Promotional Information

The new blockbuster from the bestselling master of suspense

About the Author

Stephen King is the bestselling author of more than thirty books of which the most recent are HEARTS IN ATLANTIS, DREAMCATCHER and his non-fiction book ON WRITING. He lives with his wife, the novelist Tabitha King, in Bangor, Maine.

Reviews

This is King finally back on form. At the Pennsylvania State Police Barracks, a grim secret has been hidden for 20 years in Shed B: a vintage Buick automobile, accessible only to the troopers who come to look at it. Youthful Ned Wilcox begins to hang around the barracks - he finds that he can't resist looking at the car. So the veteran troopers decide to tell Ned the astonishing truth: the Buick is nothing less than the conduit to another universe in which all the laws of physics are reversed. And it isn't long before Ned has to test for himself this outlandish claim - with terrifying results. King's love affair with automobiles stretches back to Christine, and this new and dangerous car takes us on quite a ride.

This is King finally back on form. At the Pennsylvania State Police Barracks, a grim secret has been hidden for 20 years in Shed B: a vintage Buick automobile, accessible only to the troopers who come to look at it. Youthful Ned Wilcox begins to hang around the barracks - he finds that he can't resist looking at the car. So the veteran troopers decide to tell Ned the astonishing truth: the Buick is nothing less than the conduit to another universe in which all the laws of physics are reversed. And it isn't long before Ned has to test for himself this outlandish claim - with terrifying results. King's love affair with automobiles stretches back to Christine, and this new and dangerous car takes us on quite a ride.

An assembly of readers performs King's latest, which is told from several different perspectives. This subdued, vaguely creepy tale is about an extraordinary force that infiltrates the lives of the people who work at a police barracks in rural Pennsylvania. King displays his masterful knack for building tension, but this work is more about the effect of events on the central characters' psyches than it is about the events themselves. In that vein, the portrayals of the characters, their inner monologues and their interactions are vital to the success of this audio, and the entire cast does a fine job. Rebhorn serves as an able narrator and provides a brief, chilling portrait of the sallow, mysterious man who brings an otherworldly '54 Buick into the life of Troop D before vanishing. Davidson handles the inner turmoil of Sgt. Sandy Dearborn and the youthful stubbornness of troubled Ned Wilcox. Among the other highlights is Tobolowsky's perfectly inflected Swedish accent for Arky, the troop's janitor. With only a few, appropriately wistful notes of guitar at the beginning and end, the production is kept to a minimum. The approach works well for a quieter book that relies less on shock than much of King's previous work. Simultaneous release with the Scribner hardcover (Forecasts, June 3). (Sept.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.