He's out there

Stephen King's The Outsider was an involving, immersive, and very entertaining reading experience.  It had elements and plot devices we've seen before from Mr. King, but done in new ways.  For example, this one involves a group of friends and allies taking on something very evil.  We've seen this in The Stand, It, and several other King titles.  What is different here is that the group of friends and allies don't start out that way.  We meet them as adversaries, even enemies, on opposite sides of a gruesome murder case making its way through the criminal justice system.  As the story progresses, they slowly start working together because, well... I should let you discover that for yourselves.

I will say that The Outsider is about, among other things, the dangers of being close minded, of  being too secure in one's beliefs about something, especially something that you see on the news (but also about things you may think you have reliable first-hand knowledge about).  It's also about the dangers of mob rule. Before anything really Stephen King-ish happens in the book, some very bad things happen of the non-horror novel variety, all because a variety of people just grab some "facts" and run with it.

Like Stephen King's recent Bill Hodges trilogy (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watch), this novel uses the trappings of a crime thriller before moving into the kinds of things you normally expect from Mr. King.  In fact, The Outsider uses a major character from that earlier trilogy as a member of the team here, which results in much discussion of the events of Mr. Mercedes and its two sequels.  For that reason you may want to read those earlier (and also very good) novels before reading The Outsider.

But, yeah, if you like Mr. King, this one won't disappoint you.  The Outsider is a solid crime thriller and horror novel that will make you look for extra time each day to just read a little more.

The Outsider is available in hardback, Kindle, and unabridged audio editions. I quite enjoyed reading it on my Kindle Paperwhite.

Checking in... finally

It's been a while, but here I am.  No promises yet, but over the next few days I'm going to try to get this blog back on its feet.  I'll do this with a combination of posts telling you a little bit about why I've been gone and posts doing what this blog is supposed to do: telling you about interesting things I've read and seen (things you might enjoy, too). Fingers crossed, but there might be a little life left in this blog yet.

Before I get to the boring personal stuff, though, here's a quick book tip.  I just finished reading John Sandford's Phantom Prey, which was another terrific entry in the author's long-running police thriller series.  This time series lead Lucas Davenport is trying to solve a handful of probably-related murders taking place in the goth community.

This entry actually has a kind of supernatural vibe, because (without telling you too much) one of the characters thinks she has a ghostly presence in her life, one that is pressing her to commit some extreme acts. Is there really a dark spirit hovering around this woman, or is she simply in need of some serious help?  In the context of this terrific mystery/chase thriller (there's lots of chasing around town after clues and crooks in this one), does it really matter?

The book also has the usual Sandford richness.  In addition to the main plotline, there are also all kinds of other things (both professional and personal) going on with Lucas and his colleagues.  A stakeout subplot could have actually carried its own book, but here acts as a bit of variety and diversion from the main story.

Phantom Prey is somewhere slightly past the midpoint of this (so far) twenty-some book series.  I tend to read a Prey book about once or twice a year, not wanting to be greedy and get caught up too quickly.