In one chilling, unforgettable scene, he chops up the mom with an ax while forcing her daughter to watch. This one lives up to its title and took readers into a dark night of the soul quite removed from the usual sex and fun of the Nightstand books. “I realized when I read The Sadist that Larry Block was creating a whole new direction in these books,” Bill Coons told me. “Instead of being the villain, this insane sadistic killer was the main character.” Jim Thompson, of course, had already written The Killer Inside Me, but Lou Ford is a pussycat compared to mad Jack Garth. The cold, bleak, amoral world of The Sadist takes us further, disgusting and compelling us with a morbid fascination. Our “hero” is a serial killer. “Block was ahead of his time,” Coons says. Coons’ sequel, Passion Madman (LB603), was published in 1963. Clue: one character lives in the Kallett Building. Many Nightstands are tame by today’s standards. This one is strictly Adults Only.