But that's just the beginning of the
mystery. Because the more they learn about the man and the baffling
circumstances of his death, the less they understand. Was it an
impossible crime? Or something stranger still...?
No one but Stephen King could tell this story about the darkness at the heart of the unknown and our compulsion to investigate the unexplained. With echoes of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon and the work of Graham Greene, one of the world's great storytellers presents a surprising tale that explores the nature of mystery itself... |
“Sometimes loving eyes don't see what they don't want to see.”
I was quite excited to read this one. I remember years ago when this one was released. Hard Case Crime was coming to Dorchester, reviving some of the older dime and penny novels of the older day. Apparently a fan, King wanted to write a story for the new line. The Colorado Kid is his offering.
Really it turns out to be disappointing, though - I dislike when King tells a story completely through dialogue. He did so here, absolutely through speech and conversation. No internal monologue, no descriptive phrases through events, nothing other than talk, talk, talk. This helps take me out of the story, distancing me from it.
Plot wise it doesn't seem indicative of an actual novel. It's a group of men telling a female co-worker a story that was never solved, a mystery without an ending. Through research and tales they speak of everything that happened to them a long time ago when they were investigating. There is no real beginning or ending to this tale. It's nice to have a resolution or some kind of ending to a mystery. Instead the book is a study of "not knowing" and that investigation urge that keeps someone exploring, hunting, craving resolution as they study mysteries.
I do like the irony that he started the Hard Crime imprint by writing a book that talks about the importance of a story itself, whether it has a concrete ending or not. That it's not really about the ending, or the beginning, but the story itself which holds the power.
It's also the book after King wrapped up his massive, mega, epic Darktower series. Perhaps the powerful story leading up to an ending, reaching the Dark Tower, spurred on his thinking of writing a book without an ending for this one, making it a point that the journey is what counts.
Certainly not King's best offering, but it's not horrible. There were things that irked me and my mind roamed more times than I'd like. I had no idea this was the inspiration for the tv show, Haven, until reading reviews on it. Honestly haven't even heard of the show "Haven"!
If you do read it, do read the afterword, it makes many important points which add much flavor to the book.
Book Quotes:
“For a woman a man will do many things that he'd turn his back on in an instant when alone; things he'd back away from, nine times out of ten, even when drunk adn with a bunch of his friends egging him on.”
“Here I am, ninety years old and ready for the cooling board, using a brand new Macintosh computer, and there you sit, twenty-two and gorgeous, fresh as a new peach, yet scrawling on a yellow legal pad like an old maid in a Victorian romance.”
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