It's "The Outsider, " By Stephen King! Not "The OutsiderS," by S.E. Hinton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                I was the right age, when Hinton's book first came out.  I felt like an outsider, then, but didn't relate to a bunch of hoodlums, so I overlooked the book.  Back then, I could not even envision my own life fifty years later, let alone that this book would stand the test of time.  So, I owe it to myself to give it a reading, sometime. Add it to my bucket list.

                                 Now, as to Stephen King.  Girls, he was never a looker, but have you seen photos of him lately.  He is aging so disturbingly, he is starting to resemble some of the creepy characters in his books.

                                  After "Needful Things," I swore I never would read another book by him again.  He was starting to recycle works; "Pet Sematary" was his take on "The Monkey's Paw" (which is shorter, and better written, by W.W.Jacobs, and "Needful Things" was an inferior take on Ray Bradbury's brilliant "Something Wicked This Way Comes."  When it was published, in 2008--has it only been ten years????--I tried reading "Lisey's Story," only because it made the cover page of The New York Times Book Review.  I turned my back on Stephen King thereafter.

                                    So, really, "The Outsider" is the first Stephen King book I have read in 27 years, since "Needful Things" was first published, in 1991.  It caught my eye in a bookstore, and as I scanned the inside flap, the promise of a serial killer investigatory tale thrilled me.

                                     "The Outsider" does start out that way.  A sports coach of young boys  in Flint City, Oklahoma, Terry Maitland, is found guilty of the rape--with a tree branch--and mutilation of 11-year-old Frankie Peterson, whom he coached.  It looks like a slam dunk, as the police and the town close in on him, which is when the book is at its most interesting.  Then, comes the information that Terry might have been in two places at once.  How could that be?????????  It is here when King starts morphing into the supernatural, and after over 500 pages, ends up with everyone in a cave, albeit in Texas, in an almost redo of "IT."  Now, King is starting to recycle King?  Why the hell did I read it?

                                         Because, in spite of above, the book was well written enough to hold my interest, and because, though I could clearly see where King was going, the promise of the early part made me hope he would not take the route he did.

                                             "The Outsider" turns out to be vintage King, the same stuff he has been cranking out for decades.  Can some novelty be interjected into some of these works.  People have told me he has trouble ending his books; this one ended just where it should.  But did it need to be over 500 pages long???????????????

                                                 Like Anne Rice--hey, whatever happened to her?--King is name enough to forego an editor, or any editorial advice. His name would sell if he published his manuscript on a legal pad.

                                                   The book provides the fun expected, but makes one yearn for a story told on a higher literary plane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!