The Outsider by Stephen King: Book Review

Anyone who reads my blog regularly will know I’m a big Stephen King fan and yet for some reason it’s taken me almost two years to get around to the reading The Outsider. I’ve read Elevation and The Institute, both of which came out later than The Outsider so it’s definitely strange, but anyway, I’ve finally gotten around to it.

The Outsider by Stephen King

Blurb from The Back Cover

A horrifying crime. Water tight evidence points to a single suspect. Except he was seventy miles away with an iron clad alibi.

Detective Anderson sets out to investigate the impossible: how can the suspect have been both at the scene of the crime and in another town?

My Thoughts On The Book

The Outsider to me is more fitting of the crime genre than the horror genre. While it does have a supernatural element to the book, this would be a good book for someone who enjoys a fast paced, interesting story but isn’t into “scary” horror.

It starts out as what seems like a routine investigation of an awful crime, but it soon becomes clear that there is way more to this case than originally meets the eye. Ralph Anderson, the main detective on the case, is an interesting character. In some ways, he irritates me no end – his refusal to see what is right in front of him has so many consequences – but at the same time, you can’t help but understand his point of view. Outside of a book, there is no way the average person would believe the unbelievable and Ralph’s complete refusal to accept that there could be something supernatural about the whole case makes him a realistic character.

As always in a Stephen King book, the characters are well drawn and feel real and even the supporting characters feel like they all have a purpose. The way King writes is a great example of the method of every character believing they are the star of the story.

The pacing of the story is good and will keep you turning the pages. It’s a case Ralph is driven to keep poking at until he uncovers the truth, and it’s a book that will keep you wanting to poke at the case too, because once you accept that the suspect in the murder case was genuinely in two places at once, you will need to know how and why.

I think my favourite character in the book was Holly. She doesn’t come into the book until quite late on, but I found her refreshing and she injected a burst of new found energy right when it was needed (to both the plot and the case).

Conclusion and Rating

If you go into The Outsider expecting a full on horror novel, then you’ll be disappointed. If you go into it expecting a mystery that will pull you in and not let you go until you get to the end of the book, then you’ll love it. 4.5/5

You can grab your copy of The Outsider here.

Have you read The Outsider? Did you enjoy it? Let me know in the comments 🙂

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