The Outsider - Stephen King

[goodreads]

Title: The Outsider (Finder's Keepers #4)
Author: Stephen King
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 577
Date read: August, 2018

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?


A stand-alone novel in the "Finder's Keepers" universe. You can read it without having read the Bill Hodges trilogy, but it will spoil both the first and the last one.

Every bit as good as I've come to expect Stephen King's newer novels to be. There was definitely an element (understatement of the year!) of the supernatural in this one as well, but as the precedence for that had already been set in the last Bill Hodges book, I was prepared and didn't mind as much as I had there. I liked Ralph Anderson (despite his bad decisions in the beginning) and was really pleased to see Holly again!

It was spooky, captivating and thrilling. Stephen King didn't pull any punches, and killed off some people I wish he hadn't, but as a whole the story really worked for me. And I'm really pleased that he gave the book a proper ending, rather than leaving it open like he would have in his younger days.