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The Lost

Jack Ketchum

3.76 · Rating details · 3,346 ratings · 227 reviews

It was the summer of 1965. Ray, Tim, and Jennifer were just three teenage friends hanging out in the campgrounds, drinking a little. But Tim and Jennifer didn’t know what their friend Ray had in mind. And if they’d known, they wouldn’t have thought he was serious. Then they saw what he did to the two girls at the neighboring campsite—and knew he was dead serious.

Four years ...more

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Paperback, 394 pages

Published May 1st 2001 by Leisure Books (first published March 28th 2001)

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Nov 11, 2019 Mort rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I had an epiphany when I was reading this book.

I've turned into a reading-slut!
Just give me a moment to explain:
A few years ago, I was fairly committed to 400+ page books, mostly in the crime and thriller genre. I would read before I went to bed and over weekends, or when nothing was on TV that interested me. Books were usually a week or so commitment.
About two and a half years ago I got a Kindle as a gift. It opened up my world - I mean in a huge, huge way. There are so many brilliant authors o I had an epiphany when I was reading this book.

I've turned into a reading-slut!
Just give me a moment to explain:
A few years ago, I was fairly committed to 400+ page books, mostly in the crime and thriller genre. I would read before I went to bed and over weekends, or when nothing was on TV that interested me. Books were usually a week or so commitment.
About two and a half years ago I got a Kindle as a gift. It opened up my world - I mean in a huge, huge way. There are so many brilliant authors out there that I'd never heard of before, and so many books available, I couldn't believe how long I've been missing out on everything.
Earlier this year, I felt a little burnt out on thrillers and decided to give them a break. With my Kindle and the app on my phone, I had more than enough stories I wanted to delve into.
So, here comes the slutty part - Whenever I get a chance, I whip out my phone and read a little. Anyplace, anytime...whether it is standing in line in a shop or taking a tea break at work, I will read even if it is just a paragraph.
And it suddenly hit me - you can't appreciate a slow burn if you read in such short bursts. You have to take the time, let's call it a little foreplay, to really appreciate what the author is giving you. The slutty way is wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am - and I think that is why I've been more into shorter books this year.

Which brings me to this thriller by Ketchum. This guy has a solid reputation (even though he is no longer with us) as a brilliant writer. And, while I've read some of his work in the past, this book felt like it was badly edited in the beginning. The sentences are so long and felt somewhat drawn out - I was thinking that maybe the editor did a piss-poor job with this book.

And then I had a little time to read a few dozen pages...and the damnedest thing happened. I got it. I finally understood. The way Ketchum wrote this book had a certain flow to it, a rhythm of words like a complicated song coming together. I felt the 'music' he was making, and I'll be damned if I didn't dig it.

Okay, this story takes place in the sixties and it starts with murder right off the bat. And then it slows down - the word slow burn comes into play for about 300 pages before the action truly begins. From there, it is pretty awesome.

If I can give you some advise - if you commit to this book, you have to spend some time with the author. Foreplay is very important for this story. It is not meant to be read in short bursts, it will bore most people. But in the end, the commitment will pay off.

This is not a horror.
If I could have gotten into it sooner, I might have given it 5 stars. ...more

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Feb 10, 2018 Karl rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This hard cover is one of 1500 copies published and is signed by Jack Ketchum.

The book was made into a film in 2006 produced by Lucky McKee, Ketchum's sometime writing partner.

In "The Lost", the year is 1965, the place is the New Jersey lakes region and 19 year old Ray Pye tries to thrill kills a couple of girls out camping by shooting them, due to assuming they are a lesbian couple. One dead one on life support. His sheeple friends, Jen and Tim, help him cover up the crime.

We take up four years ...more

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Nov 10, 2016 Kenneth McKinley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own-tbr-pile-horror, tbr-pile-horror, own-paperback, horror, own-kindle

Right off the bat, The Lost starts with a bang (pardon the pun). Ray was a nutcase when he was a teenager and blew two girls away that were camping. His two friends, Tim and Jennifer, were sheep when they watched him do it and just stood there with their mouths open. They didn't turn him in. They didn't try to stop him. Nothing. Why did he do it? Just to see how it felt. Four years later, Ray is still just as big of a nutcase. The only difference is that he hasn't killed anyone in those four yea ...more

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Nov 12, 2016 Vicki Willis rated it it was amazing

Shelves: z-2016

This book showed a very dark side of humanity. It started out fast and never slowed down. I thought the characters were well done and the book was written from several different perspectives. The setting (the 60's) added to the story and I enjoyed the cultural references from the time. It was a disturbing and uncomfortable read and the ending was perfect for the book. 5 stars for me! ...more

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Jan 07, 2016 Gatorman rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Gripping, intense novel from Ketchum about a group of young misfits in the late 60's who participate in the murder of two women and how their lives, and the lives of two policemen on the trail of the primary culprit, evolve four years after the murders. It had me riveted from the beginning and never let up the pace. The characters have substance and real emotions, interacting with one another in such a way that they all end up converging in one place in the grim, bloody climax that does not disa ...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Claudia rated it really liked it

Many people equate horror with the supernatural. I find that the actions of real people can be just as horrifying as any ghost or vampire. This book was a difficult read for me because I have lived the terror of not knowing when potential violence will become real violence. Horror is not the anticipation of terrible things, it is knowing full well that it is going to happen and there is nothing you can do at this minute to stop it. Terror is seing the door opening and not being certain whether t Many people equate horror with the supernatural. I find that the actions of real people can be just as horrifying as any ghost or vampire. This book was a difficult read for me because I have lived the terror of not knowing when potential violence will become real violence. Horror is not the anticipation of terrible things, it is knowing full well that it is going to happen and there is nothing you can do at this minute to stop it. Terror is seing the door opening and not being certain whether tonight you will get the Austrian crystal ring or will it be the night you die. Ray is charming and handsome and charismatic and his moods change on a dime. I thought the character was terrifying while at the same time I understood why Jennifer and Tim were tied to him. He provided them with self-worth. He made them believe that he was so important that being tied to him made them important as well. I also understood Schilling's relentless need to bring him down. Schilling wanted a safe place to live and Ray took that from him. The only character in the book who wasn't lost was the cat, Gimp. He did what was in his nature to do and in the end provides an emotional place for Ed to escape to.
I often wrestle with the idea of retribution and revenge. Ketchum allows me both in the ending of the book. Even though I understand Tim and Jennifer's reluctance to leave Ray, I don't sympathize with their refusal to learn anything from their experience. Their continued sense of being lost worked for me. Would it be worse to die or live a life of misery in prison? I was totally happy with Ray's sentence and the implication that he would die in pain from AIDS after being tortured daily. Ketchum writes about the horror of every day people. Life isn't always lollipops and roses but people often have the strength to survive and that makes for a great story. Ketchum doesn't pull punches. He tells the story in most graphic way possible. But that is how life is. That fist coming toward your face rarely stops until after it has broken your nose and thrown you to the kitchen floor. ...more

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Jan 24, 2008 Robert Beveridge rated it really liked it

Shelves: finished, owned-and-gave-away

Stephen King has called Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door one of the best books ever written. Previous to that, Ketchum was the horror world's best-kept secret, the Einsturzende Neubauten of scary stories: influential to just about everyone working in the field, unknown outside it. Now, thanks to one offhand sentence in one very widely read treatise on how to write, Jack Ketchum has become collectible overnight. Don't try to find a copy of The Girl Next Door unless you're willing to pay [a lot] Stephen King has called Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door one of the best books ever written. Previous to that, Ketchum was the horror world's best-kept secret, the Einsturzende Neubauten of scary stories: influential to just about everyone working in the field, unknown outside it. Now, thanks to one offhand sentence in one very widely read treatise on how to write, Jack Ketchum has become collectible overnight. Don't try to find a copy of The Girl Next Door unless you're willing to pay [a lot] for a dogeared reading copy. But Ketchum has released a brand-spanking-new one recently, and until you come up with the scratch for the out-of-print monsters, this'll do just fine, thankyouverymuch.

The Lost tells the story of Ray Pye, sociopath extraordinaire, who kills a camper and puts another one on life support in 1965, then waltzes off scot free because no one can put him at the scene, find the murder weapon, or any other useful little prosecutorial trick for actually convicting someone. Most of the book's four hundred pages take place four years later, in the weeks following the death of the second camper after spending the intervening time in a coma and hooked to a life support system. (...)

The question almost everyone who picks this book up is going to be asking himself is "is this guy really as good as Steve King says he is?" Yup. He's that good. The question I ended up asking myself is "why is this guy considered a horror writer?" The Lost is your basic detective story where you know who the killer is from page one and the tension rests on the cops trying to pin the murders on the killer. It's no more horror than the stuff Joe Lansdale's been writing since Savage Season; it sits nestled firmly in the crook of the arm between mystery and thriller. (...) But there's more to it than that. Ketchum has a sense of delicacy one doesn't find much in either horror novels or mysteries, and he knows how to use conscious symbolism-- almost unheard of in genre fiction of any sort. Granted, it gets spread a little thick at times, but it's amazing to see it at all. Add it all up and note that Ketchum never pulls a single punch throughout and you've got yourself one serious bang-up ride waiting to happen. I suggest taking it as soon as you can. ...more

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Mar 14, 2014 Jak rated it did not like it · review of another edition

A really disappointing outing from Ketchum.

The plot, simple as it is, gets going in a hurry. Central character Ray Pye senselessly kills two young female college students in his small town in the presence of two acquaintances whom he convinces to help him to cover up his crime. The police know Ray is the perpetrator but just can’t prove it.

Speed forward four years and Ray is a narcissist with sociopathic tendencies ruling over a coterie of late teens to whom he deals drugs and appears cool. The A really disappointing outing from Ketchum.

The plot, simple as it is, gets going in a hurry. Central character Ray Pye senselessly kills two young female college students in his small town in the presence of two acquaintances whom he convinces to help him to cover up his crime. The police know Ray is the perpetrator but just can’t prove it.

Speed forward four years and Ray is a narcissist with sociopathic tendencies ruling over a coterie of late teens to whom he deals drugs and appears cool. The officers who were never able to prove his guilt view Pye as the white whale to their Ahab and start to take steps to see if they can rattle his cage sufficiently to make him slip up.

Eventually Pye snaps and goes on a murder spree ‘settling scores’ with any female whom has crossed him during the book.

The problems I had with the book are that Pye’s character was very shallow in that we know he’s a wrong’un from the start but other than serious misogyny and narcissism he doesn’t really display the sociopathy I’d equate with his book ending murder spree. The character just feels shallow and predictable and we never really explore why he is the way he is.

The pacing of the book is also poor. The middle 80% of the book is painfully slow. Near enough nothing happens. At least nothing much of interest, nor anything that justifies Pye snapping and going homicidal. It would have been interesting to see Pye slowly pushed further and further towards breaking point but this is mainly due to being rejected by a few female characters, very low level hassle from the police and having a big party being broken up. Hardly psychological torture to induce mass murder.

Also the afterward to the main body of the book left quite a lot to be desired. I respect when an author has the guts to allow a bad guy to avoid his comeuppance and dodge justice. If they do receive justice, I also respect it should it be imperfect. If it’s poetic justice they receive, that’s great so long as it’s not clichéd. Pye received poetic justice for his crimes. Locked up in jail for life being routinely sodomised/raped by his cell mate. Cliché and feels somewhat lazy, particularly when Ketchum throws in that the cell mate has a mysterious disease that he’s clearly transmitting to Pye.

Speaking of the cell mate, I was surprised to find the book was written in 2001 (the story itself is set in 1969) because said cell mate is a racially offensive stereotype I’d not expect to find in books written after the 1980’s.

Lastly, some short chapters in the book are written from the point of view of a stray cat. Why? They serve absolutely no purpose what so ever, are dull and really feel like padding or Ketchum’s way of trying to show his writing chops, which he entirely fails to do, and he doesn’t need to do any way.
...more

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Nov 30, 2014 John rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

More "True Crime" than straight-up horror, THE LOST is the same sort of tale that Jack Ketchum has written a dozen times before, only better. Most Ketchum novels are inspired by the real-life exploits of murderers, rapists, and the mentally deranged; but some of his other books feel rather callous and, for my money, come dangerously close to being exploitative. For example, take THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, which simultaneously manages to be both nauseating and perversely titillating. To what extent are ...more

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Jan 23, 2015 Kathy Taylor rated it really liked it

Shelves: e-books, reviewed-books

I don't like comparing Jack Ketchum's novels. While his style is basically the same, he approaches each of his novels differently. I like that. This is still horror, to me; because, he takes real life crime and turns them into words on a page that are as realistic as the crime itself. He puts his own twist on the crimes the story is taken part of. This is one of those stories.
The beginning of the book he puts you right in the mix. The pulse-pumping, sweating, heart-racing horrific acts. Then he ...more

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May 31, 2012 Cynthia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, favorites

This is my fourth Ketchum novel, and I have yet to be disappointed. Jack Ketchum can create some of the most realistic and disturbing characters.

The Lost literally starts off with a bang and definitely gets your attention. You immediately know who the bad guy is—and that guy is Ray Pye. He shoots two young women (while his friends Tim and Jennifer watch) at the beginning of the book. One dies and the other is on life support. Four years later, the second victim dies, and it seems Ray has gotten ...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Andy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: random-tbr-challenge, 2014-a-z-horror-challenge

Good characters, but a really loose plot. I enjoyed the middle section of the book when Ray and Katherine were engaged in mind games.

I've been having trouble with Ketchum's particular brand of senseless violence as I get older. It might also have to do with the seemingly constant barrage of real life violence that is perpetuated out of simple angst. ...more

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Jul 17, 2013 Duane rated it it was amazing

Shelves: horror, ketchum, crime-mystery-thriller, best-horror-dark-fantasy

The Lost is certainly in my Top 5 Jack Ketchum novels. Ketchum is the undisputed master of crafting the tale of human evil. He knows the darkness and he will take the willing reader to the depths of hell. ...more

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Nov 17, 2020 Jeanne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I don't love every Ketchum book I read but he is one of my favorite authors. There were technical things that I really disliked about this novel but the story was perfect, perfect as only Ketchum can quite accomplish. I rarely give 5 star reviews but this has to be one of them. I just finished this afternoon so I have to let it all process before I can comment further. ...more

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Sep 21, 2017 Rouxmia Roest rated it really liked it

Shelves: library

Wtf did I just read?

Once again, I love how Ketchum can mess with your emotions in a book. You sympathise, you hate, you pitty and then you are just friggen disturbed and shocked and swear your next read will be a children's book with lots of pictures. But you keep going back. You keep going back. Again and again.

This book starts with a bang. Pun intended. People often associate horror with paranormal and ghosts. But for me true horror comes from human actions. A psycho teenager that reminds me ...more

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Oct 03, 2017 Eduardo rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Ketchum delivers (as always) a fast-paced and entertaining horror and suspense tale with great and memorable characters, where the line between good and evil often gets very blurry and the events are not so predictable. Great read, easy to recommend.

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Jan 23, 2021 Ken B rated it liked it · review of another edition

3 STARS

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May 25, 2010 Lee Pletzers rated it really liked it

The Lost
Jack Ketchum
(c)2001
Leisure Edition 2008
Pages: 394

I've heard a lot about Jack Ketchum (especially recently), even discovered he has a couple of movies out. My only experience reading Jack is in the book Triage with Richard Laymon (the reason I bought the book) and Edward Lee.

The other day I saw a youtube clip on his movie, The Girl Next Door. Now THAT is a movie I want to see, but I like to read the book first. So, I jumped online to goodbooksnz and went hunting and ordered The Girl Next ...more

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Aug 25, 2010 Mark R. rated it it was amazing

I'd say that Jack Ketchum has slowly been growing on me, except that I've liked his writing ever since I first began reading Off Season, his 1980 novel about cannibals attacking vacationers off the beach. The thing about Ketchum is, his stuff is so violent, so visceral, and downright tragic that his books are somewhat exhausting. I read the sequel to Off Season, the better, equally violent Offspring, and from there moved on to The Girl Next Door (1989), a novel that probably deserves its own art I'd say that Jack Ketchum has slowly been growing on me, except that I've liked his writing ever since I first began reading Off Season, his 1980 novel about cannibals attacking vacationers off the beach. The thing about Ketchum is, his stuff is so violent, so visceral, and downright tragic that his books are somewhat exhausting. I read the sequel to Off Season, the better, equally violent Offspring, and from there moved on to The Girl Next Door (1989), a novel that probably deserves its own article.

The Girl Next Door is one of the most deeply disturbing books I've yet read, and one of the best. The horror is derived from human cruelty, nothing supernatural, the same as his cannibal stories, and when I'd finished I put the book down knowing I'd read something brilliant, but at the same time, I was wholly ready to move on to another book, something lighter to follow it up.

Now, having read The Lost, I think I can safely say I'm hooked and won't be allowing as much time to pass before reading another Ketchum novel.

The Lost tells the story of young adults in the late sixties, hangin' out, partying, trying to get laid--and keeping the awful secret that one of them, their leader, murdered two girls, very randomly, four years before. His name is Ray Pye, a self-obsessed, vain monster of a man, who stuffs his shoes with beer cans in order to rise above his natural five-foot-three, and demands loyalty from the younger kids who buy drugs from him and hang out at his place, and more or less worship at his feet.

Ray's two best friends, Tim and Jennifer, are the only ones who know about the murders. Two cops, one retired, are pretty certain, however, and when the second girl succumbs to her injuries four years later, the cops begin to harrass Ray and his friends, to try and break him down, get him to slip up, so they can finally nail him.

The Lost doesn't contain nearly as much graphic violence as the books I've mentioned above, but when it happens, it's very, very rough. The murders in the prologue are described in explicit detail, leaving the reader to wonder what else could possibly occur in the next 350 pages.

There is a lot of waiting, a lot of tension that builds and builds, an inevitability that at some point, something is going to push Ray over the edge, once again, probably worse than the time before. Ketchum captures the mood of the late sixties, finds parallels with his story and the Manson murders, committed around the same time, and writes believable characters the reader can't help but care and worry about. ...more

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Oct 23, 2016 Bryan Alexander rated it it was ok

Shelves: gothic, crime, babyboomers

I read The Lost as part of my quest to find the best horror novels of the 21st century. I came to the novel with high expectations, given Ketchum's rep.

The Lost isn't really a horror novel, although there is some gore at the end. The plot is driven by an ambitious and sociopathic teenage, Ray Pye, who begins the novel with an unplanned murder, then spends the next 80% of the novel exploiting friends, chasing women, and being a manipulative jerk. The setting is a small New Jersey town in the 196 ...more

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Feb 07, 2015 Edward Wolfe rated it it was amazing

Reading this author felt like reading a true crime novel. It has the same compelling draw and I couldn't stop reading it. I read a few of his books in a row because after finishing one gripping narrative, I needed more. The other book I read was The Girl Next Door, and it completely satisfied the need for more of the same.

You are injected into the story and feel like you're getting all of the gory details behind a real life crime. I know that that the other book was roughly based on a real crime ...more

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May 21, 2015 Rob Boley rated it it was amazing

I read this book over the course of a camping weekend with my daughter. If you want to enhance an already tense read, I'd highly recommend reading this in a dark forest. This story starts where a lesser novel would end--with a brutal double murder. We then fast-forward several years to experience the full extent of the ramifications of that terrible event--from the POV of the cop who led the failed investigation, two of the accomplices, and the murderer himself--plus a whole host of other charac ...more

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Mar 14, 2018 Chad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Definitely my favorite Jack Ketchum book to date. He's so well known for the vaguely splatterpunk aspects to his books, with the likes of Off Season and The Girl Next Door but what he also excels at is character development, in his ability to grab at your sympathy for just about anyone.

Case in point, he starts off this book with a horrific act and as you get into the heart of the book you realize that the person who perpetrated that act is practically the protagonist. Ketchum drags you into his ...more

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May 20, 2013 Marvin rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

Maybe it is because I was too impressed with Jack Ketchum's Off Season and its sequel, Offspring: The Sequel to Off Season, but The Lost just fell flat. It's well written as I would expect from the author but I read it before or, more precisely, many books that felt like it. Kids do an horrendous act and get away with it. Years later , remorseful alcoholic cops are still looking for killers. All hell breaks loose. Yeah, read it before. ...more

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Nov 14, 2014 Alex rated it it was amazing

This was my first Jack Ketchum book and now I am hooked! This book was a lot more violent and bloody than I thought it would be. Such an interesting read on a character who slowly starts losing control. Could not put this one down.

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Jan 25, 2016 Jenn rated it really liked it

Shelves: horror

This was an enjoyable, creepy/gory read. I will have to read more of his novels.

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Oct 06, 2018 Collin Henderson rated it it was amazing

Ray Pye is a psychopath in every way, from his ability to wear masks in any situation, to his ability to generate charisma from nowhere, and ending with him murdering two women in the woods in front of two people he calls his friends because they refute his advances.

The Lost is a difficult book to read at times, simply because Jack Ketchum absolutely excels at getting into Ray's head. A very large portion of the book is written entirely from his point of view, and the way he views the world is u ...more

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Apr 15, 2020 Joshua Dodd rated it it was amazing

This one starts quick, levels off for a bit to gain altitude, then picks up speed to a Ketchum finish.

When it comes to disturbing ‘Humans are REAL Monsters’ line of shockingly brutal, yet driven and brave leads going through the internal struggle that is Ray. This book was pretty bad ass entertainment for me. It kept me hooked and it built connections with its characters emotionally.

I can say I felt I’d have liked to know a bit more of what happened after for a couple characters but in no way do ...more

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Apr 02, 2018 Jill Bowman rated it really liked it

Jack Ketcham does everything well! It was a bit over the top - but what the heck! I never set it down from the moment I opened the book. A great book for a long, cold rainy day.

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Aug 24, 2017 Adam McAuley rated it really liked it

This book gradually became more exciting as it went along. 8.1/10

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What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Detective/Crime/Mystery - Book about 2 women shot at a lake, one stays on life support, retiring cop vows to catch killer. [s]	4	51	Sep 13, 2019 07:00PM
Gore and More: November 2016 Group Read - The Lost	48	64	Nov 14, 2016 09:33AM

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About Jack Ketchum

Jack Ketchum

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Dallas William Mayr, better known by his pen name Jack Ketchum, was an American horror fiction author. He was the recipient of four Bram Stoker Awards and three further nominations. His novels included Off Season, Offspring, and Red, which were adapted to film. In 2011, Ketchum received the World Horror Convention Grand Master Award for outstanding contribution to the horror genre.

A onetime actor, ...more

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Quotes from The Lost

“People were complex creatures, walking, talking rag quilts, youthful dreams and hopes and fears and middle-aged indiscretions, aging aches and pains and losses, the whole damn kit and kaboodle, mended here and tattered there. People were pushed and pulled in all sorts of directions and did whatever it was they had to do for balance.” — 4 likes

“Betty Knot was sitting on the porch now with her old mongrel dog. Both of them fast and peacefully asleep in the shade, almost comically so, the widow leaning in her rocker with her mouth open wide and the old dog sprawled at her feet. And seeing them there made him smile and then unexpectedly saddened him with a sudden forceful clarity. It was as though he had looked behind the scene on the porch across the street into some terrible scene in the future. Because they each were all the other had in the world by way of comfort and it was possible for him to understand in that moment the cruel eventuality that was blooming there. They were both so damn old. He sensed a sort of fate about them and sensed too that it would descend upon them soon, that soon either the woman would lose the dog or the dog would lose the woman and they had been together since the dog was a pup. When death came to one the other would be left alone, no familiar hand to pat the dog or cool wet nose to nuzzle the hand, and there would be no consoling either dog or woman, something fragile lost forever in some awful rending.” — 2 likes

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