Red
By Jack Ketchum
2002 Leisure Books
Paperback, 211 pages (plus)
I approach Jack Ketchum’s work very carefully. For instance,
I do not want to read The Girl Next Door.
My wife said that the boys torturing the girl would upset me, and I’m taking
her word for it. I’m a pussy, yes, but why should I make myself upset on
purpose? That said, I loved Off Season
and all of its gratuitous nastiness. No question about it… the guy can write,
and he knows how to push the right buttons.
I saw Red in the
thrift store, and I knew it was about a man’s dog being ruthlessly killed by
some shit-assed kids and the road the man has to go down seeking justice, and I
wondered if I should bother. Ketcham’s penchant for drawing out discomfort
might make me regret it, but I took a chance anyway. I’m glad I did. The
dog-icide is fairly quick, if nasty, and I settled in for the ride.
Red isn’t really a
horror story; it is more a tale of frustration and vengeance. The kids that
killed Avery Ludlow’s dog were from good families, powerful families. Justice
was going to be very hard to come by, but Avery is a tenacious old coot. Rarely
have I ever rooted for a “hero” as much as I did for ol’ Ave’. He had me in his
corner for the whole book. Fucking kids…
This Leisure paperback edition of Red (which was written in 1995) also includes a 93-page novelette
called The Passenger and it is much
more in the typical Ketchum vein, with rape, murder and psychological fuckery.
Its short running time is packed with hopelessness, sleaze, violence and mind
games, which is to say, it is pure Jack Ketchum, and it is quite good.
Red was first released in the UK in 1995. I believe that this Leisure edition is the first US paperback printing.
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