Come Out Tonight [Mass Market Paperback]

Richard Laymon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2005

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 but there's just one problem - they have no condoms. Of course they could wait until tomorrow...Duane remembers the all-night Speed-D-Mart. In the usual circumstances, it's 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...

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There's not a crime novelist around who writes cleaner prose than LaymonAand few who can jack up the tension the way he does. Yet despite his popularity overseas and a minor resurgence here (Bite, Forecasts, May 24), his readership has of late been limited in the States. This new novel, his first since The Midnight Tour, probably won't change that. Laymon likes to grasp readers by the neck with expert wordsmithery, then haul them into a diabolical situation. Here, foxy substitute teacher Sherry Gates goes searching for her boyfriend, who's late returning from a condom-run to a local L.A. market, and gets snatched by a homicidal, sex-crazed teen, Toby Bones. Many readers will find that too much of what ensues focuses, graphically, on Toby's violations of Sherry (and others), including rape, child molestation, slashings, beatings, shootings, a beheading and fratricidal murder by electric drill. Laymon's outrageousness is part of his appeal, but in his best books it's leavened by a gratifyingly sardonic sense of humor. That wickedness flashes at times here, as does a surprising tenderness: the series of scenes in which a naked Sherry is aided by two horny teen boys combines both qualities in a dashing display of emotionally complex writing. Once again, Laymon offers unexpected, well-rounded characters blown about in a narrative that moves like the wind. But the many scenes of sadistic torture cross the line from terror to lurid cruelty and will curdle the enjoyment of all but the most dedicated Laymon fans.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

The master of stomach-churning porno-violence (Quake, 1995, etc.) returns, unredeemed and of no social value whatsoever. Laymon fans must always be telling themselves, I'm sick. Im very sick. I must be absolutely worthless to be enjoying this, but, as the authors numerous villainous psychopaths would undoubtedly say, Kill em all! Let God sort em out! This time, the Santa Ana winds are blowing fire toward L.A., and tubby, teenaged Toby Bones, who with his brother murdered his wealthy parents, is on the loose. Teacher Sherry Gates and her boyfriend Duane are just about to make love when his condom falls to pieces. He'll be right back, Duane says, heading for the nearby convenience store for some fresh booties. He never comes back. After a while, Sherry goes looking for him and eventually is kidnaped by Toby, a student from a recent class. He beats and tries to rape her, then decides they need a bed. Sherry escapes, gets a stranger named Jim to help her get back to Duane's place. They find Duane in bed, his skull crushed, then Toby offs Jim with two butcher knives into his back, jumps a woman in Duane's hallway and knifes her in the back, then re-abducts Sherry for some real fun. And that's just for tasty openers as Laymon's novel slides in slime toward a big sweet hell of pain and orgasm. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 434 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books (July 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843951834
• ISBN-13: 978-0843951837
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,772 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Suspenseful, gruesome, disturbing...pure Laymon!, July 18, 2005

By 

DanD - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Come Out Tonight (Mass Market Paperback)

Sherry sends her boyfriend Duane out for some condoms. However, Duane doesn't return, prompting Sherry to go out after him. Who she finds, however, is Toby Bones--a disturbed teenager who has a crush on Sherry...a crush that is about to become something more. Something horrifying.

What ensues is 400+ pages of pure adrenaline, as Sherry puts up with Toby, as she plots her revenge. If nothing else, what "Come Out Tonight" has going for it is a strong female lead. And there is something truly terrifying in the character of Toby Bones...almost as if he's been ripped from the latest news headlines. What holds the novel down are the supporting characters, most of whom are annoyances...you almost wish Toby will jump out of the shadows and hack them up with butcher knives.

Laymon has always drawn a following of readers who expect gore, sex, and a tale as dark as the deepest cave. Well, they get it here. However, for those of you not into that sort of thing (I'm not), Laymon has an attribute that most of fiction's greatest writers aspire to: he makes everything suspenseful. There's not a page of this novel that won't pique your curiousity, making you want to turn the page to see what'll happen...and, usually, it's something unexpected. Laymon never fails to deal with the darkest parts of human nature (in his heroes AND villains), and "Come Out Tonight" is a perfect example of that. Not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach, but a gripping, thrilling ride for those who dare to give it a shot.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Totally and completely illogical, but still a lot of fun., April 1, 2006

By 

Jose Jones - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Come Out Tonight (Mass Market Paperback)

Let's get something out of the way: Richard Laymon's "Come Out Tonight" features two stunningly illogical scenes: One has a woman violently attacked and nearly killed by a maniac and not wanting to call the cops because she doesn't want to tell them her boyfriend was out buying condoms. The other has the same woman jumping out of a moving car, the driver nearly running her over, and then running into a fast-food restaurant bloody and hurt, and not one single patron, who have seen the entire episode, is alarmed or offers help.

But you forgive Laymon these things because "Come Out Tonight" is the novel equivalent of a B-movie slasher flick. Heads are cut off, body parts are eaten, innocent people are taken down, and enough blood to fill a pool is spilled. And it's all great, silly, horror-extreme fun.

The book takes an unexpected twist about halfway through. I actually liked the second part better than the first because it is so straight-facedly weird. It's like a demented John Hughes film.

Laymon isn't a great writer, but his prose is so clean and simple that you'll find yourself unable to stop reading. You'll breeze through a hundred pages without even knowing it.

This novel is relentless. It throws you into the story from the first sentence and rarely lets up. There are things here that are audaciously unrealistic and sometimes breathtakingly implausible, but in a story like this it's hard to complain about such things. Instead of focusing on this, I just sat back and enjoyed the sick, twisted fun. And in "Come Out Tonight," there's plenty of it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sick, Perverse Fun, September 23, 2005

By 

paul (Burlington, MA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Come Out Tonight (Mass Market Paperback)

If you are not into reading about gruesome violence and depravity, don't read this book. If you are open to hearing about others committing such atrocities,then pick this one up. Only fans of Laymons world where every guy is looking to "get some" and every woman considers sex enjoyable and is readily available for such, will like this and most of his other books. I know I did. Does this make me sick and twisted? Probably, but it sure puts a smile on my face to read this totally non-PC, pre-Reagan era prose.