Bag of Bones - Softcover

King, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340718730 ISBN 13: 9780340718735

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 1998

Synopsis

When Mike Noonan's wife dies, he is drawn to their summer home in the town of Sara Laughs. He finds the town in the grip of millionaire Max Devore, who is hell-bent on getting custody of his deceased son's child. Kyra and her mother turn to Mike for help, but there are sinister forces in their way.

About this title

Review

Bag of Bones is partly inspired by Daphne du Maurier's classic Rebecca, but there's more than homage in this novel of horror and romance. Like du Maurier's Manderley, King's scary old place (on the shore of Maine's remote Dark Score Lake) is haunted by the late lady of the manor. There are many gory ghosts afoot though: men, women, and wailing kids. The hero, a thriller novelist, stirs up hell's angry shades while investigating his wife's death. It turns out she either had a dark secret herself or was onto some dread scandal lurking in Dark Score Lake. As in King's previous book, Wizard and Glass, the fabric of reality is thin, and nosy narrators are in peril of plunging right out of this world and into a rather hostile otherworld.

Bag of Bones is a writer-haunted book, too. The spirits of Herman Melville and Ray Bradbury are deeply felt, and so are the tale's two romances (the hero muses on his marriage and falls for a young single mum with a marvellous psychic daughter). There is also good-humoured satire of the real bestseller book world--the hero complains that "the publicity process is like going to a sushi bar where you're the sushi." In its deep concerns with love, sprawling families, the writer's life, endangered children and good old-fashioned storytelling, the book resembles a John Irving novel. It is also absolutely classic Stephen King, packed with nifty turns of phrase, irreverent wit and lurid ghouls who grab you from beneath the bed while you cower under the covers. --Tim Appelo

Review

Accomplished...unputdownable...his mesmerising best (Robert McCrum, Observer)

BAG OF BONES
'A spooky gothic romance from a writer brave enough to build the suspense over time. As a storyteller King is unbeatable' - Mirror

'the novel's strengths - especially the vivid, claustrophobic dream scenes, and the stormy climax - should guarantee its success' - Time Out

Splendid entertainment (Frances Fyfield, Express)

Will make perfect holiday reading (Daily Mail)

'convincing when dealing with the supernatural world; the fringe magnets that spell clues of their own accord or the bell around the next of the moose over the fireplace that rings in answer to Mike's thoughts. These are the creepy touches that have sent a million shivers down as many spines' - Independent on Sunday

'the characters are well drawn...the process of writing is explored well, as are the relationships between all the protagonist's. There are some nice action sequences and an effective climax to be enjoyed - Starburst

An incredibly gifted writer...so fluid that you often forget that you're reading (Guardian)

'Accomplished demonstration of unputdownable hocus-pocus by the master of modern horror is King performing at something close to his mesmerising best' - Robert McCrum, Observer

'The past bubbles horribly into the present in a classic revenge lot. It chills as it creaks as it reads' Mail on Sunday

'The tale is gripping, the bad guys suitably sinister, and the sense of place assuredly certain. The climax is horrific in every sense and no King fan will walk away unsatisfied' - The Times

'Contains the best patches of writing since The Shining' - Guardian

'An incredibly gifted writer, whose writing, like Truman Capote's, is so fluid that you often forget that you're reading. Which is why he belongs in the "serious" fiction section' - Guardian

'Most of us do not think of Stephen King as a writer of literary books, and yet, when you strip away some of the Grand Guignol horror, his latest novel, Bag of Bones, is one, in a sense, because it is about the process of writing' - Daily Telegraph
Abridge: 'Most of us do not think of Stephen King as a writer of literary books, and yet...his latest novel, Bag of Bones, is one' - Daily Telegraph

'Confident, seamlessly accomplished' - Jonathan Keates, Observer

'Fans of King will find themselves on pleasingly familiar ground here; newcomers (if there are still any left) will find bag of Bones as good a place to start as any. No other writer embraces the conventions of the gothic horror novel with King's skill, conviction or sense of unbridled fun. While his work remains polished by moody atmospherics and a cunning intelligence, it is also shot through with a slacker mentality that keeps it from becoming melodramatic or overall portentous. etc. Sunday Times

'Skilful plot-wielder that he is, King fixes it so that the back story of the haunting relates to everything else...Bag of Bones does what it does impressively' - Independent

'a sophisticated, and hard-working literary craftsman, with a deep understanding of his genre...Behind the studied insouciance of his approach to the macabre, there is a well-focused literary sensibility. He is not only a much better writer than he's willing to admit but his work anatomises, with folksy charm, the social fabric of small-town American life. It also plumbs, with unnerving accuracy, the hopes and fears of an entire nation, as it slouches towards the millennium' - Observer, McCrum on Stephen King

'Will make perfect holiday reading' - Daily Mail

'Stephen King's latest tale of ghostly possession converts Frances Fyfield into a true fan...I discovered splendid entertainment...Stephen King is one of those natural storytellers who just bowls along with a casual crack of the whip...he knows how to vary the pace and stress the detail. Getting hooked is easy peasy...full of colour, terror and horrifying exhaustion' - Frances Fyfield, Express

'The characters are well drawn are totally believable...exciting and gripping'
Shivers

'One of his best nerve-tinglers since, well, maybe since The Shining...heavy with shades of Rebecca...and so a dark and sinister psychological terror begins'
Peterborough Evening Telegraph

'King at his

'the novel's strengths - especially the vivid, claustrophobic dream scenes, an

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0340718730
• ISBN 13: 9780340718735
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 516