NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An unspeakable crime. A confounding investigation. At a time when the King brand has never been stronger, he has delivered one of his most unsettling and compulsively readable stories. Spoiler An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad. As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can. Once again the GM equivalent of storytelling is churning out more dribble, this story so very much like so many others, tho has proved popular since its release, it starts as a typical cop and murder theme then falls later to the typical(yawn) horror of which so many poorly educated middle class suburban 'mericans, seek. most of the 576 pages center on the accused school coach Terry Maitland, only to fade out later, when his alibi proves strong, this leaves the cops fiddling with ideas, Stephen King too, who quickly leaps into his experienced quoting and dropping hints of his previous novels ..Ka? of the Dark Tower springs to mind Nothing original here, past reader's will see the same old theme, punching out as they do over 50 best selling novels now, proving only too well, that the 'free;' publishing industry is just a bent as Hollywood. Oh that reminds me, this Outsider is soon gonna be on TV in a 10 part serial Not to be confused with 'The Outsider' by SE Hinton 1967 on teenie gang fights score 4/10
I'm reminded of a passage in Sir Terry Pratchett's excellent novel 'The Truth,' in which Lord Vetinarii explains human nature to William De Worde: (I'm paraphrasing since I'm quoting from memory) "When a man bites a dog, that is news indeed. But people do not want to hear what they do not know. They want to hear what they already know. They would much rather hear that a dog bites a man. They do not want news. What they want, in fact is olds. " I think a lot of readers are like that. They don't want to work at a story, coming to grips with what the author is really saying, what the intent of the novel is, the dialogue, differences in grammar, punctuation etc... they want a literary cheeseburger: not world shaking, but tasty enough for now and just like all those other cheeseburgers they've had. Mr. King has obviously come up with a form that works for his bank account. I can't blame him for capitalizing on it, but that doesn't inspire me to read his works either. I think the last thing of his I read was The Stand.
I may check this book out, I've read most King novels eventually but stopped after The Cell, or was it Cellular? The one with the damn levitating collectively conscious zombies, it made me mad. His work got weird(er) but not necessarily in a good way after his near death encounter. Getting hit by that van whilst jogging and subsequently writing himself and that event into the dark tower series to me, was wack. I do like most, even bad horror though, that much is true.
I haven't read all his stories yet (this one included) but I do like Firestarter, Desperation and Salems Lot. ~Toni~
lol ...Oh dear I was expecting a Jamaican Blast for criticizing 'your' author ...lol but I was greatly disappointed this time round it was very much an ''It part 2'' hope you get a chance to read cheers/
Nope lol Its all good tho people can like/dislike w/e they want. So the story is It part 2 then? ~Toni~
A part 2 of the IT story ..? their were by far to many similarities this is my bane ...my 'dis'? of King
I myself enjoyed this novel but heh it is all good in Mr. Roger's hood. We all have our own likes and dislikes.
Every once in a while, while critiquing some artist, writer, actor, musician, dancer or composer I find myself thinking, "Yeah, but that person is making a living at it and I'm not." I'm not fond of the genres that Mr. King writes in, but I'd give my eye teeth to write as well as he does.