Genuinely - read no further if you want to avoid spoilers.
When a boy is raped with a tree branch and savagely murdered, fingerprints, witnesses and DNA point to the much-loved local kids' baseball coach, and he is very publically arrested. It turns out that he has a solid alibi. Then tragedy strikes.
Stephen King sets up a fabulous crime mystery before the book steps away from the crime mystery into more familiar King territory. I enjoyed it nonetheless: the characters, dialogue and texture are as rich as usual, and it is exciting and full of incident. I was a little disappointed that it didn't solve its own conundrum by the rules it appeared to have set out under - truth be told, I would have loved it to have been a straightforward crime thriller without a supernatural element, no matter how well done - but it's Stephen King, you know what you're getting.
And the wonderful Holly Gibney from the Mr Mercedes trilogy shows up and plays a major part, so there's that.
Oh, and I was blown away by the coach's death - didn't see that coming at all.
When a boy is raped with a tree branch and savagely murdered, fingerprints, witnesses and DNA point to the much-loved local kids' baseball coach, and he is very publically arrested. It turns out that he has a solid alibi. Then tragedy strikes.
Stephen King sets up a fabulous crime mystery before the book steps away from the crime mystery into more familiar King territory. I enjoyed it nonetheless: the characters, dialogue and texture are as rich as usual, and it is exciting and full of incident. I was a little disappointed that it didn't solve its own conundrum by the rules it appeared to have set out under - truth be told, I would have loved it to have been a straightforward crime thriller without a supernatural element, no matter how well done - but it's Stephen King, you know what you're getting.
And the wonderful Holly Gibney from the Mr Mercedes trilogy shows up and plays a major part, so there's that.
Oh, and I was blown away by the coach's death - didn't see that coming at all.