Nightrunners [Hardcover]

Joe R. Lansdale (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1987

In the field of country noir--the dark side of rural and small-town America--Lansdale staked his claim to East Texas with The Nightrunners. A '66 Chevy bears down on the countryside, with a carful of vicious teenagers and evil of Biblical proportions, in this terrifying morality tale of sex and violence.

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

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Becky got raped. Her husband Monty has the "lack of balls blues." Bad dude Brian blames Becky for the death of his closest friend. When Becky and Monty drive north from Galveston into the piney woods of East Texas, and hole up in a cabin to recover, Brian and his compadres make a date for revenge. Then the God of the Razor shows up. A brilliant, hypercharged horror novel with sex, violence, a black '66 Chevy and a plastic Jesus with a lightbulb inside. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Dark Harvest Books; First Edition edition (June 1987)
• ISBN-10: 0913165174
• ISBN-13: 978-9997445087
• ASIN: 9997445082
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,214,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over thirty novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers, and Internet sites. His work has been collected in eighteen short-story collections, and he has edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies. He has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others. His novella Bubba Hotep was adapted to film by Don Coscarelli, starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. His story "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" was adapted to film for Showtime's "Masters of Horror." He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely scary. Extremely disturbing and very violent, December 17, 2000

By 

Tim Lieder "Founder of Dybbuk Press" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Nightrunners (Paperback)

I got into Joe Landsdale through his comic book work and I thank G-d that he took those jobs because it lead me to this twisted nasty little edge of Hell. A nice liberal couple comes face to face with hell when the wife is raped and the husband must confront his notions about human goodness head-on and ponder whether or not he is a coward instead of a pacifist. Meanwhile the rapist, hanging in his cell, isn't completely dead as his compatriots are alive and well and one of them is possessed. The car is racing towards them ready for more death. This book brings you face to face with pure evil.

There are rough portions. The teenagers are just nasty and evil, while you can see the husband's transformation from weakling to ravenous fighter coming a mile away. But this is an amazing book on its own merits and shouldn't be read if you are expecting a deep philosophical treatise on human nature. It's just fast, evil and damn good.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Nightrunners, January 30, 2007

By 

Lawrence Martini (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nightrunners (Hardcover)

I had read more recent Lansdale books (A Fine Dark Line, The Bottoms, etc.), so when I read this book I was little behind the times. Nightrunners is a show of the extreme dark side of human nature and what happens when light and dark begin to mix unwittingly. Lansdale is a master with the articulation of how good must fight the murky veil of evil without falling into the same mindset or abyss of an incredibly chaotic and insane situation that he draws so well in his story. The story compels one to reevalute the weakness of a person that when confronted with nightmarish horrors, as presented in this book, that person will not only rise to the ocassion, but can find a hidden strengh that may well take the breath away. Some books have to be read between the lines, not just as horror stories; i.e. The Drive-In: A Double Feature Omnibus, but as studies of human nature. When you read Nightrunners and are immediately plunged into the depth and degradation of the human spirit, you are also reading about the characters who are regular people who battle their own, albeit well-hidden, dark side. But when really examined, both are chasing their own demons and their own side of weaknesses and strengths. The big question is, which side will win out. Like the movies, we all want a happy ending. Just dont't go to the triple feature at the Orbit Drive-In.

I purchased a hardbound copy in excellent condition and it is on its way to Lansdale right now to be signed.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the suspense doesn't end when the book ends.., October 22, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (HELLsinki, finland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Nightrunners (Paperback)

this book truly made me live all the events in it, all the thoughts, all the horror. once i started to read it i just couldn't stop, i did try.. it usually takes about half a year for me to read a book but this took only a day. the story is so captivating, to get into the minds of all the characters. i just want to read it again and again, live it once more. in the middle of the night when i finished the book i could swear i saw a wooden doll sitting close to me in a blood red chair staring to nothingness ready to break the silence.