Bag of Bones: A Novel

I took Bag of Bones with me on a visit to Omaha, Nebraska a couple of summers ago. The heat was sweltering and the humidity impenetrable. And yet it wasn't my discomfort that kept me up half the night; it was my need to know What Happens Next. His prose may not be exquisite, his novels aren’t weighted with lofty themes, and his style may lack a certain smugly self-conscious "staggering genius," but there’s no denying that Stephen King can spin a tale like few writers alive.

He starts with unlikely ingredients, as author Mike Noonan retreats to a summer home called Sara Laughs to begin his next novel. He's been creatively blocked and haunted by the memory of his late wife, Johanna. Soon he's visited by a very real presence that uses refrigerator magnets to form ominous messages in the dead of night. Mike, himself, becomes involved in a custody battle between a widowed mother and a millionaire tycoon. Only the man who found genuine horror in a high school prom could unite such seemingly innocuous elements into a cohesive, bone-chilling story.

While most of Bag of Bones provides an emotional resonance lacking from many of King’s recent efforts, it attempts a degree of maturity that King ultimately can't (or won't) deliver. Still, there's no denying the strength of King's storytelling, which kept me turning pages in the Omaha heat long past midnight, and his characterizations (with the exception of an unconvincing twenty-year-old single mother) are rich and vivid. Johanna in particular becomes the strongest posthumous character since Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca; the reader comes to mourn her loss as much as Mike does.

What makes King’s writing so enjoyable, finally, is his Voice, so distinctive and rich that you can imagine Stephen King rocking gently on the porch beside you, spinning his tale as a hot summer evening slips effortlessly into night. And if the destination fails to live up to its promise, we can at least be thankful for one hell of a ride.

• Read more about this book