Brent Zirnheld
Y FIRST INTRODUCTION TO Richard Laymon was in The Book of the Dead. I instantly went searching for his books and found The Cellar—a book that shocked the hell out of me, as much for what Laymon did as didn’t do. Sure, the characters were well realized, the pacing swift, the plotting tight, and the style smooth, but there was something else of even greater note—the fantastic resolution! Laymon didn’t end it the way so many authors end their novels because Laymon didn’t do what was expected, something that continued throughout his career. That is one of the things that made his books so suspenseful—as the horror mounted you couldn’t relax knowing the characters you loved were going to find a way to overcome their adversity and survive. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn’t, but you never really knew how the next book or story would end. You could be reading your second, fifth, or twentieth Laymon novel, but your mind goes back to the one with the ending you didn’t expect and you remember and you know and you can’t tell yourself “Everything’s going to be all right,” and that is as it should be for therein is where the suspense really lies.
So when I reach that critical juncture in my own work where I wonder if I should be merciful with a beloved character, I simply ask “What Would Laymon Do?” and I let my hand be guided.