Never, ever screw some woman over, because they’ll get you back every time. Jack Ketchum offers two very different examples of such in OLD FLAMES, containing both a new work for which the book is named, and a bonus novella, 1998’s RIGHT TO LIFE.
In OLD FLAMES, once-divorced antiques dealer Dora has just been dumped — via note — by her boyfriend, who’s left her for another woman. It’s the latest in a string of soured relationships for her, and a chance run-in with an old friend has her pining for her college sweetheart Jim. Luckily, that friend informs Dora of Flame Finders, a detective firm that specializes in locating lost loves.
Flame Finders finds Jim in a heartbeat. Although he lives on the other side of the country and has a wife and two kids, Dora flies over anyway, rents a hotel room and “accidentally” runs into him after stalking him silently for a while. He welcomes her to meet the fam, and suffice to say, this is one of those “if I can’t have you, then nobody can” thrillers.
At 130 pages, it’s lean and very mean, because let’s face it: Ketchum isn’t known for holding back. This struck me as a gender-flipped version of Thomas Tessier’s RAPTURE, so if you’ve read that, you know what to expect. Still, even if unpredictability is not at play, Ketchum has no problems in keeping your attention.
Ditto for RIGHT TO LIFE, which is actually a longer piece. It’s a tougher read — not because of length, but because this time, the female is the victim. In this case, Sara Foster, a young woman whose married boyfriend has just dropped her off at the abortion clinic while he goes to park the car. When he goes to join her inside, she’s not there.
That’s because in between the sidewalk and the door — and amid all the hubbub of pro-life protesters — Sara is snatched, syringed and shuttered away. She awakes hours later in a strange room, with her head in a box and her body locked spread-eagle to a X-shaped frame. Her two kidnappers claim to be part of an organization called The Organization. Their mission? To force her to have her baby.
Ah, but if only it were that simple. To while away the time, they also violate her, repeatedly, in the most humiliating ways possible. As with THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, this makes it extremely rough to read, but it plants you squarely on Sara’s side — no ifs, and or buts — to where you’re just itching to see her captors get what’s coming to them. Cathartic? You bet.
So far, I’ve never read a Ketchum I didn’t like. The strong-willed will find his latest crackling with energy, anger and depraved thrills. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire — more specifically, OLD FLAMES. —Rod Lott
“She stood before him naked to the waist and watched his face seem to crack suddenly and then he lunged for her, pushing her back onto the windowsill, his cock already hard against her and his mouth on her own. His hands jittered feverishly along her back and then her breasts and as she unzipped him and freed him he clawed her panties down her legs and shoved himself inside her.”
“He felt like his hips and solar plexus had been hit by a pair of sandbags.”
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• CLOSING TIME AND OTHER STORIES by Jack Ketchum
• THE GIRL NEXT DOOR by Jack Ketchum
• LADIES’ NIGHT by Jack Ketchum
• OFF SEASON by Jack Ketchum
• TRIAGE by Jack Ketchum, Richard Laymon and Edward Lee
