Trevor Bentley is a 15-year-old living in 1880s London with
his mother.  One night Trevor goes out to find his policeman uncle to
help his mother with an abusive guest.  In the process he is the
victim of a mugging, and while defending himself gets the front of his
clothing covered with blood.  Running around London's East End in the
middle of the night covered with blood, Trevor finds himself chased by
a mob, being mistaken for Jack the Ripper.  He slips into a vacant
room to escape the crowd and hides under the bed when he hears people
coming.  Unfortunately, the date is November 8, 1888, the room
currently belongs to a girl named Mary Kelly, and it is she coming
home, with company.  That night Trevor sees his first up-close naked
lady.  It's a shame she was in pieces at the time.  Jack the Ripper
had struck again, and Trevor was there.

        Between chasing Jack and being chased by him, Trevor winds up
kidnapped by the psychopath and taken across the ocean to America.
There Trevor escapes, but he is beset by guilt for not stopping the
Ripper, and decides that he must track him down and kill him, or die
trying.  His adventures in the process are exciting, scary, funny, and
even erotic.  (Trevor soon discovers sex, finding that ladies are much
nicer when all their parts are still connected.)  He will face many
obstacles, including flash floods and wild west desperadoes, before he
gets to meet his quarry again.

        SAVAGE is like a Mark Twain novel crossed with a typical
Richard Laymon story:  picaresque late 19th century America mixed with
grisly horror story gore--an odd combination.  I can think of several
literary reasons why this combination shouldn't work--boyish innocence
being difficult to sustain next to psychopathic sadism, for one
thing--but darned if Laymon doesn't make it all seem natural somehow.
The last half of the book in particular is riveting, as Laymon moves
his plot to the western frontier where life is hazardous even without
Jack the Ripper to worry about.

        SAVAGE is a terrific story and a notable expansion of Richard
Laymon's talents.  I only fear that being such an odd conglomeration
of literary types the book will not find the audience it deserves.  An
excellent read.

--article by S.J. Droneburg (RFP Staff)

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From READING FOR PLEASURE, providing information about
books to avid readers since 1988.  bartori...@delphi.com
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