Product Description

DUMA KEY is the engaging, fascinating story of a man who discovers an incredible talent for painting after a freak accident in which he loses an arm.

He moves to a 'new life' in Duma Key, off Florida’s West Coast; a deserted strip, part beach, part weed-tangled, owned by a patroness of the arts whose twin sisters went missing in the 1920s. Duma Key is where out-of-season hurricanes tears lives apart and a powerful undertow lures lost and tormented souls. Here Freemantle is inspired to paint the amazing sunsets. But soon the paintings become predictive, even dangerous. Freemantle knows the only way forward is to discover what happened to the twin sisters – and what is the secret of the strange old lady who holds the key?

The story is about friendship, about the bond between a father and his daughter. And about memory, truth and art. It is also is a metaphor for the life and inspiration of a writer, and an exploration of the nature, power and influence of fiction. (20080121)

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73618 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-24
• Released on: 2008-01-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 592 pages

Review
'He has become a fascinating paradoxical figure, still seen as ultra-commercial but, in fact, increasingly highbrow and self-conscious' (Sunday Times )

'The scenes following Freemantle’s physical recovery, of his anger and suicidal depression, are the author writing at his absolute best, immediately gripping the reader and putting him on the protagonist’s side...King has become such a sophisticated writer that this novel is never less than page-turning' (Matt Thorne, Independent on Sunday )

'The theme of an artist enslaved and driven to madness by his own talent is not a new one for King, but the parallels with his own injuries and recovery – and his uncanny ability so spin a good yarn – mean the story always feels fresh...despite the pace and the pyrotechnics, the book still has a heart, which makes the idea of King’s retirement the scariest prospect of all' (TheLondonPaper )

'The true narrative artist is a rare creature. Storytelling - the ability to make the listener or the reader need to know, demand to know, what happens next - is a gift...Stephen King, like Charles Dickens before him, has this gift in spades.' (The Times on CELL )

'Thrilling, genuinely terrifying, beautifully textured and full of wonderful invention' (Daily Mail on LISEY'S STORY )

'Very clever and brilliantly written . . . you won't use your mobile for days.' (Guardian on CELL )

'As with all Stephen King novels, this book is sinister and surprising. You feels as though the individual characters are actually real. Another masterpiece.'

(The Sun )

'In many ways this is classic King, a thriller with agressively credible characters.’ (The Times )

'If King is a modern-day Dickens, as some critics have suggested... then this is his David Copperfield, a book written with a deftness of touch and a sure command of the material that is breathtaking... at almost 600 pages, it's a doorstop of a book. But the story is so elegant and wide-ranging, and the three central characters so delicately evoked, that it feels far shorter.' (Daily Mail )

'This is a powerful piece of work and once the horrors kick in, the pace is relentless.   Fresh and frightening and highly recommended.' (Peter Guttridge, Observer )

'Its moments of authentic terror and unease - which are good enough to rival anything else in King - spring from the author's deft command of pace and tone, from his evocation of the island's deceptive calm, and from the folky texture of his dialogue ... hard not to be gripped, which is testament to the propulsive power of the writing.' (Sunday Telegraph )

About the Author
Stephen King was awarded the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and was voted Grand Master at the 2007 Edgar Allan Poe Awards. He is the author of more than forty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent stand-alone novels include DREAMCATCHER, CELL and LISEY'S STORY. Stephen King also wrote novels under the psdeudonym Richard Bachman. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. (20080121)

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Customer Reviews

His best book for ages!
Edgar Freemantle suffers extreme injuries including losing his right arm and severe head trauma, after his car collides with a crane. Because of this Edgar has violent outbursts resulting in his wife wanting a divorce. His doctor then recommends he moves to somewhere more remote where he can relax and begin to recover. This place is called Duma Key, an isolated key off the coast of Florida. Here Edgar finds his hidden talent - sketching followed by painting. He begins to paint magnificent landscapes of the view from his window at his home, The Big Pink, with some very supernatural outcomes. Also on Duma Key Edgar meets his new best friend Wireman, who seems to have supernatural visions too, as well as the owner of the key, Elizabeth Eastlake, also an artist with a mysterious past regarding the death of her twin sisters and the disappearance of her other sisters in the 1920's. Only Edgar is about to find out the truth through his own art.

Other than Blaze (which was written in the 70's) I haven't read any of the newer Stephen King books since Dreamcatcher but I have read pretty much everything he had written before then (not the Dark Towers series) and I can say that this is one of the best of his books I have ever read. Yes, it is big (nearly 600 pages in the hardback format) and did take me a while to finish but it was so worth it as this is one book (amongst a lot) that really proves that King is the master of story-telling.

Rather than going for full-on horror or supernatural fiction that King usually goes for, Duma Key concentrates more on the characters, who's feelings and emotions have been so well written that I felt that these were really people I knew and cared about by the time I got to the end of the book. At first when Edgar had first had his accident and became a frustrated, aggressive guy, I really didn't like him much (which I think is what King intended the reader to feel), but as the book when on I felt his pain and began to sympathise with him The relationships between the characters were also very believeable with Edgar and Wireman's feeling almost childlike and pure, in the usual King fashion.

The book isn't perfect, as at times it can feel like it is dragging a little (especially near the beginning) and Edgar's daughter Ilse comes across as a 5 year old most of the time although she is supposed to be 19, the ending is also a bit of a letdown, again dragged out a bit too long and has a bit of an anti-climax, but overall it is very well written and very much an unputdownable book that is one of the best I've read in a long time. Highly recommended.

A Triumphant Return To Form
I've been a King fan since the mid 80s and there is no doubt that he has written some of the greatest stories in the past thirty years. However, in the past three or four years, his work has been less than memorable. Not badly written - just lacking that magic. If, like me, you've been keeping the faith these past few years, you will be glad to know that this latest novel is among the finest things he has ever written. King has a way with words that so few other writers do and the kind of imagination the world can never have enough of.

A stunning return.

just wonderful...
and I write as one who also thought King had lost his way (as did |Heinlein, as the years wore on). I hated Dreamcatcher, quite liked Cell.. but the end of the Dark Tower series really left me flat. Oh, and Lisey's Story wasn't terribly good. But Dura Key was wonderful... his style of writing which, if we are all honest, keeps us reading the stories which aren't so good... paid off again. I can't remember a book which last pulled me in so much and, for me, he has combined his storytelling ability (hard to surpass) with a bit of the old 'supernatural' King. In my view, his ability to tell a story has never diminished; but his later stories have been less than gripping in spite of that. Duma Key is just wonderful; his prose and lyrical storytelling is A1. I truly hope they never attempt to make a film of this book.