Tread Softly/Dark Mountain 1st UK Hardcover     True 1st World Hardcover PUBLISHER: WH Allen 1987     Publications 1987 DJ PRICE£ 11.95 ISBN 0-491-03327-3

Tread Softly 1st US PBO     PUBLISHER: TOR Feb. 1987     Publications 1987 DJ PRICE; $3.95 ISBN 0-812-52108-0

Dark Mountain 1st UK Hardcover under Real Name PUBLISHER: Healine 1993 COVER PRICE£ 16.99 ISBN 0-7472-0769-0

This book was first released by WH Allen under the pseudonym Richard Kelly (Laymon's middle name) and subsequently released by Headline under his original name 6 years later. Headline reissued the book as Dark Mountain as they had already published one called TREAD SOFTLY. They are both highly collectible, especially if you have one signed "Richard Kelly AKA Richard Laymon".

When two families join forces for a camping holiday in the California mountains, they are looking forward to a restful interlude amidst the tranquil scenery. For Scott O'Toole it's a chance to spend some time with his teenaged kids and his new girlfriend, while Arnold Gordon is hoping that the change of atmosphere will help to calm the nerve shattering memories of vietnam that still plague him. None of them could have imagined the horrifying ordeal that awaited them.

Pitching camp in a secluded valley they unwittingly intrude on the home of two of the wilderness's most bizarre inhabitants - an aged hag whose loyalty to the Evil One gives her awesome powers, and her son, a depraved half beast whose unnatural lusts even she can barely control.

For the sleeping campers, soon to become the prey of evil that is only partly human, a terrifying nightmare is about to begin...