This was an impulse buy, and a good one at that. I was heading out for a ninety-minute commute home after teaching a night class in Toronto and wanted something to keep me awake. Boy did this do the trick!

There’s not much left to say about Stephen King at this point. Almost everything he writes now is gold. This book combines the police fiction he wrote in Mr. Mercedes with the supernatural horror he’s famous for. Add Holly Gibney, a crossover character from the Bill Hodges trilogy and you have a gripping tale stuffed-full of humanity.

Will Patton, the narrator, deserves special mention here. For the first two to three minutes I thought I was listening to the audio too slow. Then my imagination slowed to the cadence of his gravelly story telling. I can’t think of a better choice of narrator for Stephen King. Even his idiosyncratic voicing of Holly grew on me. (Incidentally, a different actor voiced Ms. Gibney in her eponymous book and it still doesn’t feel right!)

Unbeknown to me when I tapped “purchase,” I was reading this book out-of-order. The entire Bill Hodges trilogy should be read before this book. I guess know what I’m listening to next!

King, Stephen. The Outsider. Narrated by Will Patton, Audiobook, Unabridged, 2018, Simon & Schuster Audio.