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A review by books_baking_brews
The Outsider by Stephen King
4.0
I should preface this by saying The Outsider is my first Stephen King novel! Also, if you are like me and have not read the Bill Hodges trilogy (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watch) read those books first, as this book contains spoilers! Now that that’s out of the way.
This book opens with the brutal murder and attack of a boy in Flint City, with all the forensic and eye witness evidence pointing directly at the city’s little league coach. The only problem is as soon as they arrest Terry Maitland for the murder things begin to unravel, as new evidence makes it clear that Coach T was in a completely different city at the time of the boy’s murder. But, how is that possible?! Dun. Dun. Dun. This book gripped me right away, the first 100 pages made me so anxious about which way Coach T.’s arrest would go and for the first 300 pages or so I did not want to put it down. It got a bit slower in the last portion, but I found it still worth the read. I am now wondering if there will be more to this story in the future because I would be happy to see another story featuring Ralph (and Ralph’s wife), Yune, and Holly again. There are a couple of twists and turns in this one, and fair warning the subject matter is a bit graphic, but if you like a whodunit with a bit of supernatural thrown in then this is for you! And despite the spoilers, I will still probably go back and read the Hodges trilogy because Bill sounds like a fantastic protagonist.
This book opens with the brutal murder and attack of a boy in Flint City, with all the forensic and eye witness evidence pointing directly at the city’s little league coach. The only problem is as soon as they arrest Terry Maitland for the murder things begin to unravel, as new evidence makes it clear that Coach T was in a completely different city at the time of the boy’s murder. But, how is that possible?! Dun. Dun. Dun. This book gripped me right away, the first 100 pages made me so anxious about which way Coach T.’s arrest would go and for the first 300 pages or so I did not want to put it down. It got a bit slower in the last portion, but I found it still worth the read. I am now wondering if there will be more to this story in the future because I would be happy to see another story featuring Ralph (and Ralph’s wife), Yune, and Holly again. There are a couple of twists and turns in this one, and fair warning the subject matter is a bit graphic, but if you like a whodunit with a bit of supernatural thrown in then this is for you! And despite the spoilers, I will still probably go back and read the Hodges trilogy because Bill sounds like a fantastic protagonist.