A town is divided over a local women's clinic. Nobody has a problem with the health programs it runs, or the rape counselling it offers, but there is a huge divide over the abortions it offers.

Emotions run high on both sides of the argument, and it doesn't take long for the clinic and its supporters to face protests and violent attacks.

Ralph Roberts has insomnia. And not just your run-of-the-mill losing a few hours sleep case of insomnia. Ralph is awake almost as soon as his head hits the pillow.

Ralph eventually starts seeing things, and realises that there is far more going on in town. He starts seeing auras and "little bald doctors". Friend and neighbour Lois Chasse, tells Ralph that she is seeing the same things as him.

The little bald doctors are agents of what is called "long-time" business. They are somewhat akin to angels and demons, and their job is to determine when people will die. There are three of them, but one has gone rogue and is responsible for much of the town's problems.

A high level agent of evil is manipulating events, and in particular a man called Ed Deepneau, to target one individual. But it's not the individual everyone thinks it is.

Can Ralph and Lois save the day, helped only by two little bald doctors?

Once it got going, the story is enjoyable and engaging. The plot is interesting, and everything is tied together well.

The slow opening.

Stephen King is well-known for laying foundations and providing detailed openings to his novels, but this book doesn't really start until page 200.

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King) and the Bill Hodges trilogy, End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and an AT&T Audience Network original television series). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower and It are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

Despite its very slow and protracted beginning, it is actually a really good book.

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Created May 30, 2019 at 11:33am • Submit your own review...