Synopses & Reviews
The state police of Troop D in rural Pennsylvania have kept a secret in Shed B out back of the barracks ever since 1979, when Troopers Ennis Rafferty and Curtis Wilcox answered a call from a gas station just down the road and came back with an abandoned Buick Roadmaster. Curt Wilcox knew old cars, and he knew immediately that this one was...wrong, just wrong. A few hours later, when Rafferty vanished, Wilcox and his fellow troopers knew the car was worse than dangerous.
Curt's avid curiosity took the lead, and they investigated as best they could, as much as they dared. Over the years, the troop absorbed the mystery as part of the background to their work, the Buick 8 sitting out there like a still-life painting that breathes inhaling a little bit of this world, exhaling a little bit of what world it came from.
In the fall of 2001, a few months after Curt Wilcox is killed in a gruesome auto accident, his eightee-year-old boy, Ned, starts coming by the barracks. Sandy Dearborn, Sergeant Commanding, knows it's the boy's way of holding onto his father, and Ned is allowed to become part of the Troop D family. One day he looks in the window of Shed B and discovers family secret. Like his father, Ned wants answers...
From a Buick 8 is a book about our fascination with deadly things, about our insistence on answers when there are none, about terror and courage in the face of the unknowable.
Review
"[G]oes down like a shot of moonshine, hot and clean, much like Cujo....While the book's relative brevity and simplicity does lend comparison to earlier King...the author's stylistic maturity manifests in his sophisticated handling....This novel isn't major King, but it's nearly flawless and one terrific entertainment." Publishers Weekly
Review
"King stuffs his tale with endless police procedure and some of the most truly dull characters this side of a 1930s Soviet proletariat play. The writing's not bottom drawer, but this is truly a miscalculation after the emotional wonders of The Green Mile, Hearts in Atlantis and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. Seven-tenths filler, three-tenths story." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"From a Buick 8 is vintage King....[He] knows how to jolt his readers." USA Today
Review
"Plot has seldom been King's strong suit, which is more-than-usually obvious this time because there are nearly no scene changes, and the car's shenanigans lack variety....[T]his is no Delores Claiborne." Booklist
Review
"...King's still on fire when it comes to creating breathing characters and evocative settings." Entertainment Weekly
Synopsis
The state police of Troop D in Statler, Pennsylvania, have kept a Buick Roadmaster in Shed B out back of the barracks ever since 1979, when two troopers answered a call about its driver gone missing. At least it looks like a Buick Roadmaster...because there's more power under the hood than anyone can handle...
Synopsis
An instant #1 New York Times bestseller, From a Buick 8 "is stylistically assured, effortlessly suspenseful, with characters as well-rounded as almost any 'literary' novel can offer....Spooky stuff." Los Angeles Times
Synopsis
The long-awaited classic novel about boys, men, and a terrifying force only they can contain. Like The Green Mile, this is set in a close knit and isolated community and exploits King's unparalleled ability to describe the often sinister interaction of men in small groups.
Synopsis
WANT TO GO FOR A RIDE...?
In a secret shed behind the barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police, Troop D, there's a cherry Buick Roadmaster no one has touched in years -- because there's more power under the hood than anyone can handle....
Synopsis
WANT TO GO FOR A RIDE...?
In a secret shed behind the barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police, Troop D, there's a cherry Buick Roadmaster no one has touched in years -- because there's more power under the hood than anyone can handle....
About the Author
Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. Among his most recent are Full Dark No Stars, Blockade Billy, Under the Dome, Just After Sunset, the Dark Tower novels, Cell, From a Buick 8, Everything's Eventual, Hearts in Atlantis, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Lisey's Story and Bag of Bones. His acclaimed nonfiction book, On Writing, was recently re-released in a tenth anniversary edition. King was the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and in 2007 he was inducted as a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America. He lives in Maine with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.