REVIEW: ‘Later’ by Stephen King, out now from Hard Case Crime
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Stephen King spins a somewhat shallow, but still easy to enjoy tale in his new book, Later, out now from Hard Case Crime. This is the third time the horror maestro has offered his prolific writing skills to the hard-boiled crime fiction company; his earlier efforts resulted in the well-received Joyland and The Colorado Kid.
This time around, King’s protagonist is Jamie Conklin, who narrates the many adventures and misadventures he has in his younger years. What sets Jamie apart is that he has the ability to see and communicate with dead people. This basic premise will likely call to mind The Sixth Sense and its famous tagline, “I see dead people.” King must know that parallels to that famous movie are going to happen because he even directly references the flick in his 200-plus pages.
So, the idea is not purely original, but the author moves beyond the connections rather quickly and expands upon Jamie’s uncanny abilities to communicate with the deceased. What King is after is not simply an ooh-aah fest that explores the supernatural ability, but actually having it propel the plot along.
Jamie’s mother, a key figure in the text, is a literary agent with a slew of problems: her brother needs constant medical care, her agency’s clients are not pulling in the big bucks and her partner is a police official with some bad habits. On top of this mountain of dread: her #1 author, the one who helps her pay the bills, drops dead right before the culmination of his multi-book series on Roanoke Colony.
Luckily, Jamie can talk to dead people, which means this final story may still be within grasp.
Because of this literary theme, Later can have the feel of Misery, a book that finds #1 fan Annie Wilkes torturing author Paul Sheldon into writing more stories about her beloved character. Other King books that center on a young person’s coming-of-age also come to mind — a little bit of Carrie mixed together with Hearts of Atlantis, for example.
Running fewer than 300 pages, this small slice of King-dom is easy to enjoy because it sets a fast pace, and the plot has several unexpected turns. It’s also fairly inconsequential, and those Sixth Sense parallels keep turning up. Jamie is an interesting and engaging protagonist, and there’s a lot to learn from the mysterious figure of Kenneth Therriault and her mother’s partner, Liz Dutton — both of whom prove pivotal to the overall story.
Learning the rules of this world are also interesting because they impact the plot and how Jamie is able to use and understand his unique abilities. Ultimately, he learns what has been the obvious outcome all along: the ability to see dead people is both a blessing and a curse.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Later by Stephen King. Hard Case Crime. 248 pages. Click here for more information.
