The Colorado Kid

“Excellent, psychologically textured…Stephen King is so widely acknowledged as America’s master of paranormal terrors that you can forget his real genius is for the everyday.”

—New York Times Book Review

“Mr. King makes palpable the longing and regret that arise out of calamity, and deftly renders the kindness and pettiness that can mark small-town life.”

—The Wall Street Journal

“The author is not only immensely popular but immensely talented, a modern-day counterpart to Twain, Hawthorne, Dickens.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Extraordinarily vivid…an impressive tour de force, a sensitive character study that holds the reader rapt.”

—Playboy

“Stephen King is superb.”

—Time

“A thoroughly compelling thriller.”

—Esquire

“Don’t start this one on a school night, kids. You’ll be up till dawn.”

—People

“A big, serious, scary novel…King is at the top of his game.”

—Entertainment Weekly

“As brilliant a dark dream as has ever been dreamed in this century.”

—The Palm Beach Post

“Breathtaking…awesome. Carries such momentum the reader must force himself to slow down!”

—New York Times Book Review

“A great book…A landmark in American literature.”

—Chicago Sun-Times

“Stephen King is an immensely talented storyteller of seemingly inexhaustible gifts.”

—Interview

“For those of you who think Stephen King writes only horror fiction, think again…King offers readers a rare blend of luminous prose, thought-provoking themes and masterful storytelling.”

—San Diego Union Tribune

“Wonderful…an illusionist extraordinaire, King peoples his fiction with believable characters. The power…lies in the amazing richness of his fevered imagination—he just can’t stop coming up with haunting plots.”

—Publishers Weekly

“He’s a master storyteller. Gather around the pages of his literary campfire and he’ll weave you a darn good yarn.”

—Houston Chronicle

“King is a born storyteller.”

—Library Journal

“King surpasses our expectations, leaves us spellbound and hungry for the next twist of plot.”

—The Boston Globe

“Top shelf. You couldn’t go wrong with a King book.”

—Michael Connelly

“By far the world’s most popular author…He never seems to use up the magic.”

—Chicago Tribune

“King has invented genres, reinvented them, then stepped outside what he himself has accomplished…Stephen King, like Mark Twain, is an American genius.”

—Greg Iles

“King has written…a novel that’s as hauntingly touching as it is just plain haunted…one of his freshest and most frightening works to date.”

—Entertainment Weekly

“Stephen King is much more than just a horror fiction writer. And I believe that he’s never been given credit for taking American literature and stretching its boundaries.”

—Gloria Naylor

“To my mind, King is one of the most underestimated novelists of our time.”

—Mordechai Richler, The Vancouver Sun

“An absorbing, constantly surprising novel filled with true narrative magic.”

—The Washington Post

“Stephen King is the Winslow Homer of blood.”

—The New Yorker

“Enthralling…superb.”

—Dallas Times Herald

“A spellbinder, a compulsive page-turner.”

—Atlanta Journal

“It grabs you and holds you and won’t let go…a genuine page turner.”

—Chattanooga Times

“Blending philosophy with a plot that moves at supersonic speed while showcasing deeply imagined characters…an impressive sensitivity to what has often loosely been called the human condition.”

—Newsday

“You surrender yourself…King engulfs you…and carries you away to 4am page-turning.”

—A.P. Wire

“Thoroughly exciting…scary and real.”

—Chicago Tribune

“A spellbinding piece of literature.”

—Library Journal

“Haunting and touching…a literary event.”

—Entertainment Weekly

“In a special and startling way, King has created a small American gem of a story.”

—Chicago Tribune

“A tour de force…vastly entertaining.”

—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“A literary triumph…Read this book.”

—Milwaukee Journal

“King is a master storyteller.”

—Seattle Times

“Superbly crafted…extraordinary.”

—Booklist

“His writing has a lyricism, an evocative descriptive sweep…It’s a gift.”

—The Columbia State

“Dazzlingly well written.”

—The Indianapolis Star

“Faultlessly paced…continuously engrossing.”

—Los Angeles Times

“King is a terrific storyteller.”

—San Francisco Chronicle

“A knockout thriller…brilliant, compelling…grips you by the throat.”

—Flint Journal

“The pages turn and you’re snared by his web.”

—Baton Rouge Advocate

“King possesses an incredible sense of story…[He is] a gifted writer of intensely felt emotions, a soulful writer in control of a spare prose that never gets in the way of the story…I, for one (of millions), wait impatiently to see where this king of storytellers takes us next.”

—Ridley Pearson

“There came a morning in the spring—April, it would have been—when they spied a man sitting out on Hammock Beach. You know, just on the outskirts of the village.”

Stephanie knew it well.

“He was just sittin there with one hand in his lap and the other—the right one—lying on the sand. His face was waxy-white except for small purple patches on each cheek. His eyes were closed and Nancy said the lids were bluish. His lips also had a blue cast to them, and his neck, she said, had a kind of puffy look to it. His hair was sandy blond, cut short but not so short that a little of it couldn’t flutter on his forehead when the wind blew, which it did pretty much constant.

“Nancy says, ‘Mister, are you asleep? If you’re asleep, you better wake up.’

“Johnny Gravlin says, ‘He’s not asleep, Nancy.’

“Johnny reached down—he had to steel himself to do it, he told me that years later—and shook the guy’s shoulder. He said he knew for sure when he grabbed hold, because it didn’t feel like a real shoulder at all under there but like a carving of one. He shook twice. First time, nothing happened. Second time, the guy’s head fell over on his left shoulder and the guy slid off the litter basket that’d been holding him up and went down on his side. His head thumped on the sand. Nancy screamed and ran back to the road, fast as she could…He caught up to her and put his arm around her and said he was never so glad to feel live flesh underneath his arm. He told me he’s never forgotten how it felt to grip that dead man’s shoulder, how it felt like wood under that white shirt…”

A HARD CASE CRIME BOOK
October 2005

SIMON & SCHUSTER
Rockefeller Center
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

in collaboration with

Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
200 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016

in collaboration with Winterfall LLC

Copyright © 2005 by Stephen King

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-9276-4
ISBN-10: 0-7432-9276-6

The name “Hard Case Crime” and the Hard Case Crime logo are trademarks of Winterfall LLC. Hard Case Crime books are selected and edited by Charles Ardai.

Visit us on the web at
www.HardCaseCrime.com

Visit us on the World Wide Web:
http://www.SimonSays.com

With admiration, for
Dan J. Marlowe,

author of
The Name of the Game is Death:

Hardest of the hardboiled.