In the silence of a green wilderness, they were to learn terror…
The celebrated novelist. The model. The agent. The playwright. The photographer. The wife. Refugees from modern civilization off for a weekend in the woods. Far away from the clash and clamor of the city…and amenities like telephones, hospitals, and policemen. Soon, they’ll stand naked against a battle-scarred soldier whose cunning and ferocity rival any force of nature, a survivor of our most frustrating war still fighting the enemy in every person he sees. Soon, during the long days and deadly nights, all the trappings and trivia of their lives will be stripped away…until all that’s left is a desperate, elemental need to survive and fight together – if they can – to defeat the killing machine that threatens them all.
| Publisher | Warner Books |
|---|---|
| Year | 1987 |
| Format | Mass-Market Paperback |
| Pages | 310 |
| Country | USA |
| ISBN | 0-446-30245-7 |
Arthur Danse is one of Ketchum’s most dark and frightening creations. A user, a violent abuser and quite possibly much, much worse. And it fails to his wife Lydia to protect the life and sanity of both herself and her six-year-old son – their only child.
The old man hears them before he sees them, the three boys coming over the hill, disturbing the peace by the river where he’s fishing. He smells the gun oil, too much oil on a brand-new shotgun. These aren’t hunters, they’re rich kids who don’t care about the river and the fish and the old man. Or his dog.
Red is the name of the old man’s dog, his best friend in the world And when the boys shoot the dog – for nothing, for simple spite – he sees red, like a mist before his eyes.
And before the whole hing is done there’ll be more red. Red for blood…
Note: paperback edition also contains a sample from Road Kill (aka Joyride)
Movie tie-in edition.
Suburbia. Shady, tree-lined streets, well-tended lawns and cozy homes. A nice, quiet place to grow up. Unless you are teenage Meg or her crippled sister, Susan. On a dead-end street, in the dark, damp basement of the Chandler house, Meg and Susan are left captive to the savage whims and rages or a distant aunt who is rapidly descending into madness. It is a madness that infects all three of her sons – and finally the entire neighborhood. Only one troubled boy stands hesitantly between Meg and Susan and their cruel, torturous deaths. A boy with a very adult decision to make.
This edition also features the stories Do You Love Your Wife? and Returns. The Movie Tie-In Edition also contains a bonus interview.
Contents:
Translated by Vyacheslav Shutov.
From a 2017 Interview with Darker Magazine (in Russian):
Readers in Russia know you mainly from the rather messy-made edition of «Vultures» [Off Season] and «Stai» [Offspring].The nineties were a paradise for horror lovers in Russia, although most publishers wanted to spit on copyright, high-quality covers / translations, etc. What do you think about this book? Did you receive any money for it?
Not a cent. These books were stolen by the editor of a magazine…and sold without my knowledge. Then one day I received this book in hardcover by mail, on the cover – a frightened man in the form of either a New York policeman, or the pilot of a Nazi attack plane, surrounded by zombie-like creatures. There was no return address, so where she came from, I don’t know.
Howard deserved to die. For years, he abused his wife physically, verbally, and psychologically. Even after the separation, he kept coming back for more.
Carol and her lover, Lee, knew there was only one way to stop Howard for good. They planned every detail, and they thought they had committed the perfect crime.
But a stranger named Wayne witnessed what they did, and he was thrilled by what he saw. Now Wayne wants to be their friend. He wants to share the thrill of murder with them. He wants to take Carol and Lee on a road trip straight to hell so his new friends can enjoy his all-out killing spree that can only end one way…
This edition features a special afterword entitled “On Writing Joyride” by Jack Ketchum.
Italian edition of Joyride translated by Annabella Caminiti
