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.
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