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| View Larger Image | The Colorado Kid (Hard Case Crime)
by Stephen King
| | List Price: | $5.99 |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 77882 | | Studio: | Hard Case Crime | | | Binding: | Mass Market Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 184 | | Publication Date: | October 04, 2005 | | Publisher: | Hard Case Crime |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Download Description
"On an island off the coast of Maine, a man is found dead. There's no identification on the body. Only the dogged work of a pair of local newspapermen and a graduate student in forensics turns up any clues. But that's just the beginning of the mystery. Because the more they learn about the man and the baffling circumstances of his death, the less they understand. Was it an impossible crime? Or something stranger still...? No one but Stephen King could tell this story about the darkness at the heart of the unknown and our compulsion to investigate the unexplained. With echoes of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon and the work of Graham Greene, one of the world's great storytellers presents a surprising tale that explores the nature of mystery itself... " |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 208 reviews)
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Wasted Time 
King wrote this story as a vehicle to say that some mysteries have no conclusion. Fine, but those are the ones that don't become novels. The result is simply the impression that King copped out and just rambled on without knowing how to end this thing.
The three characters are ok but can't contend with the pointless ending.
Be warned, read the description and understand that the question asked on the cover does have an answer and that answer is NO.
September 05, 2008 | |
Not Free SF Reader 
Old stager stiff story.
A story about telling a story, in some ways. A couple of old stager journos recount to a young woman in the same industry the discovery of a body that takes some time to identify.
Being King, this is of course set in a slightly out of the way place in Maine.
A nifty little book.
On a trivia note, when you look up or listen to interviews with the publisher, you discover they approached King for a blurb for a book, thinking he might like their style I suppose.
Presumably there was some falling off charis when he said 'nope, won't do that. Will write you a book though.
A fair bit of rumination on the mystery of unsolved mysteries here.
3.5 out of 5
September 03, 2008 | |
dissapointed
I felt SK was just experimenting again, but it did leave me (a devotee) dissapointed. It wont stop me from reading his future books though. He's dissapointed me before, but I keep coming back. It is good story up until it just "stops" being told.
August 24, 2008 | |
Building a mystery 
"The Colorado Kid" is Stephen King's contribution to the fine Hard Case Crime series. I haven't read much of King's recent work, but I love the Hard Case Crime series and was curious to see what King would do within this series. Unfortunately, the book was a bit of a disappointment, although I give King major credit for helping to bring attention to this series. The book starts with a bit of a riddle; two old journalists for a small-time newspaper on an island off Maine meet with a reporter from the Boston Globe. When the Globe reporter departs, he leaves $100 to pay for the lunch. The Maine journalists take the money and then ask the fourth partner in the lunch, a young female intern, to explain why she thinks they're taking the money. Their riddle is a test for the intern, as is the main "mystery" of the Colorado Kid.
It turns out that the two Maine journalists, Dave Bowie (65-year-old editor) and Vince Teaugue (90-year-old founder of the paper), are mentors of sort to the intern, and they are trying to figure out whether she is worthy of their hard work. The intern is a beautiful 22-year-old midwesterner, Stephanie McCann. She's been at the paper for a few months, covering local happenings for the Arts and Things column. In other words, she's writing glamorous stories about barn dances and church picnics. However, she's eager to learn and actually seems to understand that these two old coots have some important lessons to teach her. Something the Globe reporter failed to see when he talked to the two old men about local mysteries. The more patient Stephanie asks the men if they have ever come across a true unsolved mystery, and they begin to tell her the story of the Colorado Kid, which takes the rest of the novel to unfold. The Colorado Kid was a dead man found on a beach on their small island. At first, it appears that he died of natural causes by choking on a piece of steak; no one is able to identify the man or get further information. However, slowly over time, the two journalists work the story and figure out who the man was, which unleashes a bigger mystery.
As others have explained, "The Colorado Kid" doesn't contain many answers. The two old journalists explain to Stephanie that most people prefer mysteries with only one or two unknown elements. This book contain many "unknowns," so expect some ambiguity. Unfortunately, the main "mystery" is not as compelling as I'd like and the two old journalists tend to blend together into one character (especially on the audio version I'm reviewing). The cover is also a bit misleading, as this book is not a sexy hard-boiled crime novel. However, I appreciated some of the ideas explored in the book; plus, I suspected a bit of a shaggy dog story from the beginning, so I was perhaps less disappointed than others might be. In the end, "The Colorado Kid" comes up short - a noble failure for a worthy press.
August 03, 2008 | |
Borrrrrring! 
This drivel is an insult to the Hard Case Crime library. It isn't pulp fiction, in fact, it just hasn't any style except more Z-grade Stephen King. To summarize the first 20 or so pages: waitress gets big tip. Next 25 pages, two old (but supposedly cool) codgers sit around and tease their young intern. Yessir, this is a real page turner! Problem is I'm turning several pages at once to see if anything gets interesting. It doesn't. One of my rules of thumb: the more hyperbolic major news media reviews, the crappier the subject matter. My theory continues to gain ground. Back in the Eighties, I was a Stephen King fan. Since then, I would say the only decent book he's written was The Green Mile. Occasionally, he writes something so bad (The Cell) that I've read it because I'm fascinated by the sheer awfulness of it. The Colorado Kid isn't even that readable. For example, take one of the main characters. For some inexplicable reason he is named "David Bowie". OK, sometimes he's "Dave Bowie" but then every time a "David Bowie" gets thrown in, I'm like WTF? When did he get in the story--oh, yeah, it's one of those old guys. So yo, Stephen, why don't you just name the other old dude, Keith Moon or something cool like that? Then you won't have to think so hard. Oh, and quit writing from a female point of view. It's just plain weird, man. Or is Tabitha ghostwriting this junk for you? That would explain a lot.
July 29, 2008 | |
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