Let me begin with, I am not a Stephen King BOOK fan. By this I mean his stories literally haunt me, taking me to places in my mind where I find it difficult to manage and let the memories go; I cannot read his books. But his writing. Mr. King is simply the master and occasionally I will dip my toe into his water and what a pleasure it is. The way he describes a scene, a smell, a tree for that matter. The man's writing is genius. That being said, I took a chance, having a long drive from Idaho to Colorado, and listened to this book. In a word (or maybe two or three or more): Wow. Amazing. Incredible. And yes, unforgettable.

The Outsider is not the shocking horror that smacks one in the face with gore, not that I think that is the author's standard way, but it eases under one's skin and psyche, playing and teasing with the mind. Not fantastical in a way that is too out of reach, the Outsider toys with the idea that there are shapeshifters among us, persons, or rather beings, that slip into one's body, taking them over from the inside to do their bidding while their outside appearance remains the same. Oh, it was fun to read this book.

The Outsider will leave you thinking, wondering, and wishing for more. I believe there is a movie, perhaps a series, but if you are a reader and willing to open your mind to a bit of psychological mystery about the spirituality of one's inner self - you must read The Outsider. ( )

This is a great offering from the King of horror....something alittle different....and alot disturbing....loved it!!! ( )

I had stopped reading SK years ago, and then I read11/22/63, which blew me away! So I figured I would try this one out. And it was great! Good enough to motivate me to start Mr. Mercedes next. ( )

As a devoted Stephen King fan, I read - maybe I should say, devoured, this novel in three days as soon as I received it. I have to hand it to Mr King, the man can certainly tell stories! This one was a page turner, although to be fair, his books usually are. The story was very well told as only he can tell it. Briefly, Terry Maitland is a coach of prepubescent boys, one of whom is found murdered, grossly and very viciously. Terry is arrested because his DNA and other factors lead the police to believe they have found their killer. However as it turns out, Terry also has a verifiable alibi including witnesses and even a tv interview. The pace is heightened when unexpected things occur and new information is sought. I have read so many King novels and short stories that I am used to his style and prose. Every now and then he gives us little surprises and The Outsider contains several. If you have read some of his later novels, you will get the inside joke. The only complaint with the book and why I didn't give it 5 stars was because I felt the concluding chapters bogged down somewhat and didn't really explain everything well, In my honest opinion, I like that Uncle Steve is with it and makes references to many of our tech devices, social media and other items that did not even exist five or ten years ago. A nice touch to bring the story into 2018. ( )

I was pleased to pick up this book as a charity shop bargain as I wouldn't have paid full price for it, having been too disappointed by other recent novels by King. It started well with a horrifying account of the discovery of a young boy, brutally murdered, and the hasty decision by the local police to arrest a popular member of the town, Terry Maitland, an English teacher and the coach for the local children's baseball teams. A number of witnesses apparently saw Maitland either abduct the boy or walk around later with blood on him etc, apparently not bothered who saw him. And as subsequent interviews proceed, more evidence against Coach T, as he is also known, is found. Yet he has a cast-iron alibi placing him in another town at the time of the abduction, attending a literary conference. That town is too far away for him to have been able to return in time to be seen subsequently as claimed. In fact, he was filmed by a public broadcast channel at the conference, and in the company of other English teachers at his school who all speak in his favour.

So far, so intriguing. The book follows several viewpoints. A major one is the detective, Ralph, who begins to have doubts early on as to whether they have made a big mistake. Despite this, the wheels grind on, and subsequent media and public reaction becomes rabidly hostile towards a man we are almost certain is innocent, with tragedy to follow.

For about half of this long book, all was well. It seemed that this was a straight crime novel, as were the first two 'Finders Keepers' books which had disappointed me earlier, but a lot better than those. And then - it derailed. I had given up with the FK series because I didn't like the continuing characters, and thought the first was flawed on a number of levels. The second would have been acceptable if the role that was mid-way assigned to the Finders Keepers people had instead been undertaken by the sympathetic teacher: I didn't think it needed to be a FK book at all. And reading the end of book 2, which telegraphed the introduction of the supernatural for book 3, I decided not to bother. So I had a sinking feeling when it became obvious with the present novel that the explanation was starting to develop along those lines.

I have enjoyed supernatural stories by King, especially early ones such as 'The Shining', but it seemed out of place here in what had the appearance of a straight crime novel. And it could have continued as such - I was already anticipating (wrongly) that the crime scene evidence had been tampered with, and there is a character with an agenda against Ralph who would've been in a position to do just that, in order to discredit him. That person could have wanted the wrongful arrest to proceed to the arraignment in court, to ensure that Ralph's downfall was as public and damaging as possible. Terry's fate could have proceeded unaltered. But if the character in the crowd: who isn't visible in TV footage in the actual novel had instead been on the footage as he should have been, and that character had been, despite an attempt at disguise with dark glasses and a hat, a man who resembled Terry, then a perfectly reasonable story could have played out, whereby a serial killer drifter was greeted by various people, and realised he could use this mistaken identity - and couldn't resist turning up outside the court to gloat at his cleverness in framing another man. That, and perhaps more emphasis on the corrosion of personal relationships and the impact on the whole Maitland family from the communal condemnation, would have made an interesting story. But as it is, the whole thing derails majorly. The ending does have some good action, but even the initial part of that could have dovetailed perfectly with the scenario of a jealous colleague.

The other problem I had with this book is the lack of editing. I had noticed from 'IT' onwards that King's books became more bloated, and presumed that he was now too big a name for editors to have the courage to edit him. There is so much dead wood as the story progresses, with people sitting around chatting and telling each other what they know, catching up on what the reader already knows because it has been shown in one character's viewpoint previously. And the inclusion of a character from the Finders Keepers series who then played a major role was the final straw for me. So all in all, I can only rate this as an OK 2 stars, mainly achieving that rating because of the tense beginning. ( )