WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN ADORED member of a small town community is arrested and charged with the most heinous crime you can imagine? Whats more, there is a growing pile of evidence that virtually guarantees the guilt of the charged man, including DNA and eyewitness accounts. What happens to your case, however, when the defense comes up with irrefutable evidence that contradicts the evidence for the accused, including conflictoy DNA results, conflictory physical evidence and finally, conflictory eye witness accounts that place the accused across country in front of other eye witness accounts?
A reasonable man might well lose his mind at this point. An unreasonable man might go postal. A determined man may well quote Sherlock Holmes, and deduce that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. And this is where the book starts calling the Constant Reader home. #Lovestephenking
Enter from stage left a new major character. Spoilers prevent me from telling you who this is, but your heart will skip a beat when they enter. It aint sherlock Holmes, but he/she solves the case and destroys the threat with the same aplomb. Not without loss, or penalty, of course, this character has seen too much, and lost too much to expect that.
The book’s pace picks up at around the 40% mark, and its like Mr King has had a quarduple shot double latte for breakfast with his corn flakes. There are hints of the supernatural scattered throughout even the opening sections (*does happy dance*) and all of this comes true like a dream in the finale. Its not hard core horror, those days are in Mr King’s long distant but still adored past, and the new age King writes a combination of world class crime novels mixed up with whatever he damn well likes. Which is fine by me, of course, i read everything he ever publishes, and preorder them all months in advance even before resding the synopsis.
But put against classics like SALEMS LOT, CHRISTINE, THE SHINING and even DESPERATION, this would be rated M as opposed to R for the titles i quoted above. But that’s no bad thing. Mr King has mellowed, he has evolved into somethnig greater than “just“ horror even though i for one would just love an epic new 800 page horror fest. But that's what his back library is for. Its still there, its all still in print (and probably will be for eternity, thanks to the evolution of the e.reader) but for now, we CR’s still bave aplethora of new King books to read.
Four stars for THE OUTSIDER. Its not perfect, but its new, its supernatural themed, and its written by our King. Gotta love that.
The Outsider
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Customer reviews
This started so well, so promisingly, with the mystery of what was happening keeping me glued to the pages. Which is why when the Big Reveal explained it all, I couldn’t believe how lazy and cheap it was, that something so well set up turned out to be nothing special whatsoever, something I could’ve found in the pages of almost any other horror story. Sometimes Stephen King’s endings do fall flat, I get that. But this one simply felt as though little or no thought had been put into it, as if he didn’t really care. And that, for me, is the worst feeling a reader can ever have.
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Top reviews from other countries
MR T STRETTON
On word..... Excellent.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 June 2018Verified Purchase
Patrick Troy
Unadulterated rubbish.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 August 2018Verified Purchase
Mr. John Fletcher
A generic “horror” novel that should be avoided.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 September 2018Verified Purchase
A. Kernaghan
Dull Stuff from the Ex-Master
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 November 2018Verified Purchase
L. Law
A great involved read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 August 2018Verified Purchase
