This book begins with the very public arrest of a Terry Maitland, a little league coach, who no doubtedly committed a violent and heinous crime against a child in Flint City. All evidence points to him: eyewitnesses, video, fingerprints, and DNA. The police don’t even do much digging in the beginning because the eyewitnesses and video alone have convinced them they need to move fast.

Ralph Anderson, a detective and the father of a child once on Terry Maitland’s little league team, is so disturbed by the crime itself and that he trusted this man, he agrees to publicly humiliate and arrest him in front of 1500 people in the middle of a big end of season game.

Ahhh, but there’s more to the story. Ralph picks up on some very minuscule oddities in the eyewitness testimonies. Nothing that’d convince anyone Terry was innocent, but it makes him question himself occasionally. These eat at him more as other evidence is found that Terry was actually out of town in Cap City with 3 other teachers at a conference, caught on video, at the time of kidnapping and murder... also with fingerprints to prove he was there.

How could Terry Maitland be in two places at once?

What follows is a tragedy and an incredible investigation to find out how this could be. A character from Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes Trilogy, Holly Gibney, makes another debut in The Outsider to help solve the crime of the century to the investigators and families involved and finds something beyond imaginable.

People who like mysteries, cop stories, supernatural thrillers, and drama. This book has it all. It keeps you on the edge of your seat and curious throughout. You’ll enjoy linking clues yourself and putting pieces together to try and figure out the hows and whys.

I listened to it through audible and Will Patton is an amazing reader. He does everyone in a different voice and really that made the experience more fulfilling. But as a story, in general, I loved how we got into the minds of all the characters and saw how they were thinking, doubting, trying to put pieces together and coming to grips with the possibilities. You felt invested in these characters’ lives whether they did good things or not so good things. Your heart broke when theirs did and you rejoiced when they did too. Great storyline and great execution.

The only thing I didn’t like was how easy it was in the end to defeat the antagonist. It seemed way too simple considering the history of the character. I mean, I could understand WHY it turned out this way due to the extenuating circumstances but I didn’t derive as much pleasure from the “final battle” as I’d hoped.

As a writer myself, it made me want to go build better character sheets and backgrounds to all of my characters I’m creating for my current novel. The depths and details taken into each important character made me care so much about them down to their habits. It really made me realize how important the smaller details are in great storytelling.

I’m weird and thrillers/horror make me feel, well, thrilled with the possibilities explored. I love the idea of the antagonist and I don’t want to give things away but delving into the mind of the antagonist a bit is quite exciting to learn what makes them tick. It’s like being obsessed with learning about serial killers and what led them to their behaviors. I read books because possibilities thrill me and when you come across new ideas explored it’s very exciting.

Well, Stephen King is my favorite author. I love how he builds worlds and characters and interconnects his books to expand on characters even more. It makes them feel more real especially when you are a “Constant Reader” as he calls one like me. It’s like exploring an entire universe when you read ALL of his books because so many are interconnected even in the smallest of ways. Sometimes just one sentence, or a number, or the name of a band. It makes them all more 3D and fantastic. King has a way with words whether he’s writing horror, mystery, scifi, or westerns. People forget he did Shawshank Redemption, Running Man, and The Green Mile and assume all he can write is horror books, which people automatically assume is always gory. King just brings life to and possibility to everything he writes and that makes me admire him.

I’ve never been one into cop stories. But this is a good one. Most of it is told from a detective’s point of view and analytical mind and usually, that’s so boring to me but this wasn’t. Cross it with it being a thrilling psychological supernatural “horror” with mystery and detective work and you have a book chock full of great reading.

There’s no reason I wouldn’t recommend the book. I’ve seen people complain that it’s “too political” but that’s bull. Politics only come in every once in a blue moon and it’s character opinion. People say that’s King pushing his own opinion, but some of it wasn’t even King’s opinion. People have differing political viewpoints, just because they come up in literally just a couple of sentences in a full book doesn’t mean anyone has an agenda. Characters are naturally going to have political opinions and just because they may or may not match your own doesn’t mean the author is a jerk.

This was an awesome read, especially on audible. Will Patton, as always, does an amazing job of bringing the book and characters to life. I highly recommend this book to not only read, but to listen to for the pure pleasure of the experience.

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Created Feb 25, 2020 at 10:56pm • Submit your own review...