Jack Ketchum Books In Order

Publication Order of Off Season Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Chapbooks

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Non Fiction Books

Jack Ketchum is the pen name of American horror novelist Dallas Mayr. Born in Livingstone, NJ, Ketchum has worked as a lumber sales representative, a teacher, and actor before becoming a novelist. As a teenager, he had the honor of meeting “Psycho” author, Robert Bloch, who would become his mentor and friend until his death in 1994.

He credits the chance acquaintance he made with Henry Miller while he was interning at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency as the turning point in his budding writing career. Henry Miller invited the young Ketchum into his Pacific Palisades home, and soon after became his agent, helping him publish his first novel “Off Season”.

His first novel Off Season went on to receive widespread popularity and critical acclaim. In fact, the book received extraordinary praise from none other than Stephen King at the 2003 National Book Awards. According to King, Off Season completely changed the horror novel landscape in a way that nobody had ever done until Clive Barker. It is not the first time that Jack Ketchum has received such glowing tribute from King, as the two have since become fast friends with a mutual respect for each other’s work.

Ketchum’s work has been compared to the works of other authors such as James Ellroy’s L.A. Confidential, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser and Thomas Harris’s The Silence of the Lambs. Unlike other horror novel writers, most of Ketchum’s work is inspired by true events. For instance, the Girl Next Door is based on the Sylvia Likens murder mystery of 1965. When he republished the novel as a special edition, he got King to write the preface. In one of the longest introductions of a book ever written by King, he asserted that the film adaptation was one of the genuinely shocking American movies ever made since “Henry: Portrait of a Serial” came out over two decades ago. Pushing the boundaries of the classic horror story, this film is not one for anyone that is easily disturbed. However, The Girl Next Door is perfect for the reader who is looking for the suburban style narrative that takes one into hell.

Ketchum’s books such as Peaceable Kingdom, Closing Time, and The Box have been honored with the Bram Stoker Award. With the increasing popularity of his novels, some of the novels were adapted into feature films. The Lost, his first novel to be made into a movie achieved cult status after becoming a runaway success in theaters. The adaptation of the highly controversial The Girl Next Door also did well in theaters. However, his most important work that catapulted him to critical and commercial success in the Box Office was the adaptation of the novel Red into film. The movie made by Magnolia Pictures starred Tom Sizemore and Brian Cox. After getting rave reviews at the Sundance Film festival, the movie went on to make a great showing at the Box Office US. Subsequent translations of the novel saw the novel make significant inroads internationally.

Still, Jack Ketchum was not done, as Lucky McKee’s adaptation of his novel The Woman into a film enjoyed even more commercial success. The New York Times had high praise for the adaptation asserting that, the perfect calibration of pace, the creation of powerful parables and the attention to detail in the film made Ketchum one of the best in his genre.

Ketchum currently lives in New York and continues to write novels, screenplays, short stories, reviews, and articles.

Jack Ketchum’s first horror novel, Off Season is one of the author’s most popular works. Published in 1980, the extreme violence and bleak vision of the novel is still as vivid and influential as ever. Ketchum writes a novel that demonstrates his expert articulation yet retains the emotional expression that makes the book a classic of remarkable elegance. The author is impressive in articulating the nature of evil and how the unity of the human spirit comes together to fight it in the narrative of a band of tourists captured by cannibals. While its structure is nothing original, what makes this novel different is that Ketchum explores the deeper issues of morality and evil issues and moves the story with such intelligence and ferocity that many other novelists fail to do. He uses vivid imagery in the portrayal of bloody battles between the cannibals and tourists, and the heartless consumption and torture of victims. The arbitrariness of who dies and who lives leaves the reader on the edge of their seat, as Ketchum sucks you in while always remaining in charge.

Hide and Seek published in 1984 is another popular novel by Jack Ketchum. Following in the footsteps of Off Season this is a gruesome novel that will captivate the horror novel enthusiast. Hide and Seek is one of Ketchum’s best novels being believable, scary, yet uplifting in the manner of the classic horror narrative. Set in Dead River a small town in Maine, the action of the novel mainly occurs during the hot summer months. The first part of the book is the story of Dan a local who bumps into visiting college students Steven, Kim, and Casey who become his friends. A few weeks later, Dan has sex with the beautiful Casey in the graveyard and declares that he has fallen for her. She tells him that years ago she and her younger brother had been victims of sexual abuse from their father that resulted in the death of her sibling. The experience is what made her adopt the risk taker attitude.

The second part of the novel builds on the tantalizing foundation of the first part. The four friends decide to go to a haunted house for a game of hide and seek. The game soon becomes weird then deadly, as they soon encounter the otherworldly occupants of the house. Forced to deal with sudden violence or die, the four friends must stand together and deal with what the haunted house throws at them. Similar to his first novel, Ketchum maintains the theme of the human spirit and the power it has in uniting people in times of adversity. The author is economical with words but still manages to create a story that tightens like a noose from page to page. Any horror novel buff will find this to be one of the finest works they will ever read.

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