Product Description

The number 1 bestseller: King at the peak of his powers. Combining elements from THE SHINING and REBECCA, BAG OF BONES is at once a first-rate suspense novel, a legal thriller, a haunted house story and a love story - it is King at his most accessible and compelling.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #241953 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06-17
• Binding: Paperback
• 736 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Bag of Bones is partly inspired by Daphne du Maurier's classic Rebecca, but there's more than homage in this novel of horror and romance. Like du Maurier's Manderley, King's scary old place (on the shore of Maine's remote Dark Score Lake) is haunted by the late lady of the manor. There are many gory ghosts afoot though: men, women and wailing kids. The hero, a thriller novelist, stirs up hell's angry shades while investigating his wife's death. It turns out she either had a dark secret herself or was onto some dread scandal lurking in Dark Score Lake. As in King's previous book, Wizard and Glass, the fabric of reality is thin and nosy narrators are in peril of plunging right out of this world and into a rather hostile otherworld.

Bag of Bones is a writer-haunted book, too. The spirits of Herman Melville and Ray Bradbury are deeply felt, and so are the tale's two romances (the hero muses on his marriage and falls for a young single mum with a marvellous psychic daughter). There is also good- humoured satire of the real bestseller book world--the hero complains that "the publicity process is like going to a sushi bar where you're the sushi." In its deep concerns with love, sprawling families, the writer's life, endangered children and good old-fashioned storytelling, the book resembles a John Irving novel. It is also absolutely classic Stephen King, packed with nifty turns of phrase, irreverent wit and lurid ghouls who grab you from beneath the bed while you cower under the covers. --Tim Appelo, Amazon.com

Frances Fyfield, Express
`Splendid entertainment'

Guardian
'An incredibly gifted writer...so fluid that you often forget that you're reading'

Customer Reviews

Gripping page turner
It's been some time since I read a Stephen King novel and this had been on the shelf unread for perhaps 3 or 4 years! I'd always enjoyed his stories and consider 'IT' to be one of the best books I've read. I wish I'd picked this up sooner!

Anyway, I finally picked this up and was very quickly gripped by the story. The plot is compelling and the details are revealed at a pace to keep interest levels high.

The plot revolves around an author who after the sudden loss of his wife suffers writers block. He moves into their other property, a house called Sara Laughs on the edge of a lake in rural Maine. Soon after, he begins to realise he is not alone in the house (he hears wailing in the night and his alphabet fridge magnets spell messages out to him) and begins to look into the circumstances surrounding his wifes death. She left a few things behind on the day she died that could maybe point to the fact she was having an affair and this plays on Mike Noonan's (the main protagonists') mind.

In town one day he unexpectedly 'rescues' a little girl, Kyra, walking in the road. The youngster is unharmed and her mother, Mattie, is soon on the scene. Mattie is a beautiful young widow who is terrified that her daughter will be taken from her by her now dead husband's tyranical and mega-rich father. Mike Noonan sees the young family for what they are - a mother and child who love each other who are being bullied by the will and the black hearted intentions of the aforementioned father, Devore.

Due to this chance meeting and the reality that this event may lead to Devore gaining amunition against Mattie to prove she's a bad mother and take custody of Kyra, Noonan agrees to help the down on their luck duo by poviding a lawyer.

This sets the scene for what comes after. The secrets of the town and it's people, reaching back generations, are gradually unravelled, shedding light on the reason for the death Mike Noonan's wife and also illuminating the festering lies and cover-ups and a curse which is still yet to be fulfilled with the deaths of many more innocents.

This is a solid story very well told as the battle develops between Devore and his creepy assistant, all set against the background of Sara Laughs and the TR (the name of the town in the story) and it's ghostly inhabitants who may or may not be trying to help Mike Noonan. The climax is shocking and left me feeling quite cold - there's definitely no neat happy ending here although there is hope.

All in all a good story and gripping page turner.

FRIDGE LETTERS

I used to get all kings books but at some point in the 1990s i stopped

i tried to get back into them but couldnt

THEN I FOUND AUDIO CDS AND STARTED TO LISTEN THIS WHEN DRIVING

BAG OF BONES IS UP THERE AND WITH KING READING IT HIMSELF I FOUND MYSELF JUST DRIVING NOWHERE JUST TO LISTEN.

An author of horror novels is confronted by ghosts
I used to read everything Stephen King wrote. I read Carrie when it first came out in 1974 and became an instant fan. But somewhere back in the 80's, I stopped reading his new books. I suppose that as his books grew longer and longer and my reading preferences switched to non-fiction, King was just pushed off of my reading list. But my daughter Beth enjoys a good zombie or ghost story so I thought what better author for her to read than Stephen King, one of the masters of the genre. So while Beth and I were at the bookstore picking up 'Salem's Lot and Cell: A Novel for Beth, I noticed this book. I don't like to read the the summary of a book normally found on the back because I think they give away too much of the story, but I did read the reviews and they spoke of a book that was not a typical King horror story so I decided to give it a try.

What I re-discovered is what a gifted author Stephen King is and how he can spin a yarn (to use an overused cliche). After reading 100 pages, almost nothing had happened and yet the story pulled me in as I learned more about the main character, Mike Noonan. It is very few authors who can make 700 pages seem like too short a story but King has that ability. Through foreshadowing and with characters who seem real he keeps our interest piqued. As events come to a head, the story builds and builds but the ending is somewhat of a letdown. A book that requires a 15-page epilogue to wrap things up probably could have been written a little better. But still, to keep my interest for more than 700 pages is an impressive achievement.

The story revolves around an author of horror fiction whose wife dies. He then soon discovers after finishing up his last novel that he can longer write, that when he sits in front of the computer to start a new book that he becomes physically ill. And he is having nightmares so real that he is becoming obsessed with them. Nightmares about the summer house on the lake that he hasn't been to since his wife died. His decision to finally return to the house and confront the demons of his dreams will have fateful and fatal consequences. If you are a Stephen King fan you can guess where the story is going but King still has a few surprises and twists. I won't ruin the story by telling you any more... you'll have to read it for yourself.