Flesh

Novel by Richard Laymon (USA) 1988.

Voted Best Horror Novel of the Year by Science Fiction Chronicle, this may actually have deserved it. Celia Jameson, young college student, is happily cycling down the road when a madman in his van decides to drive her off it. He misses and accidentally ends up crushed against a bridge wall a few hundred yards further on. He doesn't survive, but something else does: a something that local cop Jake Corey discovers is small and snakelike, burrows into peoples bodies and up to their brains, where it turns them into cannibalistic psychopaths.

Tightly plotted with some great suspense, Laymon sets us up for one thing and then shoves in a twist or three. The usual Laymon dialogue shines including one-liners half-inched from Tread Softly. This was Laymon's longest book at the time and his best, but it's not perfect: he hints at things that he doesn't follow up, and like Tread Softly, he sucks his readers into the story, but leaves it a while before kicking in. And of course there's the inevitable re-use of old themes: the wonderfully strong young girl (from most of Laymon's books), the dashing young hero cop (from Allhallow's Eve) and the disturbed young horror fan (from Out are the Lights). Worthwhile though.