Road Kill [Hardcover]

Jack Ketchum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 1994

Bloody events hold a terrible fascination for Wayne. There's a lot of blood he would like to spill himself, but so far he's managed to suppress these thoughts. However, when he witnesses a murder he can't hold back any longer.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Headline Book Publishing (June 2, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747210667
• ISBN-13: 978-0747210665
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,770,879 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fasten your seatbelts for this joyride, September 15, 2002

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Joyride (Paperback)

Jack Ketchum knows how to write a good horror story. There is nothing exceptional or highly original about the plot of Joyride, but it is a very satisfying read. The book opens with a murder. Carole has been a victim throughout her entire life; her ex-husband Howard had abused her just about every way possible. The only way to finally get rid of him, she and her new man Lee decide, is to kill him and make it look like an accident. They think they pull off a perfect crime, but they do not realize at the time that someone else has watched the whole thing, someone even more evil and perverted than Howard. Wayne Lock has killed things throughout his life, but he has always stopped just short of killing a human being. He sees Carole and her ex-husband as his deliverance, kidnapping them, trying to learn from them what murder feels like. The end result is a murder spree of epic proportions, with Carol and Lee his reluctant "witnesses."

One criticism Ketchum is vulnerable to is characterization, but he does a pretty good job of it in this novel. Oddly enough, this is most evident in the character of the policeman pursuing the mass murdering Wayne Lock. He knows Carole's history, and she reminds him a lot of his own ex-wife; it is he, however, who makes the most significant realization about himself at the novel's conclusion. We get snips and pieces of Wayne Lock's history, enough to explain the murderous intensity of his personality but not enough to truly understand his reasoning. Carole and Lee are not developed fully in my mind, but this seems to me to be a positive in the context of this novel. I never felt strongly negative or positive toward them; they moved in a haze of contradiction where good and evil continuously wove in amongst each other.

There is plenty of carnage in this book--that's pretty much a given with Ketchum. Another given, and this is what makes Ketchum such a great horror writer, is a brutally honest plot that will not cheat the reader at the end. It is hard to predict a Ketchum ending, which is the main reason I respect him greatly as an author. The cavalry doesn't appear magically over the hill to save the day--instead, things happen the way they would most likely happen in real life--good and evil are second-string players in this game; reality itself determines the fate of Ketchum's characters. This makes for a gripping read, even in a case such as this where the storyline is nothing remarkably original.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ketchum and Serial Killers, July 15, 2002

By 

Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Joyride (Paperback)

"Joyride," another Jack Ketchum book I read recently, is a serial killer novel. I think at some point all horror writers are required to write such a book. It must be embedded in their first contracts with a publishing house-"Thou shalt write a book concerning serial killers!" Obviously, this becomes a problem when it is done to death over a period of time. If you really want to read about serial killers, check out the numerous encyclopedias and collections on real life killers and psychos. They tell you the real story, and most of the writers crib from them anyway. In the case of "Joyride," Ketchum certainly did crib from a true account.

Poor Carole and Lee. They want to be together but Howard, Carole's ex-husband, insists on making his presence felt even when he isn't welcome. Howard feels that his propensity towards intimidation and forcing himself on Carole should merit reconciliation. Lee and Carole have other ideas. After police intervention has no effect on curbing Howard's violence, Lee broaches the idea of killing Howard. Carole goes along with this novel plan and the murder is done. Unfortunately for our two lovers, someone sees them do the deed. Even worse, this someone, Wayne Lock, is a sociopath with his own sick fantasies about murder. Wayne feels a sort of camaraderie for the two, and decides to pay them a visit. The rest of the book concerns these three people as Wayne goes on a killing spree. A subplot involves a local cop and his family problems.

This is a pretty straightforward book. The plot is simple, as is the prose. Surprisingly, for a Ketchum novel, the murders aren't exercises in over-the-top gore. A few of them are upsetting, especially the murder of Howard. But overall, they lack the usual Ketchum punch.

Also surprising is the character development. All of them are well drawn, with the exception of Wayne. Why write a serial killer novel and not develop the serial killer? This is not to say that Wayne isn't developed at all; he is. But not nearly as well as he should have been. More background on why Wayne is the way he is would have helped. How about more details about his messed up childhood? That always has the potential for some serious horror. Alas, `tis not so.

The ending of the book set off alarm bells in my head. I recognized the parallels to the Howard Unruh case almost immediately. For those unfamiliar with Howard Unruh, let me fill you in. Unruh, a WWII veteran, went on a shooting rampage in his neighborhood. Unruh was settling scores with neighbors who had done him wrong; he even wrote down the various "crimes" his fellow man committed against him (just as Wayne does in this book). Unruh's shooting spree left scores dead or wounded. When the cops finally arrived, Unruh holed up in his house. A reporter called Unruh in order to find out what was going on. Unruh's answer was, "I have to go now, I'm kind of busy right now." Wayne says the same thing when the cops call him at his house.

For a Ketchum novel, "Joyride" is about average. I expected a little more out of it than it delivered. It's still a good way to pass a few hours (the book is very short and a quick read). I'm slowly working my way up to "The Girl Next Door," supposedly the roman-a-clef of Ketchum's literary catalogue.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Definitely not as good as "Girl Next Door" and "Off Season", November 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Joyride (Paperback)

After reading "The Girl Next Door" and "Off Season", I can only give this book 3 stars. It's good, but it's not his best, and it gets a little repetitious at times. After what one has to go through to find themselves copies of Jack Ketchum's books, one expects no less than the best.