Savage [Mass Market Paperback]

Richard Laymon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2007

The only witness to a crime committed by Jack the Ripper, fifteen-year-old Trevor Bentley grows into manhood and travels on a quest of vengeance across a wild and untamed continent.

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

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Relating a gruesome story through the first-person narrative of an ingenuous 15-year-old boy, horror novelist Laymon ( The Stake ) appears to aim at the complex tone of Huckleberry Finn . He doesn't even come close, although that parallel might explain his London-born narrator's curiously un-British speech patterns ("gas lamps didn't give off a whole lot of light"). After witnessing Jack the Ripper's final murder on the streets of Whitechapel in 1888, Trevor Bentley is pursued by the psychopath into the Thames and ends up as his prisoner on a yacht bound for America. Improbable plot twists take both characters to Arizona, where the Ripper wreaks havoc while Trevor encounters a couple of snake-oil salesmen, rides with a bandit gang, becomes a crack shot and falls in love with pert, 16-year-old Jesse Sue Longley. The young couple survive a gore-splattered encounter with the Ripper in an Arizona cave, going on to marriage and a career in the snake-oil business. The grisly mutilation scenes induce no horror, Trevor's unrelenting innocence becomes tiresome, and his byplay with Jesse skirts soft-core kiddy-porn.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In 1888, Following a disturbance at home, Trevor Bentley's mother sends the 15-year-old to find his uncle, a constable on the London police force. Trevor embarks on a bizarre sequence of adventures, beginning with his witnessing Jack the Ripper at work. Over the next few months, the Ripper and Trevor pursue each other across the Atlantic and on to Arizona, sometimes exchanging roles of hunter and the hunted. Laymon's other horror novels include The Stake (St. Martin's, 1992) and, under the pseudonym Richard Kelly, Midnight's Lair (St Martin's, 1991). He is an accomplished wordsmith, but Savage 's plot falters with too many improbabilities and the author's denigrating peep show presentation of his women characters. Not a necessary puchase.
- Robert Jordan, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books (November 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843957514
• ISBN-13: 978-0843957518
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #914,513 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic adventure horror, June 30, 2002

By 

Sean Simpson "storms-enigma" (pacific pines, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Savage: From Whitechapel to the Wild West on the Track of Jack the Ripper (Hardcover)

Trevor Bentley appears at first to be a normal 15 year old boy, but there is a heroic side to him that becomes evident through out this book.
one rainy night he accidentally stumbles upon the infamous Jack the Ripper, and deciding that this may be the only chance any one gets to put a stop to his murderous rampage, he sets out to stop him, Unfortunately young Trev finds him self way out of his depth as he gets himself and a family held hostage by the Ripper on a boat set sail for The new world, America, Trevor manages to escape from the grasp of this legendary murderer, but not before they both find them selves in America.
This story is truly a great adventure, Starting in late 19th century London, to the new word America and then climaxes in the wild west, 3 very unique cultures that all existed at that time, add to this a story of love, friendship and self discovery and of coarse gruesome death in the way only Laymon can tell, and you have what is one of the greatest stories told

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laymon's legacy..., March 18, 2002

By 

G. Van Der Bent "Gerb" (Katwijk, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Savage: From Whitechapel to the Wild West on the Track of Jack the Ripper (Hardcover)

It's been over a year since Richard Laymon's passing and I just remembered what a great writer he was-- 'is' actually, he'll live on through his books!! I decided to pay my long overdue respects in the form of a review.

Let there be no doubt about it 'Savage' is Laymon at his peak!!
I read somewhere that Laymon wrote this book after his editor suggested he tried something different from his usual slasher/ splatterpunk fare. It's breathtaking to read this book and come to the conclusion he's done just that, but also has incorperated almost all of the usual elements that have made him such a winner (in my opinion anyway).

'Savage' is about Jack the Ripper, but it's not like you expect a serialkiller-novel to be. It's a fictional retelling and it also adds so much to the Ripper legend. It's told from the first person point of view and just the mix of Victorian English with Mark Twain-like American slang is worth the price of purchase alone. I won't spoil the plot, I'll just say the book is epic in scope and it heads for one of the most satisfing finales I have ever read. The way the Ripper ends up in the Old West, it's a classic!!

This is for all you knuckleheads out there who still suck their Stephen King books and worshipp their worn off copies of 'Lord of the Rings'. This is so good, maybe they'll call THIS literature in about a 100 years time!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars full of black-humor, but its also a loveandcrime-story, February 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Savage: From Whitechapel to the Wild West on the Track of Jack the Ripper (Hardcover)

I think its a great story, full of adventures, with an courageous hero (Bentley)and an horrifying devil(Ripper) I read this book about 6 times or more and like the lovescenes with generals daugther and the young cowgirl most...very erotic