August 07, 2003
Red by Jack Ketchum

Red by Jack Ketchum: justice is meted out by a wronged pet owner in this novel.

Jack Ketchum is know for his graphic and disturbing novels. I’ve only read one other of his novels - The Lost - and I definitely found it to be disturbing. Nothing positive happened in that book at all. With Red, however, I found it not to be nearly as heavy and really enjoyed reading it.

The Red in the title is Av Ludlow’s old dog. While out fishing with Red, three boys come along and try to rob Av. When he doesn’t have any money on him, they kill Red. The rest of the novel is about Av’s quest for justice for Red’s murder and the escalating violence that this leads to.

I certainly couldn’t recommed this for all readers. It’s definitely not a light book and the subject matter could be upsetting to a lot of readers. If you like horror novels, though, it’s a damn good one. There’s also a novella included called “The Passenger”, about a kidnapped defense attorney, that I really enjoyed as well.