonight Headline Pbk Jul 00
  • One Rainy Night
  • Woods are Dark
  • Dark Mountain
  • Blood Games
  • Darkness Tell Us
  • Midnight's Lair

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