Cover [Unknown Binding]

Jack Ketchum (Author), Thomas Tessier (Afterword), Neal McPheeters (Illustrator), Dallas Mayr (Introduction)

Product Details

• Unknown Binding: 282 pages
• Publisher: Gauntlet Publications; 1st edition (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B001VKBIG8
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Jack Ketchum is the pseudonym for novelist Dallas Mayr. He was born in Livingston, New Jersey in 1946. A onetime actor, teacher, and lumber salesman, Ketchum credits his childhood love of Elvis Presley, dinosaurs, and horror for getting him through his formative years. As a teenager, was befriended by Robert Bloch, author of "Psycho" who became a mentor to him. He supported Ketchum's work just as his work was supported by his own mentor, H.P. Lovecraft. This relationship with Bloch lasted until his death in 1994.

A pivotal point in Jack Ketchum's career came while he was working for the Scott Meredith Literary Agency. He met Henry Miller and assisted him as his agent until shortly before his death in 1980. His extraordinary encounter with Miller at his home in Pacific Palisades is one of the subjects of his memoir in "Book of Souls".

In 1980, Jack Ketchum published his first novel "Off Season". Stephen King said in his acceptance speech at the 2003 National Book Awards that "Off Season set off a furor in my supposed field, that of horror, that was unequaled until the advent of Clive Barker. It is not too much to say that these two gentlemen remade the face of American popular fiction." Ketchum has received continued praise by King throughout their friendship. King has said he is "is on a par with Clive Barker (Hellraiser), James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential) and Thomas Harris (The Silence of The Lambs)," and that "the only novelist working today that is writing more important fiction is Cormack McCarthy (No Country for Old Men, The Road).

Ketchum's work is largely based upon true events. The Girl Next Door , for example, was inspired by the 1965 murder of the young Sylvia Likens. In the special edition of the novel, King, who volunteered to write the preface, wrote one of the longest introductions of his career. He later went on to say that the movie adaptation of the book was "the first authentically shocking American film I've seen since Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer over 20 years ago. If you are easily disturbed, you should not watch this movie. If, on the other hand, you are prepared for a long look into hell, suburban style, The Girl Next Door will not disappoint. This is the dark-side-of-the-moon version of Stand By Me."

Ketchum has received numerous Bram Stoker Awards for works such as "The Box", "Closing Time", and "Peaceable Kingdom". As his books gained in worldwide popularity, they also began to be adapted into feature films, the first of which was "Jack Ketchum's The Lost" which went on to be a cult success, followed by the highly controversial second film "The Girl Next Door". However, the main launch for Jack Ketchum into international commercial and critical success was the long-awaited release by Magnolia Pictures of the film Red, based on his novel, starring Brian Cox (The Bourne Supremacy) and Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan). After favorable reviews at The Sundance Film Festival, the movie made a critical showing in the United States and enjoyed relative success internationally with subsequent translations of the novel.

Jack Ketchum continues his rise with the present showing of "The Woman" at the Sundance Film Festival 2011 co-written by Ketchum with director Lucky McKee. The novel is to be released this year.

Kethcum lives in New York City where he continues to write, articles, reviews, short stories, novels and screenplays. For more information go to international website: www.thejackketchum.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A disturbing, thought-provoking work, May 19, 2009

By 

Shroud Magazine's Book Reviews (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Cover (Mass Market Paperback)

Jack Ketchum has been hailed as a writer whose unflinching gaze at man's darkness is disturbingly thought-provoking. Consistently, he's displayed a knack for taking readers to uncomfortable places, daring them to stare harsh reality in the eye. Originally published by Gauntlet Press, "Cover" still finds relevance in today's world. In these pages, Ketchum captures the horrors of war, after a soldier has returned home, a supposedly "safe" place forever tainted by the violence he's endured.

The Vietnam War has left Lee Moravian a hollowed-out shell. A bundle of nothing more than trained impulses, Lee struggles for normalcy. The simplest emotions are atrophied muscles he doesn't remember how to use. When his wife finally leaves him, fearing for her and their son's safety, Lee is left alone to grapple with his ghosts, deep in the quiet forest he calls sanctuary.

A chance arrival of celebrity campers intrudes upon Lee's delicately strung-together world. The stress of solitude warps his mind, dredging horrifying flashbacks to the surface. Reality twists into a haunting reflection of the jungles of 'Nam, and as Lee slowly fades from the present into the past, he prepares to wage bloody war upon his newfound "enemies".

Though reflecting upon Vietnam, "Cover" is still relevant today. Ketchum aptly portrays the fragmented perspective of a man torn by a violence beyond most humans' understanding. It's a complicated work. It's hard to blame Lee, especially as Ketchum interweaves the veteran's terrible war experiences into the present-day narrative. It's an excellent re-printing choice by Leisure, because in this time of war and strife, amid political and military campaigns driven by agendas and "goals", it's important to consider the broken human lives that are often dismissed afterward.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vietnam may be long from over for some, May 31, 2009

By 

Ravenskya "Princess of Horror" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Cover (Mass Market Paperback)

It's kind of hard to lump this book into the horror section - I would consider it more of a horrifying thriller. A vietnam vet has determined that he is too dangerous to live in society and has removed himself far into the wilderness. He lives secluded from society with his wife and dog. His wife helps him to keep his last grip on his sanity - but when she leaves to go stay with family, his last grasp is gone.

Meanwhile we have a pack of well to do upper crust individuals, and author, a playwrite, a model, an agent and a photographer who are all planning on a camping trip. Their intermingled dramas are very realistic and border on annoying (much like real people). Unfortunately when they select their camping spot they may find themselves mistaken for a couple of Uncle Ho's minions by a man who has long ago left his sanity behind him.

The chapters from the vet's eyes are disturbing and all too real - frightening. Ketchum did a fantastic job of building him and making us care about him even though we are utterly terrified of him.

Although this is no "Girl Next Door" this is a wonderfully written book that will shock the casual reader, and be loved by the avid horror/thriller fan.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Ketchum's Best, April 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Cover (Paperback)

Jack Ketchum has written some of the best horror/suspense titles of the '80's and '90's--check out OFF SEASON, JOYRIDE, HIDE AND SEEK, and (if you've got the nerve for it), THE GIRL NEXT DOOR. He can probably be compared in some ways with Richard Laymon or Joe R. Lansdale in that he usually tells a very stripped-down, bare bones story. None of the self-indulgent bloat and needless flashbacks that mar most of the horror genres bestselling writers. COVER has a very exciting premise: A group of people on a weekend outing in the woods are hunted down by a psychotic Vietnam vet. And had Ketchum used his usual bare-knuckled formula of throwing you right into the story, right into the action, this would have been very good. Unfortunately, it takes a good hundred pages before ANYTHING happens. His characters don't work here, either. The Viet vet is very good, a very comendable portrayal of the suffering and needless horror of war. But the others characters, particularly the egotistic has-been writer Kelsey, are not believable nor exactly likeable. As an example of how ridiculous this gets, Kelsey has a beautiful, rich and powerful wife who is friends with Kelsey's ultra-beautiful, rich and powerful supermodel mistress. They both go on the weekend campout, happily. Yeah, right! (...) As it is, this one just doesn't work. You almost get the feeling that Ketchum was trying to write a mainstream literary work here, but at the last moment knew it wouldn't sell, so he through in some horror elements. Read his other books, though, you won't be disappointed.