In his latest collection of never-before-published stories, Stephen King proves once again that he has no equal at delivering chills. While one can debate whether at least two of these stories might qualify as novellas, all four are meaty tales of humans in extremis, narrated with the propulsive energy that's the hallmark of King's work.

Tess, the protagonist of "Big Driver," is a writer of cozy mysteries who is raped on her way home from a library tea. Calling on her skills as a mystery writer, and with the aid of an unusual GPS device, she methodically stalks her attacker, unleashing some unintended consequences in the process. In "A Good Marriage," inspired by the grisly story of Wichita's BTK killer, King imagines with clinical skill how a wife might react when she discovers her husband of 27 years, an accountant and coin collector, is a serial killer.

There's only one story in which the supernatural predominates. "Fair Extension" is a clever account of the pitfalls of selling one's soul to the devil. Dave Streeter, a middle-aged bank manager dying of cancer, meets the mysterious George Elvid, who offers to trade him at least 15 years of life in exchange for giving up the name of someone he hates, in this case a lifelong friend whose success has gnawed at Streeter.

The collection's title story, its longest, is set in 1920s rural Nebraska. Told in the form of a confession by Wilfred James, a farmer who brutally murders his wife to prevent her from selling an inheritance of 100 acres to a meatpacking company, it recounts the eight years he spends haunted by memories of the crime. The story is also noteworthy for its stark depiction of the travails of the country's midsection on the eve of the Great Depression.

Each of the tales in this strong collection features enough frightening scenes to provoke a spate of nightmares. And yet, like all the work of this master of suspense and the macabre, it's unlikely you'll be able to put any of them down until you've reached the end.

 

Following an overstuffed feast of a novel (Under the Dome, 2009), King returns with four comparative snacks, each of which deals in some way with the darkest recesses of the human soul.

None of the narratives have previously been published, and all are apparently recent. The first, best and longest is "1922," a richly detailed ghost story about a Nebraska farmer whose wife wants to sell land she's inherited and move to the city, and how he enlists their 14-year-old son to conspire against her. He had been convinced that moving to the city would be hell, but discovers, as he tells himself, "You realize that you are in a hell of your own making, but you go on nevertheless. Because there is nothing else to do." "Big Driver" concerns an implausible plot against an author speaking to a book club, and the toll her revenge takes on her, transforming her into a different person in the process. "Fair Extension," the shortest, is a fable about a terminal cancer patient who experiences a miraculous remission following a transaction with the devilish Mr. Elvid. "A Good Marriage," is, of course, a title dripping with irony, with a wife of more than 25 years discovering devastating secrets—a secret life! even a dual identity!—about her boringly predictable husband. Can things somehow go on as they have before? Or does she risk ruining her own life and those of their children by exposing her husband? "Does anybody really know anybody?" asks the story (rhetorically). Explains King in his "Afterword," "From the start...I felt that the best fiction was both propulsive and assaultive. It gets in your face. Sometimes it shouts in your face."

A collection of page-turning narratives for those who prefer the prolific tale spinner at his pulpiest.

Acclaimed horror/thriller author King's latest release (after Blockade Billy and Under the Dome) is another collection of satisfying short stories. As with his other collections (Four Past Midnight and Everything's Eventual), this volume features four never-before-published novellas focusing on the theme of retribution, justice, and getting even. Offering fast reads, three tales run around 100 pages ("1922," "Big Driver," and "A Good Marriage"), while one story ("Fair Extension") weighs in at fewer than 50 pages. While not as subtle as some of King's other fiction, these novellas offer dark humor and to-the-point gore. VERDICT This quick and more brutal King installment will be in high demand for horror/thriller readers and dedicated King fans. Public libraries, order multiple copies. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/10.]—Carolann Curry, Mercer Univ. Medical Lib., Macon, GA

Eerie twists of fate drive the four longish stories in King's first collection since Just After Sunset (2008). In "1922," a farmer murders his wife to retain the family land she hopes to sell, then watches his life unravel hideously as the consequences of the killing suggest a near-supernatural revenge. "Big Driver" tells of an otherwise ordinary woman who discovers her extraordinary capacity for retribution after she is raped and left for dead. "A Good Marriage" explores the aftermath of a wife's discovery of her milquetoast husband's sinister secret life, while "Fair Extension," the book's most disturbing story, follows the relationship between a man and the best friend on whom he preternaturally shifts all his bad luck and misfortune. As in Different Seasons (1982), King takes a mostly nonfantastic approach to grim themes. Now, as then, these tales show how a skilled storyteller with a good tale to tell can make unsettling fiction compulsively readable. (Nov.)