A young boy is found violated and viciously murdered in a small town in the American heartland. Police inspector Ralph Anderson soon finds his prime suspect: baseball trainer Terry Maitland has been seen by multiple witnesses, his clothes covered in blood. His fingerprints are all over the place. Ralph, sure he has the right man, goes in to arrest Terry in front of the entire town. The only problem is that Terry seems to have an iron-clad alibi. So why was he in two places at the same time?
This is a bit of a weird book. The first half is more police procedural than anything else, as Ralph tries and fails to find a way for Terry to have been in two places at once. Then, inexplicable details come up, and the novel kicks gear as King hits familiar territory and the story focuses on supernatural monsters.
I’m of two minds on this one. On the one hand, I liked the book. There is a genuine sense of dread that hangs over the the heads of the Maitland family and over Ralph, as he slowly comes to the conclusion that his friend may not be as guilty as he appears. The characters are mostly solid; King makes the leads likeable if imperfect, and the minor characters are entertainingly colourful without being grating. Ralph’s devoted wife comes a little close to being manic pixie Hausfrau material, but that’s a minor quibble.
On the other hand, the divide in storytelling in the novel makes for an odd read. For me, it started stronger than it ended, and the main villain didn’t actually scare or even interest me all that much, so the finale felt rather anticlimactic. It also ties into the Mr Mercedes series quite heavily, which can be a little annoying. I’m also not entirely sure how I feel about the character Holly; she’s good, but she doesn’t really reach her full potential here; it feels like King writes her how he needs her to be, rather than who she is. I liked the eponymous novel that focused on her better because she seemed more whole as a character.
As a whole, this was a fairly undemanding read, but not my favourite King novel.