Review: The Colorado Kid by Stephen King

 

Extra! Extra! Ladies and gents, review in print! In the mid-shelf corner, weighing in at a mysterious weight category, we have the enigma, the anomaly, the nameless wonder, The Colorado Kid!

Did that grab’ya? Well, maybe this will: Stephen King. That’s right, this non-horror novella was written by the king of creepy himself. A mystery set on an island off the Maine coast, The Colorado Kid does not disappoint.  

The book begins with a reporter up from Boston looking for an unsolved mystery story. This reporter has lunch with the two-man crew of editors who work at the island’s only paper, along with their young intern. Editors Vince and Dave are ages 90 and 65 respectively and their intern Stephanie is in her early 20s. When the two elders don’t have anything new to offer the Bostonian in terms of a good mysterious yarn, the reporter pays for lunch and leaves.

However, for Stephanie, school is in session because there’s one odd duck of a story they didn’t bother to tell the city-slickin journalist—a mystery that doesn’t have one possible answer or several but none at all. Vince and Dave proceed to enlighten Stephanie about a death that occurred on the island decades ago. A man was found dead on the beach and presumed to have choked on a piece of steak. Items found on the body include a pack of cigarettes with one missing, a matchbox with only one strike, some minor bills and change, and a Russian coin. 

Turns out a forensics intern at the time peeked into the evidence bag, but didn’t think any of its contents significant. The picture of the dead man was advertised throughout Maine papers, with no bites. It wasn’t until a year and a half later that the editors got answers. A memory triggered the forensics intern to call up Vince and Dave and tell them that the detectives overlooked a key detail that he by coincidence remembered—the tax stamp on the bottom of the cigarette pack was marked for the state of Colorado. From this point forward, our deceased becomes the Colorado Kid and turns from John Doe to a known someone. And the mystery only gets more compelling.

Now, I am biased when it comes to King. The man is a master storyteller and I grew up on his books and films. My mother had practically all his books in her library. This story is no exception to his writing abilities. He places this mystery in a unique, isolated, and tranquil yet rugged setting off the scenic coast, with howling breezes, the smell of fish and sea air, the lapping of waves, with its small town milieu of only two ferrymen, a few restaurants known to serve fish and chips, and where the current mayor and his former girlfriend, during their morning track and field-prep run, happened to spot the dead body on that beach so many years ago.

King also captures the New England dialogue and idiosyncratic personalities of two old friends and colleagues in the editor characters of Vince and Dave, along with the youthful inquisitiveness and sharpness of intern, Stephanie. The three’s camaraderie, being the only reporters on the island, is charming, humorous, and nascent, with Steffie, as her two senior colleagues call her, settling in after a few months in the position. Lastly, King’s mystery grows in the telling by Vince and Dave. Each turn of the page creates a new piece to the puzzle, a new dazzling detail that lures the reader like a giant Atlantic salmon to a fisherman’s bait.

Since this is a novella, go ahead and order some fish and chips and a Coke, and instead of looking at your phone or TV, dive into this shorter read, smell the sea breeze, hear the moan of a ferry horn, and unravel the mystery of a dead man far from home called The Colorado Kid.

Author Bio: Nolan is a former child actor and gigging musician turned writer. His shorter works have been published on over 60 occasions, and his epic fantasy novel Cinders on the Wind, https://www.amazon.com/Cinders-Wind-Tapestry-Retha-Book-ebook/dp/B07SBRK81J, is under pen-name Louis Emery. He is a book/genre critic for Midshelf Review.