The Colorado Kid - Stephen King

Written by Tom Clare in Book Reviews, Monday 8 May, 2006

It Was Never Like This With Miss Marple...

Generally speaking, the arrival of a new Stephen King novel is a rather big event given that he is one of the most popular and well-recognized authors in the world. It came as something of a surprise then when The Colorado Kid (published in October 2005) slipped in almost completely under the radar. Indeed, its release has proven so low-key that many King fans are still unaware of its existence.

The Colorado Kid (TCK) is King's attempt at something a little bit different - known primarily for his heavyweight, gritty horror novels, here he turns his hand to a spot of mystery and crime writing. It would seem TCK was written especially to spearhead the 'Hard Case Crime' series of pocket-sized paperback thrillers that have managed to attract quite a following, in America at least. Anyhow, it is significantly shorter than King's average yarn at a lean 178 pages, which is either a blessing or a curse depending on which way you look at it.

The story is loosely told from the perspective of Stephanie McCann; a 22 year-old from Ohio who has gone to stay on Moose-Lookit Island, Maine, for a few months as something along the lines of an apprentice for a small local newspaper known as The Weekly Islander. Whilst the observations and occasional thoughts are told from the point of view of this young woman, there are two other equally (if not more) important protagonists that make up a rather remarkable trio of workmates - Vince Teague; a slim, energetic 90 year-old and the interestingly-named David Bowie, who's a chubby 65.

Having broached the subject of mysteries and stories of the unsolved variety, Stephanie manages to start her colleagues off on the tale of the 'Colorado Kid'; an incident that had occurred 25 years previously in 1980, and of which Dave and Vince's re-telling forms the main bulk of the novel.

The mystery in question involved two teenagers discovering a dead man lying propped against a bin on a local beach. A host of peculiar happenings come to light as the story unfolds - the man died with a piece of meat in his throat, though it was sufficiently chewed as to make choking unlikely; he was a non-smoker and yet carried a packet of cigarettes; he carried no wallet but $17 were found in his trouser pocket, though by a considerable way the most baffling of all was the fact that he had been at work in Denver, Colorado just the day before.

Was it murder? An unfortunate accident? Suicide perhaps? Vince and Dave remind Stephanie on a number of occasions that their tale is not technically a story as it doesn't have a definitive ending, leaving her (and therefore the reader) to rearrange the pieces of the puzzle and form her own judgement.

King states in the 'afterword' section that 'for many people there'll be no middle ground on this one' and in a broad sense he's probably right, though I found myself rather caught in two minds as to the success of The Colorado Kid. Best to go with the positives first; it is written with all the story-telling prowess and descriptive quality fans have come to expect from Stephen King down the years and without the sheer bulk that has been known to drive his more-casual readers away. Chapters are just the right size and King's written interpretation of the Maine dialect is amusing and likable. Because it's a short novel, the often-convoluted storylines and descriptions of characters' pasts that have been known to dog his previous works have been replaced by more-concise (yet equally interesting) notes that are used sparingly and fit nicely.

Also, The Colorado Kid's three main characters are highly impressive. Despite the 'flashback' element of the storytelling, the author has not neglected to give the old fellows Dave and Vince glowing, lovable personalities as they reminisce and joke with one another, each with a number of sayings and quirks that King seems to integrate into his stories so well. Stephanie plays the role of the humble student and is perhaps slightly less prominent, though it's pleasing to see her evolve as a character from something of an outsider into someone who has grown to love her new surroundings - she's very convincing. A great amount of credit must go to Stephen King for the leading figures in TCK, as they reach a level of near-excellence in well under 200 pages, which considering it often takes him that long just to get warmed up, is quite commendable.

However, no matter how clever it may seem to challenge the mystery genre from a new angle, rule one a good mystery novel is that when all is said and done, the reader has to have been given a definitive solution. This very definitely isn't the case in TCK. Despite an encouraging opening and a fairly engaging mid-section, The Colorado Kid (like so many before it) is irreparably damaged by its lacklustre finale. No doubt there are some who will enjoy the 'unusual' conclusion, though I got the feeling King was being slightly lazier than he was original - Agatha Christie would no doubt have turned her grave. Granted, it isn't the longest of books but for all the intrigue drummed up in the early stages, the stories concluding faze is disappointingly dull and short, and at times it feels like you are following a mystery rather than actively being made to challenge it.

The restriction of it only consisting of 178 pages does appear to tell on King's overall writing, if only a little for the most part. Again, it all culminates in a rushed ending, which uncharacteristically (for the usually-thorough author) doesn't wrap up proceedings by summing-up what main characters have learnt and how they have ultimately changed.

Despite my disappointment at the ending, I suspect it was King's intention to split readers over The Colorado Kid (he says as much at the end) and I would suggest that fans of his at least give it a try. It isn't a long book by any stretch of the imagination and the text is also surprisingly large, so the quicker readers among you should be able to finish it in a couple of sittings. Another advantage of the 'Hard Case Crime' edition is that its pretty cheap to buy off amazon.co.uk's marketplace - I paid around £4 for a new copy including P&P. Barring a bit of swearing here and there, its generally suitable for all who would wish to read it, as it lacks either the violence or the gore that tend to characterise many of King's other works.

On the whole then, The Colorado Kid is so-so; the writing style is fluid, the characters likable and the concept promising, but the flash of brilliance you expect from an author of Stephen King's calibre never arrives and whilst the finishing sequence may masquerade as uncommon for the genre, I found it to be just plain lazy and not a great reward for someone who had read the story wishing for answers. A more realistic (but therefore less engaging) mystery that could have been a bit of a classic, but instead feels more like a mild-diversion to ponder over a couple of afternoons.

Leave a Reply