The Glory Bus

by Richard Laymon

Review by Stephen Clark
 

Pamela sits handcuffed in the passenger seat of a car.  Rodney, an infatuated psycho and former school student who was forever the outsider, is driving it to an undisclosed destination.  But whereever they are going Pamela knows her life is limited to hours, at a stretch maybe days.  Her husband lies dead in their bathroom before the whole house was set alight.  There is no return back to normality.  No amount of pleading to alter Rodney’s plans.  What Pamela must do is escape and whether that means to kill doesn’t phase her one bit.  She asks Rodney to stop the car.

 What could be the theme of a whole novel is instead just the start of a classic Laymon story full of crazy killers and their victims.  Reminiscent of ‘Endless Night’ as in you’re privy to the points of view of the protagonist and antagonist, 'The Glory Bus' delivers an in-depth study of how a person, through circumstance, can change from an everyday Joe to a sadistic monster.  From ‘Boots’ the hitchhiker to ‘Sharpe’ who rides the glory bus full of mannequins, you’re in for a ride that refuses to stop until the very last page.

If this is the last of the unpublished novels since his death then I think he’s going out on a high note.  I loved it. 

Publisher: Headline Book Publishing (2005)

ISBN: 0 7472 6934 3  - Hardcover (352 pages)

Publisher: Headline Book Publishing (2005)

ISBN: 0 7472 6733 2  - Paperback (384 pages)