Fiction Review: The Outsider

The RIP XIV Challenge gave me the extra incentive I needed to finally read The Outsider by Stephen King, a novel I've been hearing great things about (including from my husband) since its release last year. I haven't read much from King recently, though I have been a fan since I was a teen, when my mom, dad, and I would read each new release and pass it around the family! I grew up with his novels (and their movie adaptations). When my dad died of melanoma four years ago, my husband and I inherited his Stephen King collection, which we love because it reminds us of our joint love of reading and all the great conversations we had with my dad about books. I wish he had had the chance to read this one, filled with King's trademark suspense, intense plot, and battle of good versus evil, because he would have loved it!

At the beginning, The Outsider sounds like any action-packed mystery/thriller, with a detective, Ralph Anderson, in a small town investigating a heinous sexual assault and murder of a small child. The forensic evidence and eyewitness accounts quickly point Ralph and the town's over-zealous DA, Bill Samuels, to a single perpetrator. Hard as it is to believe, the evidence is overwhelming that well-loved baseball coach Terry Maitland committed this horrific crime. Bill pushes for a quick arrest, and Ralph, thinking of all the time Coach Terry spent with Ralph's own son, agrees. Terry is arrested in front of the whole town during an important baseball game, humiliating him and his wife and two daughters. Terry continues to proclaim his innocence, though, even when presented with the evidence against him, and Ralph begins to think they acted too quickly. Terry's alibi turns out to be rock solid...but so is the evidence against him at the crime scene. How is this possible? Now, the story takes a turn into classic Stephen King territory, where the impossible is somehow true, and forces of evil you could never imagine in your wildest dreams must be considered, against all logic. The team brings in Holly Gibney, an investigator who was featured in King's Mr. Mercedes trilogy (which I now want to read), to help with the case, as events take all sorts of unexpected turns.

As with every King novel ever, The Outsider is intensely compelling, as in "I'll just read one more chapter before I turn out the light..." I stayed up way past my bedtime turning the pages and wanting to know what happens next. King always writes engrossing stories, but it's not just the unique and twisty plots that pull me in. I love the way he develops characters, creating in-depth personalities that you want to spend time with. His characters are so fully fleshed out that they seem like real people. In fact, I enjoyed getting to know Holly Gibney so much in this novel that I now want to go back and read the other novels in which she appears. King's novels aren't just about suspense and scares, either. I love the way he delves into human nature and explores various thought-provoking topics, here including the possibility of wrongful accusation, the effects on family members when someone is accused of a crime, and the intersection of rational thought and impossibility. As with every King novel I have ever read, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute reading this book and plowed through it in record time, not wanting to set it down even to sleep!

560 words, Scribner

NOTE: Though I often encourage people to give King a try, pointing out that not all of his books are horror, this one is pretty gruesome and graphic in some scenes and definitely veers into the horror realm. If that's not your thing, I highly recommend 11/22/63, thought-provoking historical fiction with a touch of time travel and one of my favorite novels, or some of his short stories, like The Body and Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, both of which were made into wonderful movies (Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption). My favorites of his classic fantasy/horror novels include The Stand and The Dark Half.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Listen to a sample of the audio book from the start of the novel, as Ralph is interviewing witnesses. I read this one in print, but it sounds great on audio!
 

You can purchase The Outsider from an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:

Or you can order The Outsider from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.