Four years later, the 60s were drawing to a close. No one ever charged Ray with the murders in the campgrounds, but there was one cop determined to make him pay. Ray figured he was in the clear. Tim and Jennifer thought the worst was behind them, that the horrors were all in the past. They were wrong. The worst was yet to come.

This isn't your typical whodunit; the book starts off with a double murder committed by three teenage friends. They commit the murders because they want to see what it feels like to kill people. The rest of the story is a flash forward four years into the future. One of the teens, who evades capture by local police, is living the high life as a local drug dealer while living and working at a motel run by his parents. Despite (or perhaps because of) his vanity, his cruelty, and his sociopathic tendencies, he is able to gather around him a motley assortment of losers who follow his every order and whim.

Since we know who did the crime right from the start, we're left wondering where Ketchum is going to take us. There is no need to worry about that. Ketchum populates his novel with more than enough intriguing characters. Two of the most important characters are the cops who investigated the original killings, and who are still attempting to pin the murders on the teens. One of the cops, Ed Anderson, who retired after the killings, comes to see that he has a personal stake in catching the killers. The other cop is Charlie Schilling, who delights in harassing the suspects in an effort to get a confession.

The ringleader of the three killers is a fictional representation of real life murderer Charles Schmid. Schmid killed several women in Arizona during the 1960's. Even a cursory comparison shows that Ketchum borrowed heavily from the Schmid case in order to create his killer. Schmid excelled at gymnastics during high school, wore makeup, stuffed his boots with paper to make himself look taller, told outrageous stories to attract followers, and even walked with an unusual gait. Ketchum's killer shares every one of these traits.

This book reminded me of Ketchum's "Joyride," but this book is developed better and is more fun to read. One reason is length; Ketchum gives himself 400 pages to draw deeper characters and better atmosphere. Everyone comes across as authentic, from the teenage killers to the young ladies who may end up as victims.

What doesn't work as well here is the time frame. The book takes place in the late 1960's, but Ketchum gives only a few references to that effect. He does throw in a few references to the moon landing and the Manson murders, but there were many times that I forgot the time frame of the story. Ultimately, I think the story would have worked just as well if it had been set in modern times.

"The Lost" is one of Ketchum's better novels. I really had no idea how the story was going to end while I read the book. You do know that there is going to be some type of gruesome scenario (it is Ketchum, after all), but he hides it so well that the ending surprised me. This is a good read for those who like suspenseful books, as well as those who don't get enough Jack Ketchum in their diets.


A blast from the recent past, 1969 to be exact.   August 17, 2001
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

On the surface, The Lost is about the escalating conflict between a murderous sociopath and a zealous lawman. Look closely, however, and you'll find a book dealing with questions about the nature of love, the price of loyalty, and the difficulty of facing overwhelming personal and cultural upheaval. Gripping due to the constant potential for sudden violence (this is a Ketchum novel, after all), The Lost thrills as much for its psychological and emotional richness as it does for its pervasive violence and suspense.

The tale begins in 1965 with an act of sudden, unexpected carnage when sociopath Ray Pye shoots two female campers in cold blood after one of the pair rejects his pitiful romantic advances. The vicious attack, witnessed by Pye's stunned companions, Tim Bess and Jennifer Fitch, leaves one woman dead, the other in a coma.

It is the death of the second camper in 1969 that signals the true beginning of Ketchum's story. We discover that Sparta, New Jersey Police Detective Charlie Shilling has spent the past four years searching for evidence linking Pye to the crime. Bess and Fitch have kept their silence, perhaps from a sense of misguided loyalty, perhaps out of love. Pye, practically daring Shilling to arrest him, has also kept his cool, sticking to a story the detective can't contradict. Frustrated by his failure, Shilling intentionally provokes Pye, finally pushing the mentally unstable killer over the edge. Using the same weapons he carried that fateful night four years earlier, Pye takes gruesome revenge on his real and imagined enemies.

In tone The Lost recalls Red, but, unlike that book, has a much broader scope. Ketchum purposefully adopts a slower pace, so as to more completely explore the complexities of his numerous characters' personalities and relationships. The small vacation town of Sparta acts as a microcosm of the country, as the characters deal with the unpleasant reality of random violence as part of everyday American life -- suddenly, it's not something that only happens in the big city (the Tate-LaBianca killings perpetrated by the Manson family are prominently mentioned, inspiring Ray Pye to further mayhem). As such, it also holds a mirror up to today's world as well, where children practice drills to prepare them for the eventuality of their peers shooting up the school. It takes courage to look into that mirror, but Ketchum's never been one to flinch from unpleasant tasks. He exposes the lies we tell ourselves so we can rest easy at night in the knowledge that it couldn't possibly happen here.


Lock the doors and keep the lights on at night   June 10, 2001
 8 out of 10 found this review helpful

I've read Jack Ketchum before and looked forward to this new book, THE LOST. When I started it I couldn't put it down until it was finished. It's a tense and edgy ride with Ray and those attracted to and repulsed by his relentless hunger. Years after the opening Bad incident we travel through the town Ray lives in, drawn by his non-PC life, waiting for the next Bad thing to happen. Ketchum doesn't disappoint in THE LOST, there was always another layer of Bad things waiting to make me turn the page. In the end, the random everyday-ness of Ray's evil made me want to put extra locks on my door and windows and sleep with the lights on. LOVED IT!


I Got Lost In It   May 11, 2001
 7 out of 11 found this review helpful

I got this novel in the mail yesterday along with Wire Wesh Mothers by Elizabeth Massie. I didn't plan on reading either novel right away, just to skim the first few pages and see what they were like. Wire Mesh Mothers didn't intrigue me too much--at least the first ten pages--but once I got into The Lost I could not put it down. I finished the novel about twenty minutes ago, which is a real accomplishment for me since I'm usually a slow reader.

Jack Ketchum's writing just flows. He doesn't do anything--like using words that require you to get out your dictionary--to pull you out of the story. He had me hooked by page ten, and by the time I looked up to see what time it was, I was halfway through the book. There's a Stephen King blurb on the cover, and for once, it's believable and appropriate.

The only other novel by Ketchum that I've read other than this is Off Season, but that is soon to change. You can't go wrong with either novel, so I have a feeling the rest of his books are also outstanding.

The Lost is set in the late sixties. He does a nice job of reminding you of that fact by adding details about Vietnam and Woodstock and hippies, but he doesn't overdo it, doesn't let it detract from the story or waste time with unneeded description; he just hints at it here and there.

If you're a Stephen King or Dean Koontz fan, I see no reason why you won't like The Lost. I've been burned too many times when I've picked up a horror novel expecting something scary and ended up with some overwritten piece of [garbage] with little or no story, something attempting to be "high brow" or whatever. The Lost is just the opposite. This is pure adrenaline fun and reads like it was written at a fever pitch.


A New Ketchum Twisted   August 11, 2001
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Jack Ketchum has written some very disturbing tales; his The Girl Next Door is one of the most affecting book I've ever read. He is a so-called horror novelist who blends natural, every-day horror (the darkness of a person's mind is always prominent in his books) with great stories. Now comes The Lost, his most mature and most affecting since Girl Next Door.

A melee of characters in 1969 are trying to cope with something horrible that happened five years ago; the cold-blooded murder of two young female campers. You have the murderer, Ray, his two accomplices, Jen and Tim, some of their friends, the cop on the case, Charlie, and a retired cop who helped Charlie with the case five years ago, Ed. All their lives are about to crumble together as the horrors of the past event resurface to haunt them once more. Ketchum has no remorse for any of these characters; he shows to us that no one, no matter how good, is safe from a twisted mind.

Ketchum is at his affecting best with this book. His prose grabs you by the guts and never intends to let go of you until the final page. The regular Ketchum reader will recognize all the trademarks that made this author such a cult phenomenon. But new readers beware; this tale is more slow moving and nostalgic than his other books (a lot of the book was obviously inspired by old 60s music, rock icons and films). Still, with its bloody finally and believable characters, The Lost is Ketchum's best in years, and that's saying a lot!