Bag of Bones - Softcover

King, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1444720686 ISBN 13: 9781444720686

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 2007

Synopsis

When Mike Noonan's wife dies unexpectedly, the bestselling author suffers from writer's block. Until he is drawn to his summer home, the beautiful lakeside retreat called Sara Laughs.

Here Mike finds the once familiar town in the tyrannical grip of millionaire Max Devore. Devore is hell-bent on getting custody of his deceased son's daughter and is twisting the fabric of the community to this purpose.

Three year old Kyra and her young mother turn to Mike for help. And Mike finds them increasingly irresistible.

But there are other more sinister forces at Sara Laughs - and Kyra can feel them too....

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:

A writer of excellence . . . King is one of the most fertile storytellers of the modern novel. (The Sunday Times)

Accomplished . . . unputdownable . . . his mesmerising best. (Observer)

Splendid entertainment . . . Stephen King is one of those natural storytellers . . . getting hooked is easy. (Express)

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

A writer of excellence . . . King is one of the most fertile storytellers of the modern novel (Sunday Times)

Accomplished . . . unputdownable . . . his mesmerising best (Observer)

Splendid entertainment . . . Stephen King is one of those natural storytellers . . . getting hooked is easy (Express)

An incredibly gifted writer, whose writing is so fluid you often forget that you're reading (Guardian)

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1444720686
• ISBN 13: 9781444720686
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 672