Rick S. reviewed on 7/9/2006 + 15 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

I quit reading Stephen King in the 1980s after being dissatisfied with his work for a number of reasons, and this is the first King novel I've read in twenty years. It wasn't worth the wait. King goes on and on showing us how he can imitate localized diction and colloquialisms, trying to cleverly infuse his characters with local color as if to say, See, I can create interesting and colorful characters too, just as a writer such as Dickens did. Well, he spends so much time trying to imitate characters a la Murder She Wrote (which is referred to frequently), that one soon gets the sense that the novel is an exercise in character development -- and a weak one at that. If you like crime fiction and mysteries, stay far away from this. I can only think that the editors were so excited to get a writer of King's renown involved that he was given carte blanche to write a novel with no closure and one that is supremely unsatisfying.

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