The first half of The Outsider, the latest big novel by
Stephen King, seemingly returns to detective thriller trilogy he wrote, Mr.
Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watch. But while it is a crime story –taking
a page from every forensic novel and TV series of last few decades- there is
more to this story than a horrific murder of a child.
“Ralph Anderson, a detective in Flint City, Okla., orders
the arrest of a popular local English teacher and Little League coach, Terry
Maitland, at a baseball game packed with cheering families. Anderson has clear
evidence that Maitland raped and mutilated a child. The crime is awful but the
proximity — the sense of trust that Maitland enjoyed — is what truly horrifies
the detective. So the officers arrest the coach in front of everyone,
announcing the charges loudly. As he’s led away, Maitland insists, just as
loudly, that he’s innocent. Maitland has a foolproof alibi, though, with
footage to prove that he was in another city when the crime was committed. But sadly,
that doesn't save him. So from a miscalculated arraignment circus, and
importantly, the video tape and reliable witnesses who put Terry somewhere
else, Ralph Anderson begins to have doubts. Rather reluctantly, and after an associate
of Terry’s lawyer Howie Gold contacts Holly Gibney to help clear Maitland’s
name, does it become clear that something supernatural is happening in Flint
City. But Anderson still has problems with this, but with the guilt eating at
him that maybe Terry Maitland was innocent, Ralph begins a dark path towards
something that has now taken up residence in a small Texas town.”
Again, King creates a reliable, well paced physiological/horror
thriller. The fact that he sets it up in Oklahoma and Texas, and not his
beloved state of Maine, is intriguing in many ways. There is a metaphor here,
something that King notes in his Authors Note: “Oklahoma is a wonderful state,
and I met wonderful people there. Some of those wonderful people will say I got
a lot wrong, and I probably did; you have to be in place for years before you
get the flavor right.” Everyone, including whatever the thing is that’s killing
kids (a shape-shifter that many of the writers Constant Readers will see as a
variation on monster in IT. King does not go into any detail about what this monster is, where it comes from, why it exists, but either he didn't feel the need to or we're bound to run into this monster in a novel yet to be written), becomes an outsider during the run of the book;
each understanding that while we may all be connected, share similar thoughts
and ideas, when we go somewhere, local customs and stories do change. But still,
at its core, The Outsider is about understanding the mystery of the universe
and how all of try to make it make sense. It takes Anderson a long time to
accept the idea that what they’re dealing with is something beyond science.
Also the welcome return of Holly from that previous trilogy, who tries to convince
the cop that there can be something darker lurking outside Ralph’s black and
white perception that is wonderfully handled.
This is what Stephen King has always excelled at, and
makes him a wonderful story teller.
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