''A dazzlingly shapeshifting novel . . . equally good at action scenes and in-depth psychology'' The Sunday Times ''A thriller with a surprisingly heartfelt and redemptive ending, Billy Summers is a compelling and engrossing read'' Sunday Express From legendary storyteller and No. 1 bestseller Stephen King, whose ''restless imagination is a power that cannot be contained'' ( The New York Times Book Review ), comes a thrilling new novel about a good guy in a bad job. Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He''s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he''ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong? How about everything. This spectacular can''t-put-it-down novel is part war story, part love letter to small town America and the people who live there, and it features one of the most compelling and surprising duos in King fiction, who set out to avenge the crimes of an extraordinarily evil man. It''s about love, luck, fate, and a complex hero with one last shot at redemption. You won''t put this story down, and you won''t forget Billy.
Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King''s most compelling and ingeniously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to solve the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a Midwestern town.
Stephen King''s HOLLY marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly''s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr Mercedes to Bill Hodges''s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King''s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.
When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl''s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.
Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harbouring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie''s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.
Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmanoeuvre the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.
''I could never let Holly Gibney go. She was supposed to be a walk-on character in Mr Mercedes and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart. Holly is all her.'' STEPHEN KING
A riveting, high-stakes political story like UNDER THE DOME, a love story like BAG OF BONES, a 1950s community like IT, Stephen King's incredibly ambitious, heartstoppingly dramatic time travel novel, 22/11/63 is a WHAT IF? novel like no one's ever read before - a one thousand page tour de force.
A cat-and-mouse suspense thriller featuring a retired homicide detective who's haunted by the few cases he left open, and by one in particular - the pre-dawn slaughter of eight people among hundreds gathered in line for the opening of a jobs fair when the economy was guttering out. Without warning, a lone driver ploughed through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes. The plot is kicked into gear when Bill Hodges receives a letter in the mail, from a man claiming to be the perpetrator. He taunts Hodges with the notion that he will strike again.
Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing that from happening.
Brady Hartsfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. And he's preparing to kill again.
Only Hodges, with a couple of misfit friends, can apprehend the killer in this high-stakes race against time. Because Brady's next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim hundreds, even thousands.
@2@A spectacularly dark and electrifying novel about addiction, religion, music and what might exist on the other side of life.@3@@2@In a small New England town, in the early 60s, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister, Charles Jacobs. Soon they forge a deep bond, based on their fascination with simple experiments in electricity.@3@@2@Decades later, Jamie is living a nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll. Now an addict, he sees Jacobs again - a showman on stage, creating dazzling 'portraits in lightning' - and their meeting has profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil's devising, and Jamie discovers that @18@revival@19@ has many meanings.@3@@2@This rich and disturbing novel spans five decades on its way to the most terrifying conclusion Stephen King has ever written. It's a masterpiece from King, in the great American tradition of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe.@3@
One of the true classics of horror fiction, THE SHINING is regarded as one of Stephen King's masterpieces. Danny is only five years old, but in the words of old Mr Hallorann he is a 'shiner', aglow with psychic voltage. When his father becomes caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, Danny's visions grow out of control. As winter closes in and blizzards cut them off, the hotel seems to develop a life of its own. It is meant to be empty. So who is the lady in Room 217 and who are the masked guests going up and down in the elevator? And why do the hedges shaped like animals seem so alive? Somewhere, somehow, there is an evil force in the hotel - and that, too, is beginning to shine . . .
''You like it darker? Fine, so do I'', writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life - both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel ''the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind'', and in You Like it Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.
''Two Talented Bastids'' explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In ''Danny Coughlin''s Bad Dream'', a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny''s most catastrophically. In ''Rattlesnakes'', a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance - with major strings attached. In ''The Dreamers'', a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. ''The Answer Man'' asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.
King''s ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace remains unsurpassed. Each of these stories holds its own thrills, joys, and mysteries; each feels iconic. You like it darker? You got it.
''As classic as King''s novels are, his shorter fiction has been just as gripping over the years'' - USA Today ''One of the great storytellers of our time'' - Guardian
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE - Stephen King's terrifying classic. 'They float ... and when you're down here with me, you'll float, too.' Derry, Maine is just an ordinary town: familiar, well-ordered for the most part, a good place to live. It is a group of children who see - and feel - what makes Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurks, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one's deepest dread. Sometimes is appears as an evil clown named Pennywise and sometimes IT reaches up, seizing, tearing, killing . . . Time passes and the children grow up, move away and forget. Until they are called back, once more to confront IT as IT stirs and coils in the sullen depths of their memories, emerging again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality.
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE - Stephen King's terrifying classic. 'They float ... and when you're down here with me, you'll float, too.' Derry, Maine is just an ordinary town: familiar, well-ordered for the most part, a good place to live. It is a group of children who see - and feel - what makes Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurks, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one's deepest dread. Sometimes is appears as an evil clown named Pennywise and sometimes IT reaches up, seizing, tearing, killing . . . Time passes and the children grow up, move away and forget. Until they are called back, once more to confront IT as IT stirs and coils in the sullen depths of their memories, emerging again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality.
@2@A riveting crime thriller about a reader whose obsession with a reclusive writer goes too far, featuring the same trio of unlikely and winning heroes King introduced in @18@MR MERCEDES@19@.@3@@2@@20@1978: @21@@3@@2@Morris Bellamy is a reader so obsessed by America's iconic author John Rothstein that he is prepared to kill for a trove of notebooks containing at least one more unpublished novel. @3@@2@@20@2009:@21@ @3@@2@Pete Saubers, a boy whose father was brutally injured by a stolen Mercedes, discovers a buried trunk containing cash and Rothstein's notebooks.@3@@2@@20@2014:@21@ @3@@2@After thirty-five years in prison, Morris is up for parole. And he's hell-bent on recovering his treasure.@3@@2@Now it's up to retired detective Bill Hodges - running an investigative company called 'Finders Keepers' - to rescue Pete from an ever-more deranged and vengeful Morris...@3@@2@Not since @18@Misery @19@has King written with such visceral power about a reader with such a dangerous obsession.@18@Finders Keepers@19@ is spectacular suspense, and it is King writing about how literature shapes a life for good, for bad, for ever.@3@
King knows what he is doing, and has done for a longtime. His pacing, ear for dialogue and pure storytelling ability are all on display in The Institute
A collection of four uniquely wonderful long stories, including a stand-alone sequel to the No. 1 bestseller THE OUTSIDER. News people have a saying: ''If it bleeds, it leads''. And a bomb at Albert Macready Middle School is guaranteed to lead any bulletin. Holly Gibney of the Finders Keepers detective agency is working on the case of a missing dog - and on her own need to be more assertive - when she sees the footage on TV. But when she tunes in again, to the late-night report, she realises something is not quite right about the correspondent who was first on the scene. So begins ''If It Bleeds'', a stand-alone sequel to the No. 1 bestselling THE OUTSIDER featuring the incomparable Holly on her first solo case - and also the riveting title story in Stephen King''s brilliant new collection. Dancing alongside are three more wonderful long stories from this ''formidably versatile author'' ( The Sunday Times) - '' Mr Harrigan''s Phone'', ''The Life of Chuck'' and ''Rat''. All four display the richness of King''s storytelling with grace, humour, horror and breathtaking suspense. A fascinating Author''s Note gives us a wonderful insight into the origin of each story and the writer''s unparalleled imagination.
The cell rings twice, and then his old partner in his ear... 'I'm at the scene of what appears to be a murder-suicide. I'd like you to come and take a look. Bring your sidekick with you, if she's available...' Retired Detective Bill Hodges now runs a two-person firm called Finders Keepers with his partner Holly Gibney. They met in the wake of the 'Mercedes Massacre' when a queue of people was run down by the diabolical killer Brady Hartsfield. Brady is now confined to Room 217 of the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, in an unresponsive state. But all is not what it seems: the evidence suggests that Brady is somehow awake, and in possession of deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room. When Bill and Holly are called to a suicide scene with ties to the Mercedes Massacre, they find themselves pulled into their most dangerous case yet, one that will put their lives at risk, as well as those of Bill's heroic young friend Jerome Robinson and his teenage sister, Barbara. Brady Hartsfield is back, and planning revenge not just on Hodges and his friends, but on an entire city. The clock is ticking in unexpected ways ... Both a stand-alone novel of heart-pounding suspense and a sublimely terrifying final episode in the Hodges trilogy, End of Watch takes the series into a powerful new dimension. The extract above is abridged from End of Watch.
When an eleven-year-old boy is found murdered in a town park, reliable eyewitnesses undeniably point to the town's popular Little League coach, Terry Maitland, as the culprit. DNA evidence and fingerprints confirm the crime was committed by this well-loved family man. Horrified by the brutal killing, Detective Ralph Anderson, whose own son was once coached by Maitland, orders the suspect to be arrested in a public spectacle. But Maitland has an alibi. And further research confirms he was indeed out of town that day. As Anderson and the District Attorney trace the clues, the investigation expands from Ohio to Texas. And as horrifying answers begin to emerge, so King's propulsive story of almost unbearable suspense kicks into high gear. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy but there is one rock-hard fact, as unassailable as gravity: a man cannot be in two places at the same time. Can he?
When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to ''kill thirteen innocents and one guilty'' in ''an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man'', Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realises that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help.
Meanwhile, controversial and outspoken women''s rights activist Kate McKay is embarking on a multi-state lecture tour, drawing packed venues of both fans and detractors. Someone who vehemently opposes Kate''s message of female empowerment is targeting her and disrupting her events. At first, no one is hurt, but the stalker is growing bolder, and Holly is hired to be Kate''s bodyguard - a challenging task with a headstrong employer and a determined adversary driven by wrath and his belief in his own righteousness.
Featuring a riveting cast of characters both old and new, including world-famous gospel singer Sista Bessie and an unforgettable villain addicted to murder, these twinned narratives converge in a chilling and spectacular conclusion - a feat of storytelling only Stephen King could pull off.
Thrilling, wildly fun and outrageously engrossing, Never Flinch is one of King''s richest and most propulsive novels.
