This isn't much more than pornography. Laymon's male characters are all either rapists or valiant protectors, but it's all the same. They're what he'd have liked to have been: a man who feels, and is perceived as, powerful around women.
Alfred Hitchcock had similar issues, but he could work his neuroses, his misogyny, his cowardice—all of his faults—into great art because he had genius. Laymon didn't even have talent. The fact is, Richard Laymon could hardly write at all.
He got blurbed by King, Koontz, and Ketchum. Those guys aren't great writers, either, but they're Milton, Shakespeare, and Joyce compared to Laymon. I guess in the 80s, horror writers stuck together.
I've read two Laymon novels now, and I think that's enough. Life's too short for this garbage.